Reply #122: Nice try, but nope... It was a specific reaction to a specific situation.

[TLM]

Dean made his statement about the situation in Iraq and his position on sending troops into Iraq... and that was that he would insist on getting UN support before sending troops into Iraq.



The Kerry attack machine grabbed onto it just like they grabbed onto the comment about military size, then distorted and spun it as if Dean was saying that he'd never do anything to defend America unless the UN OKed it. Which was an obvious and clumsy lie by the Kerry camp to facilitate a hypocritical bullshit smear on Dean for simply wanting UN support... the same support Kerry now says he wants as well.

And don’t say it was some slip or a one time thing, because a few months later they did the exact same thing again, even hammering the same "serious candidate for president" talking point again. This is a clear and consistent pattern of dishonest distortion on military issues by the Kerry camp to try and portray Dean as weak on national defense.

This from they guy you claim hasn’t attacked other candidates.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/21/politics/printable541540.shtml

In an interview, Dean said that he opposes the congressional resolution and remains unconvinced that Saddam is an imminent threat to the United States. He said he would not support sending U.S. troops to Iraq unless the United Nations specifically approves the move and backs it with action of its own. "They have to send troops," he said.

Kerry's campaign manager, Jim Jordan, fired back, "Governor Dean, in effect, seems to be giving the U.N. veto power over national security decisions of the United States. That's an extraordinary proposition, one never endorsed by any U.S. president or serious candidate for the presidency."

and again....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/28/politics/main551359.shtml

Kerry spokesman Chris Lehane issued a statement in response to Dean's comments in an article posted Monday on Time.com. "We have to take a different approach" to diplomacy," the former Vermont governor was quoted as saying during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. "We won't always have the strongest military."

"Howard Dean's stated belief that the United States won't always have the strongest military raises serious questions about his capacity to serve as commander in chief," Lehane said. "No serious candidate for the presidency has ever before suggested that he would compromise or tolerate an erosion of America's military supremacy."