WP: Tying Kerry to Terror Tests Rhetoric's Limits

[kskiska]

By Dana Milbank

President Bush and leading Republicans are increasingly charging that Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and others in his party are giving comfort to terrorists and undermining the war in Iraq -- a line of attack that tests the conventional bounds of political rhetoric.

(snip)

It was the latest instance in which prominent Republicans have said that Democrats are helping the enemy or that al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents and other enemies of the United States are backing Kerry and the Democrats. Such accusations are not new to American politics, but the GOP's line of attack this year has been pervasive and high-level.

(snip)

"Rhetoric this sharp and ugly is not by any means brand new," said Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and author of a book about Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy. "What we're seeing now isn't just offhand comments by outliers but clearly a decision by the Republican hierarchy to put this charge out there consistently."

Pollster Frank Luntz, who has advised Republicans on rhetoric, cautions that "statements like that can cause a backlash" against the accuser. "Candidates have to be careful of going over the line," he said.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45672-2004Sep23.html

[DenverDem]

1. Like the way busholini inc gave comfort to the 9/11 conspirators?

MIHOP traitorous murderers.

[truthisfreedom]

2. let them cross that line. let them charge over that line recklessly and

watch their make-believe world collapse around them.

Fight on, Kerry and Edwards. we need you.

[Newsjock]

3. The last paragraph of this story... GRRR

Whatever the merits, the charges that terrorists prefer Democrats have been echoed by independent commentators and journalists. CNN analyst Bill Schneider, asked about Hastert's remarks, agreed that al Qaeda "would very much like to defeat President Bush."

Independent my ASS.

[Seldona]

4. Why would they want to defeat

their greatest recruitment tool ever?

What % are terror attacks up since *Bush was appointed?

Not to mention the fact that 19 people with box-cutters are allowing this administration to bankrupt this country, and torch our constitution.

No, I would say pretty confidently that Osama is laughing his ass off at us right about now.

[Rose Siding]

5. YES!

That STEAMED me too. For the exact same reason. Independent is wrong, but so is the term JOURNALIST.

[robbedvoter]

6. Schneider is an American Entreprise Institute flunkie.

And ain't it fun, W got even Allawi to spout the "Kerry comforts terraists" BS today! (not in so many words)

[UCLA Dem]

7. There's no one in our whore media that independent

[UCLA Dem]

8. what independent like Bill Reilly?

[private_ryan]

9. when is Kerry going to fight back?

if enough repukes say this, this will be as known as the flip-flop issue. Fight back, use their words against them.

[UpInArms]

10. here's what "comforting our enemies" looks like:

http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_Bush_Nazi_2

from The New Hampshire Gazette Vol. 248, No. 3, November 7, 2003

After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly- discovered U.S. government documents reveal.

Furthermore, the records show that Bush and his colleagues routinely attempted to conceal their activities from government investigators.

Bush's partners in the secret web of Thyssen-controlled ventures included former New York Governor W. Averell Harriman and his younger brother, E. Roland Harriman. Their quarter-century of Nazi financial transactions, from 1924-1951, were conducted by the New York private banking firm, Brown Brothers Harriman.

<snip>

Although the additional seizures under the Trading with the Enemy Act did not take place until after the war, documents from The National Archives and Library of Congress confirm that Bush and his partners continued their Nazi dealings unabated. These activities included a financial relationship with the German city of Hanover and several industrial concerns. They went undetected by investigators until after World War Two.

At the same time Bush and the Harrimans were profiting from their Nazi partnerships, W. Averell Harriman was serving as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's personal emissary to the United Kingdom during the toughest years of the war. On October 28, 1942, the same day two key Bush-Harriman-run businesses were being seized by the U.S. government, Harriman was meeting in London with Field Marshall Smuts to discuss the war effort.

...more...

Go ahead you criminals, cross that line - we will continue to tell the truth to your lies.

[Eye and Monkey]

11. rhetoric: (def) art, study of using language effectively and persuasively

lie: (def) 1. A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood. 2. Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.

You decide.

[Gyre]

12. Can't ya just smell the desperation?

Ummm ummm good! :)

Gyre

[Kimber Scott]

13. This along with saying Dems will ban the Bible basically says there is

no line. They should be ashamed. But, you have to have a conscience to blush.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. kick