Posted 8:57 AM by Robert

Pathetic ... And Bound To Lose: Waist Deep In The Big Nuancey

Things are really bad for John Kerry when even his own campaign spokespeople and the most slavish of his media apologists at the Associated Press can't keep his ever-changing-and-nuance-rotted stories straight:

The Associated Press, in an article today headlined Bush Glosses Over Complex Facts in Speech:

[President Bush] attacked Kerry for voting against an $87 billion package for Iraq and Afghanistan operations that included money for extra sets of body armor and other supplies, mocking his opponent for saying the issue was complicated. "There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat," Bush said. But the bill in question was not solely about supporting troops and Kerry's campaign said he ultimately voted against it because, among other reasons, it included no-bid contracts for companies.

But, as noted here in a previous post, the Los Angeles Times has reported that Senator Kerry gave quite different reasons for voting against that $87 billion - he actually said he was holding the troops in Iraq hostage to his tax agenda:

When reporters have asked Kerry recently how he could criticize the administration for not providing adequate protection for soldiers when he didn't support the president's $87.5-billion funding request, Kerry said that he would support spending the money, but only if Bush rolled back tax cuts for the wealthy."I said very clearly that I would not abandon the troops and that I was prepared to put whatever funding in the troops needed," Kerry told reporters last week in Mississippi. "I did vote to fund the $87 billion. Let's look at the record clearly. But I voted to fund it by taking a percentage of the tax cut from the wealthiest Americans in order to fund it." He continued: "George Bush and the Republicans said no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay for body armor. We're going to ask the average families in the country to shoulder the burden. And that's exactly what they're doing."

Got that? The candidate even explains that "I said very clearly ...." So why can't his campaign and apologists figure out what Senator Kerry says "very clearly?"