Cheney Piles On / Dems Defend

Vice President Dick Cheney added his comments to the Kerry flap:

Time and time again, we're seeing examples of Democratic Party leaders apparently having lost their perspective concerning the nature of the enemy we face, and the need to wage this fight aggressively. No sharper example can be found than the Democratic Party chairman himself, Howard Dean, who said the capture of Saddam Hussein didn't make America any safer. And maybe it should be no surprise that such a party would turn its back on a man like Senator Joe Lieberman, who has been an unapologetic supporter of the fight against terror.

Instead they highlight people like John Kerry, their presidential nominee in 2004. Aren’t we lucky he lost that election? You remember John Kerry – the senator who voted for the 87 billion dollars before he voted against it … the guy that was always lecturing us about “nuances.” He’s the one, you’ll recall, who last year said that American soldiers were “terrorizing … children” in Iraq. And just this week he took another swipe at the U. S. military. Here’s what he said, word for word. Quote: “You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” End quote. Well, apparently Senator Kerry’s the one who needs to be educated.

Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn’t get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it.

Kerry's statement was never a joke, but there will be plenty of jokes in response.

Meanwhile, two Dem candidates in tough Senate elections chose to jump on the Kerry bandwagon. First, Casey Jr. at the bat:

"John Kerry is not only a great leader for the Democratic party and a great U.S. senator, but he's a patriot," Casey said after a morning political rally in Allentown. "He said he botched a joke and I think that is the beginning and the end of it. He was talking about the president and I think he has every right to criticize this president."

Tell that the military families in Pennsylvania, Bob. And in Ohio, Sherrod Brown also defended the Boston Bonehead:

Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat leading in late polls in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, said Republicans are merely trying to change the subject. "The people who should apologize are George Bush and Mike DeWine for sending our troops into battle without body armor and without examining the cooked intelligence," he said.

Senator DeWine's day just got a little brighter. You'd think these guys in tough races would be a little less tone deaf to the outrage felt by the military and those who support the military.