Mike McGavick issued an excellent statement on John Kerry's massive fumble, and Maria Cantwell's not so surprisingly vague and dodgy statement. Thanks to Kerry being in town today for a Cantwell fundraiser, McGavick's statement got some well-deserved national coverage.
The truly amazing, though not terribly surprising, outcome of this series of events is the tone deaf John Kerry made the situation worse than his original blooper with his defensive rebuttals today.
Mike McGavick, like every Republican in a close race across the country, should latch on to this story, and demand a full response from their opponent, every day until the Election if necessary. John McCain, the same fellow who toyed with joining John Kerry on a fusion ticket in 2004, continues to pound away on Kerry, even after Kerry's muffed attempt to respond.
Mr. Kerry, thank you for taking control of the news cycle. God bless you, sir.
UPDATE: Patrick Bell points out a follow-up press release from Mike McGavick, pressing Cantwell rather forcefully to actually speak to Kerry's remarks instead of continuing to obfuscate.
Posted by Eric Earling at October 31, 2006 09:01 PM | Email ThisKerry has a very long-term, ingrained strange habit of bashing troops. I just don't get it. It's kind of like Ted Kennedy, who strangely can't seem to stop talking about water and water themes (even naming his dog Splash).
Posted by: Michele on October 31, 2006 09:50 PMBye bye Mike....
Posted by: el on October 31, 2006 09:51 PMJust like her campaign's use of the fact that McGavick laid off 1,700 workers when he went to Safeco. Well, amazingly enough Safeco is still here, he made hard decisions that turned the company around.
Whereas Cantwell's experience at Real Networks is sketchy at best. Mostly just riding out a surging stock and a gift from her political buddies. Of course she apparently had to use some of those stock option gains to pay off her paramour's debts.
Cantwell isn't likely to stand up and say anything. She doesn't want to say anything against high party officials.
Posted by: Skeptic on October 31, 2006 09:56 PMOn your point, I think you forgot that he got $4,000,000 in bonuses and a $28,000,000 golden parachute. Those are the salaries of 640 people at 50k a years. Believe me, no employee worth that much. And he did not save Safeco.
Posted by: el on October 31, 2006 10:18 PMCall me crazy but if I were Camp Cantwell and I wanted to WIN Mike! votes- I would put Kerry's feet to the fire or tell him to get out of town- Maria already has more cash on hand than she can spend in this campaign. This was a bad move in any language.
She instead runs a bunch of radio commercials about pinning a purple heart on a soldier. Question: Was she mocking him and reciting the alphabet to him while she did it? Then why not denounce Kerry's foot-in-mouth disease?
Posted by: Andy on October 31, 2006 10:44 PMMichele-
Go ahead make your ad.
It is not like as a Republican you are hold in higher standards.
while you are correct that 640 x 50k equals 32 million you are not looking at the cost of employing 640 people. The building, heating, water, lights, insurance, health care, social security taxes, etc. are all costs that need to be added to each of those wonderful salaries you think McGavick cut people out of.
Now you can vilify McGavick all you want, but he saved Safeco and kept many more employees employed.
Being able to lead, learn, and making hard decisions is something that leaders have to do. Cantwell is anything but a leader, she has had handlers throughout her political career to keep her on task, she had someone grant her a ton of money to aid her political career, she has done nothing except be an echo vote for the democratic leadership. Her relationship with Dotzauer, romantic, financial and professional is disturbing.
Posted by: Skeptic on October 31, 2006 11:01 PMIf this helps swing to the election in Republican favor, John Kerry will have cemented his legacy as the poster-boy for elections gone wrong!
Posted by: Patrick on October 31, 2006 11:07 PMOuch!
Posted by: Michele on October 31, 2006 11:11 PMAnd he did not save Safeco.
... that reminds me, Cantwell was not firing people around when she got her big bucks.
McGavick is past history. He is a goner (like Rossi), so I am not going to keep wasting my time talking about him. Have a nice election.... At least until the vote counts start coming back.
