Fired Up!

At least some in the Democratic Party are beginning to stand up. This is the Kerry I supported in the last election before the media and his incompetent political campaign turned him into some pseudo Democratic candidate. This is the man I saw in “Going Up River”. This is the man I wanted for President.

According to this article in the New York Times “Kerry made a slashing attack on the Bush Administration.”

Senator John Kerry made a slashing attack on the Bush administration yesterday, comparing it to the faltering government in Iraq and equating its war strategy with its planning for Hurricane Katrina, while also invoking Jesus as he criticized federal Medicaid policy. [...]

"The Bush administration is wondering when Iraq will have a functioning government. I want to know when we're going to have a functioning government," Mr. Kerry said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Further on

Tell the truth. Fire the incompetents. Find Osama bin Laden and secure our ports and our homeland. Bring our troops home from Iraq. Obey the law and protect our civil rights," Mr. Kerry said in ticking off his list, which also included supporting health care, education, lobbying reform and alternatives to oil, as well as reducing the deficit.

It’s people like Kerry and Feingold that we are going to have to turn to if we expect to take back the Congress. They are standing up even though they know that they are going to be attacked and spun even by some in their own party. Yes, I know they are both thinking about 2008, so what, if they will stand up and be counted and make courageous statements then I will back either of them.

Some of you are going to say to hell with Kerry he had his chance and blew it but we need to face the reality of the situation. Kerry and Feingold seem to be the only people in the heart of the party who are willing to go out on a limb and ask the tough question and demand answers from this administration. They are currently the only game in town.

Feingold’s censure measure and Kerry’s call for troop withdrawal both needed saying and both took a lot of heat will take more.

Here is an example of the kind of personal attack Kerry got from Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado for his call to withdraw by May 15^th or the end of 2006.

I would like to start off by saying I've been very supportive of the president on the war of Iraq because he has had a plan and he has stayed the course. That's what gives me confidence in the president.

I do think that what we see today in the criticism of the president from Senator Kerry, we're seeing an individual who's being spun in the political winds, unlike the president.

Now here is John Kerry’s response:

Well, let me make it clear to the Senator from Colorado and anybody who wants to debate Iraq, when it comes to issues of war and peace and of young Americans dying, nobody spins me period. And I'm not going to listen to the Senator from Colorado or anyone else questions my motives when young Americans are dying on a daily basis or losing their limbs because Iraqi politicians won't form a government from an election that they held in December. That is just inexcusable. [...]

I'm listening to General Casey, not to the Senator from Colorado. If General Casey tells me that the Iraqis would stand up faster if there were less Americans there, I believe him. Our troops have done the job. Don't come to the floor of the United States Senate and try to suggest to me that somehow when we come up with a plan to protect our troops and to make America stronger that we're somehow making their life more miserable. Ask the troops. 70% of the troops who were pulled -- polled in Iraq said that they thought within the next year we ought to be able to withdraw. [...]

I tell you one thing I know well, and I'll remind the Senator from Colorado, half the names on the wall of that Vietnam Memorial, half the names on that wall became names of the dead after our leaders knew our policy wouldn't work. Well, our policy isn't working today, and I'm not going to be a United States Senator who adds to the next wall wherever it may be put that honors those who served in Iraq so that once again people point to a bunch of names that are added after we knew something was wrong. We have a bigger responsibility than that.

That’s the kind of stand up and be counted Democrats we need. Russ Feingold and John Kerry are both realizing that we have got to get the other side on the defensive and no longer let them control the dialogue. We have to tell the truth, demand answers from the party in power and begin to act like an opposition party.

There is too much at stake for the Democratic Party to try and play nice with the GOP. You can see where that has gotten us. We are on the brink of another war and quite possibly the first use of nuclear weapons in more than a half century.

The article in the New York Times is worth reading completely if you want to see what we as a party need to be saying to the party in power and to the American public.