Reply #15: Kerry Went After The AWOL and Cocaine Issues in 2000

[DrFunkenstein]

"Two days before the election Senator Kerry tried to raise the AWOL questions again on NBC's Meet the Press, but no one cared. Only one national newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, even mentioned the Senator was on the show."

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0011a/election2000.html

If Kerry says either "AWOL" or "chickenhawk," it will be all over for Bush. Kerry could easily tie together how Bush's daddy bailed him out of the draft, just like he bailed him out when Harken collapsed from corruption.

He could also mention that Bush stopped flying because he refused to take the medical - because of the cocaine charges? I'd like to know.

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On Monday, Kerry was asked by reporters to explain why he thought that questions surrounding George Bush regarding whether or not he had used cocaine were more substantively relevant than Gore's use of marijuana. Kerry, noting that Al Gore had already admitted his use of marijuana, said:

"(H)e (Gore) said 'I used it.' So that's not an issue... And I don't think Al Gore intends, you know, to make prior use an issue of other people, except to the degree that it affects public policy."

Pressed later on the question of the Bush cocaine rumors, Kerry laid out his thinking on why Bush's drug use, if substantiated, is indeed an important issue for voters to consider:

"The issue about George Bush is not the fact that he may have used it, said Kerry. "The issue about George Bush is, how can you, if you have (used cocaine), have a position that is so at odds in terms of being a governor where you send a lot of other people who may have done the same thing you do to jail. That's the issue. It's not a question of whether he used it or when he used it, it's a question of what his policy is today and whether that's hypocritical and dangerous."

The Week Online spoke with Kerry Spokesman David Wade, who reiterated the Senator's position.

"The Vice President has long admitted that he has used marijuana," said Wade. "Governor Bush, on the other hand, will say only that when he was young and irresponsible, he was young and irresponsible. But when Bush has had the opportunity to score political points in Texas by promulgating tough, extremely punitive new laws against drug users, he has been happy to do so."

http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/123/gorequestions.shtml