John Kerry HITS BACK at the GOP Hypocrites and Chickenhawks who seek to DEMONIZE all those who don't toe their fraudulent propaganda line....

Senator Kerry responding to Republican "you dissed the troops" charges:

"They ATTACK... LIE... and DISTORT."

IF John Kerry keeps up this line of Trumanesque PLAIN SPEAKING, we might have to sign-off here at C-Dems, and start up a new blog "BraveDems" or "Fightin' Dems" or something!

But it certainly IS a breath of FRESH AIR to FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY hear someone lump ALL the Republican BULLIES, media Brown-shirts, and demagogue THUGS into one category, for example, no-class, race-baiting, disease-mocking, mongering radio bully RUSH LIMBAUGH in with (Kerry's words):

"The Republican [leadership] HACKS who have NEVER WORN THE UNIFORM OF THIS COUNTRY, [and who] WOULD LIE for political gain."

And, we must point out (as Keith Olberman of "Countdown" did tonight in his 7th Special Commentary), that President Bush and the Republican Party have a lot of nerve trying to make a huge election issue out of one comment by Senator Kerry allegedly "disrespecting the troops"; because President Bush has NEVER APOLOGIZED for his:

#1. "Bring it on!" baiting of insurgents in Iraq;
#2. Mr. Bush's brazen lie that "Saddam Hussein would NOT ALLOW weapons inspectors in to Iraq" when in fact they WERE in Iraq, on the ground, inspecting dozens of locations at a moment's notice, until the IAEA inspectors were ordered OUT of that country, by the US government, on the very eve of America's "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign against Iraq;
#3. Mr. Bush has never apologized for his "No WMD's here!" skit at the White House Correspondent's dinner in 2003, when it became clear to even the president that Iraq had never had a WMD program after their stockpiles and labs were destroyed after the 1991 Gulf War;
#4. Mr. Bush has never apologized for Republican campaign smears of combat veterans, including John McCain, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and double-amputee Max Cleland (and currently Iraq double-amputee Tammy Duckworth);
#5. Mr. Bush has never apologized for making America EVEN MORE DEPENDENT on FOREIGN OIL IMPORTS since he became president, and he continues to classify as 'secret' even the names of those who attended Vice President Dick Cheney's "secret energy task force" from 2001;

(The list of Mr. Bush's insults that he has never apologized goes on...)

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Senator Kerry's Response

Following is a transcript of Senator John Kerry's remarks in Seattle on Tuesday. following his speech to college students where he implied that if they didn't study and do well in college, they could find themselves "stuck in Iraq":
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/us/31kerry-transcript.html

IF anyone thinks that a veteran, someone like me, who's been fighting my entire career to provide for veterans, to fight for their benefits, to help honor what their service is -- if anybody thinks that a veteran would somehow criticize more than 140,000 troops serving in Iraq, and not the president and his people who put them there, they're crazy. It's just wrong.

This is a classic GOP textbook Republican campaign tactic. I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes.

I'm sick and tired of a whole bunch of Republican attacks, the most of which come from people who never wore the uniform and never had the courage to stand up and go to war themselves.

Enough is enough. We're not going to stand for this.

This policy is broken, and this president and his administration didn't do their homework. They didn't study what would happen in Iraq. They didn't study and listen to the people who were the experts and would have told them. And they know that's what I was talking about yesterday. I'm not going to be lectured by a White House or by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, who's taking a day off from mimicking and attacking Michael J. Fox, who's now going to try to attack me and lie about me and distort me. No way. It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country, are willing to lie about those who did. It's over.

This administration has given us a Katrina foreign policy: mistake upon mistake upon mistake, unwilling to give our troops the armor that they need, unwilling to have enough troops in place, unwilling to give them the humvees that they deserve to protect them, unwilling to have a coalition that is adequate to be able to defend our interests.

Our own intelligence agency has told us they're creating more terrorists, not less; they're making us less safe, not more. I think Americans are sick and tired of this game.