You Neo-Cons are afraid of gay couples. How can you be trusted to fight the terrorists? It's no wonder your party has been such a failure at this fiasco of a war.
Good bye Mike. Good bye Rubber Stamp Dave.
Posted by: Jerry on October 31, 2006 11:41 PMBecause Kerry was in Washington state when he tried to spin this tremendous troop insult...Mike has license to demand Cantwell clarify her position on this.
But...Mike McGavick doesn't really have to do anything on this one....Kerry pretty much revealed the anti-US Military feelings of his entire Democratic party.......again.
People are just so sick of the anti-US crap...and especially the anti-troop sentiment of the liberals.. The liberals ARE the Democrat party - there's just no hiding that fact anymore.
Posted by: Deborah on November 1, 2006 12:15 AM
18. "... that reminds me, Cantwell was not firing people around when she got her big bucks."
Ok, as I said, have a nice election, and I will be back next Tuesday night to read your comments about the results. See you then.
Posted by: el on November 1, 2006 12:28 AMCantwell won't denounce the slur against our troops. What else can one expect of someone who voted against holding the enemy accountable? You can tell a low about Cantwell by the company she keeps. I am glad I voted for McGavick.
Posted by: pbj on November 1, 2006 01:10 AMKing Couty will deliver tons of votes to Maria, the imperfect Democrat.
Washington right wingers out of luck one more time, hard life to be a screwed up conservative in the New Peoples Republic of Washington.
Interestingly, younger voters are the most bitter about the Republicans, their future has been washed away in the looting of America. Low wage jobs, hard to get to college and then paying the bill --- how very bleak from all you bogus familly supporters.
And what prowess Cheney/Rummy have shown in their war skills. A train wreck after two good months.
The worst, absolutely the worst. Shame, shame ... and they wrap themselves in the flag. Shame.
But wait, Bush can't fire Rummy, Cheny and Elder Bush won't let him. Rummy is the ace for when they annouce marial law and the dictatorahip ---
Time to save democracy and our Republic from the evil right wing.
Posted by: JACKIE on November 1, 2006 01:52 AM(true to party, arrogantly, finger waving & pointing into TV camera:) "I-will-not-apologize-for-that-comment!"
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 1, 2006 05:34 AM"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."
It was a slip of the tongue. He intended it to be a remark critical of Bush:
"...You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."
He has said the joke several times before, this time he screwed it up. It's not "February 30th"
W misspeaks on a daily basis. Are you really that stupid to think Kerry intended to say what you "think he said?
But what do the facts or logic matter in a classic Right Wing hissy fit.
Posted by: Robert on November 1, 2006 06:03 AM"They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam..."
Or, in talking to Bob Shieffer about the Soldiers in Iraq:
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the � of � the historical customs, religious customs"
He has a history of denigrating the military, so excuse me if I don't take his "explanation" at face value.
Posted by: Bill H on November 1, 2006 06:17 AM- Mike! is in a "close race"??? WTF? He's losing by double digits. The only race that is close is whether he'll lose by more or less than Nethercutt did in 2004. I'm betting George ends up doing better then than Mike! will now!
- And, if it was a botched joke, Sir John really ought to be more careful about his jokes. After all, W went to the same college he Kerry did, and W got better grades, so John really shouldn't be making jokes about W's education.
- Telling the Truth, whether about Dems or Repubs.
Posted by: TellingTheTruth on November 1, 2006 06:18 AMYou must have missed the latest poll. The October 31 Zogby/Wall Street Journal Poll has the race 50% Cantwell and 46.1% McGavick. That is certainly a lot closer than "double digits".
Posted by: Bill H on November 1, 2006 06:25 AMIts not he performed an intentional SKIT mocking the lack of WMDs in Iraq like the sitting President of the United States did in 2004. "Are the WMDs under there. Nope"
Yes, Kerry's damage control team is now saying that he meant to say "...You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq." You go on to claim that "He has said the joke several times before...." I can find no evidence of that, nor has that been claimed by his own people. Care to cite an example? If you can't, you shouldn't make the claim....