These Republicans are afraid to stand up and debate a real veteran on this topic, and they're afraid to debate -- you know, they want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men.
Well, we're going to have a real debate in this country about this policy. The bottom line is, these Republicans want to distort this policy. And this time it won't work, because we are going to stay in their face with the truth.

And no Democrat is going to be bullied by these people, by these kinds of attacks that have no place in American politics. It's time to set our policy correct.

They have a stand still and lose policy in Iraq, and they have a cut and run policy in Afghanistan. And the fact is our troops, who have served heroically, who deserve better, deserve leadership that is up to their sacrifice, period.

Q Senator, John McCain said that you owe an apology to many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq who answered their country's call because they are patriots. Should those people who didn't get your joke, who may have misinterpreted you as saying the undereducated are cannon fodder -- what do you say to them?

KERRY: Never said that. And John McCain knows I've never said that, and John McCain knows I wouldn't say that. And John McCain ought to ask for an apology from Donald Rumsfeld for making the mistakes he's made. John McCain ought to ask for an apology from this administration for not sending in enough troops. He ought to ask for an apology for putting our troops on the line with a policy that doesn't have an adequate coalition, that doesn't have adequate diplomacy, where we don't have a strategy to win.

And what we need is to debate the real issues, not these phony, sideline issues that are part of the politics. Americans are tired -- sick and tired of this kind of politics. They know my true feelings. They know I fought to provide additional money for veterans. They know I fought to provide money for combat -- for veterans. They know I fought to put money for VA. They know I've honored those veterans. They know that this is the finest military -- and I've said it a hundred thousand times -- that we've ever had. They know precisely what I was saying, and they're trying to turn this, because they have a bankrupt policy and they can't defend it to the nation and they can't defend it to the world, and I'm not going to stand for this anymore, period. That's the apology that people ought to get.

Q Do you need to go to joke school?

KERRY: Sure. Q It sounds like you regret saying those remarks. And what were you trying to say?

KERRY: Very simple, that they -- that those who didn't study it properly, those who made the decisions, they got us into Iraq, very simple. And the fact is they know that. The administration knows that. And they're simply trying to distort this. They're trying to play a game, and again, I'm not going to stand for it. This is the kind of thing that makes Americans sick. People know.

And there ought to be some level of honor and trust in this process. You know, I have fought a lifetime on behalf of veterans, and we have the finest young men and women serving us in the United States military that we've ever had. And I'm proud of that. But this administration has let them down, and that was clearly in a remark directed at this administration. They understand it, they want to distort it. It's a classic Republican playbook. They want to change the topic. We're not going to let them change the topic. The topic is their failed policy in Iraq. The topic is that they don't have a strategy; they don't have a way to be able to win.

You got Dick Cheney saying everything's just terrific in Iraq only a week ago. John McCain ought to ask for an apology from Dick Cheney for misleading America. He ought to ask for an apology from the president for lying about the nuclear program in Africa. He ought to ask for an apology for once again a week ago referring to al Qaeda as being the central problem in Iraq when al Qaeda is not the central problem.

Enough is enough! I'm not going to stand for these people trying to shift the topic and make it politics. America deserves a real discussion about real policy, and that's what this election is going to be about next Tuesday.

Q Senator --

KERRY: One more question, and then, I got to run.

Q (Off mike) --

KERRY: Let me tell you something, I'm not going to give them one ounce of daylight to spread one of their lies and to play this game ever, ever again. That is a lesson I learned deep and hard, and I'll tell you, I will stand up anywhere across this country and take these guys on. This is dishonoring not just the troops themselves by pointing the finger at the troops, it's abusing the troops. They're using the troops. They're trying to make the troops into the target here. I didn't do that, and they know that. And for them to suggest that somebody who served their country as I did and has a record like I have in the United States Congress of standing up and fighting for the troops would ever, every insult the troops is an insult in and of itself. And they owe us an apology for even daring to use the White House to stand up and make this an issue again. Shame on them. Shame on them. And may the American people take that shame to the polls with them next Tuesday.

Thank you, all.