Posted by: Patrick on November 1, 2006 06:30 AM"Freudian Slip"
Posted by: Bill H on November 1, 2006 06:36 AMI think many on the left will be shocked when they wake up Nov 8th to learn that Maria was not re-elected.
Posted by: Brent in Ferndale on November 1, 2006 06:37 AMApparently, today, even his best bud, Don Imus, told him to go home and go windsurfing.
I wonder how Cantwell is going to dodge this. After all, his press conference was a prelude to a Cantwell get together.
Irregardless, I hope the whole R contingent milks this and milks this till after election. It is a Michael Dukakis moment.
Posted by: swatter on November 1, 2006 07:00 AMWhich explains why Bush was able to lampoon himself with things like the WMD jokes at the annual press club shindig, and the only humor Clinton could come up with for these events was jokes taking potshots at Rush Limbaugh.
You gotta grow up to lighten up.
Posted by: sro on November 1, 2006 07:01 AMBesides, that doesn't even make sense as a joke. Think about it, you're speaking to college students trying to motivate them to 'study hard, and get smart' by telling them that if they don't they might end up as President of the US?
(and consequently getting us stuck in Iraq...)
Spare me the lecture on intellectually honesty.
Intellectually honesty? You mean you fail to notice that the President of the United States made a intentional JOKE about the FACT there THERE WERE NO WMDS IN IRAQ after he based an invasion that cost American lives over it? Oh, I see, he's a Republican so you ignore it. And "Bring Up Clinton" when you have a weak argument. Lame. Pathetic.
Intellectually honesty? With all the psycho mumbo jumbo and Kerry Strawman argument made here? Please.
You grow up.
Posted by: Robert on November 1, 2006 07:28 AMFor ever misspoken statement from Kerry I could site a hundred by George W. Bush - most we just laugh off. Kerry shouldn't try to make jokes about Bush - Bush does that all by himself my just opening his mouth off script.
Even Bill O'Reilly knows this is a fake story.
"I don't believe John Kerry meant to demean any American military member. I just don't. I think that fair-minded people know that that would be political suicide for the senator. He wouldn't do it" ("O'Reilly Factor," 10/31).
Maria Cantwell ranks 99 out of 100 (as in bottom of the pile) in terms of her effectiveness as a Senator. In any truly swing state area, such a Senator would be toast. Cantwell needs to go. As much as Darcy's campaign likes to claim that Reichert has done nothing with his two years, he's done vastly more in 2 years than Cantwell has done with her 6!!!!!
I just had an idea. Wouldn't it be great if Reichert ran for Senate against Patty Murray in 4 years?
Posted by: ferrous on November 1, 2006 10:49 AMFrom Wikipedia "A Freudian slip, or parapraxia, is an error in human action, speech or memory that is believed to be caused by the unconscious mind. Some errors, such as a woman accidentally calling her husband by the name of the man with whom she is cheating on him, seem to represent relatively clear cases of Freudian slips. In other cases, the error might appear to be trivial, bizarre or even nonsensical, but shows some deeper significance on analysis."
Posted by: Bill H on November 1, 2006 10:49 AMI think his disdain and contempt for our military is genuine.
Not smart, not funny, not cool.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on November 1, 2006 11:04 AMRUN WITH IT MIKE
Posted by: Hellpig on November 1, 2006 11:42 AMWe're still waiting for your evidence that Kerry had "told this joke before" and just botched it this one time. Heck, if that's true I'll be happy to cut him a break on it - but I suspect if it were, we would have already seen the footage of it, and his people would be making sure we all knew about it.
If on the other hand there's no evidence, you need to retract your claim...and admit that Kerry blew it big time.
Posted by: Patrick on November 1, 2006 11:51 AMTop CEO's are worth whatever the market will value them at just as top Quarterbacks in the NFL or pitchers in MLB. You pay for them or you wind up the loser - it's that simple.
I can't help but notice that these yo-yos never find fault with the multi-million dollar movie stars that spew their propaganda, and don't seem to mind that most of the dems in the Senate are multi-multi millionaires that often built their wealth investing in companies that sent jobs offshore.
Posted by: johnny on November 1, 2006 12:03 PMbush is a bigger idiot b/c he is in charge of a failed war and continually says stupid things.
"We do not torture." "bring 'em on." "heavy sound familiar?
hide behind kerry's gaffe and ignore the real, larger issues facing the country.
bush is an incompetent leader of a failed war of choice. if iraq is the central front on the war on terror, then, unfortunately, the war on terror is in jeopardy of being lost.
you have to admit, kerry's comeback was pretty good, referring to chickenhawks like bush/cheney/snow who never served (other than lip service). classic.
Posted by: dinesh on November 1, 2006 12:30 PMYou and Kerry are pretty lame with the chickenhawk statements. Kerry could really care less. He only approves of those that agree with him, regardless of their service history.
There are veterans that do not agree with Kerry. By his rules (and apparently yours) if he cannot be assailed because of his service, then he cannot assail them for their service, nor their positions.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on November 1, 2006 01:15 PMas for the dems plan for iraq, they would start with some meaningful oversight. simply by asking questions (e.g., where is all the money going, what about reconstruction efforts, why is there only 4 hours of electricity in baghdad on average per day) and demanding truthful answers, holding people accountable (instead of handing out awards), perhaps we can get some meaningful action. look, iraq is FUBAR, so it is not a partisan issue as to what to do next. the failure to recognize iraq is FUBAR, the absence of accountability, and the soundbite approach to answering the hard questions is a partisan issue and will stop only when the republicans lose the monopoly control over the federal govt.
and, if i may, ask, what is the republican's plan in iraq. after 3.5 years, what is the plan besides "stay the course." that's pathetic.
divided govt works. it serves as a check on the worse tendencies in either party and forces political compromise.
Posted by: dinesh on November 1, 2006 01:55 PMI think this "comeback" is totally irrelevant and disengenuous. You don't have to have "served" to be able to point out that what Kerry said was wrong. I would refer to Kerry as a "chickenhawk" since he left his comrades in Vietnam only to come back and denigrate them, however, I think for him you can just shorten it to "chicken".
He was despicable in the 70's when he slandered the soldiers in Vietnam, he was despicable a couple of years ago when he slandered the soldiers in Iraq by saying they terrorized women and children. Why should we be surprised today that he is again denigrating the troops? Whether he "misspoke" or whether he didn't, it seems obvious that he MEANT what he said.
I had to laugh when I read your last line: "Whether he "misspoke" or whether he didn't, it seems obvious that he MEANT what he said." Reminded me of Dan Rather and the phony documentation about Bush's National Guard service: "Even if the documents aren't authentic, we stand by the underlying premise of the story." They still don't get it, do they?
Posted by: Patrick on November 1, 2006 04:11 PMHe didn't 'misspeak'. He was talking to students. He was talking about THEIR education. He insulted our troops. No more spin, please.
McGavick saved a company. He was worth it to all but one of their shareholders.
Cantwell was picked up by ultraleftie Glaser as a favor, a payoff, a method of funneling monies to her to pay for a future candidacy. She has no skills other than her rolodex that would place her at a tech company. She cashed in, and bought her slim 2000 win.
I'm amazed that mouth-foamers like JACKIE @26 admit that King County Elections have whatever votes are needed for them to win, a la Queen Christine.
Since you believe Iraq is "FUBAR",(because CBS, the NYT Times, and CNN tells you so every day), one can only conclude that the only plan you and the left have dinesh, is cut and run.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on November 1, 2006 05:57 PMTells me everything I need to know about dinesh...
Posted by: alphabet soup on November 1, 2006 08:18 PMI didn't really expect he would...did you?
Posted by: Patrick on November 2, 2006 12:29 AM