July 9, 2008
Close Kerry-McCain Kinship Has Dissolved
Washington Post: Since 2004, Relationship Between The Two Vietnam Veterans Has Gradually Deteriorated
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Play CBS Video
Video
Kerry: 'McCain Flip-Flops'
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) defends his endorsement of Barack Obama and says that John McCain has flip-flopped his political stances. McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offers rebuttal.
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Video
Graham And Kerry Face Off
Bob Schieffer speaks with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), as the two politicians square off on the current state of Iraq and the American troop surge deployment.
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Photo
The relationship between presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, left, and Democratic Senator and former presidential nominee John Kerry has gradually deteriorated since four years ago when Kerry considered offering McCain the opportunity to be his vice presidential running mate. (AP Photo)
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Timeline
McCain's Quest
Mileposts in the Arizona senator's race for the GOP nomination and the presidency.
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Photo Essay
Sen. John Kerry
His early life, war days and Senate career.
From Our Partner:
Those who know them say they once shared a genuine affection for each other, born in large part from their shared experiences serving in the Vietnam War and their work together in the early 1990s on a Senate committee investigating the fate of prisoners of war and of those missing in action during the conflict.
"This was not a light, collegial Senate friendship," said a friend of Sen. John F. Kerry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Kerry and his relationship with Sen. John McCain. Kerry and McCain "went through the wringer together. . . . They talked openly about having healed the old wounds and the old divisions about Vietnam."
Four years ago, Kerry considered offering the Republican the opportunity to be his vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket. But since then, their relationship has gradually deteriorated, and on Sunday, it reached a new low. Appearing on a news show, the senator from Massachusetts lambasted the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for what he called a lack of judgment about the war in Iraq.
McCain "has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war," Kerry said, adding: "Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves."
Kerry insists that the senator from Arizona is "my friend and will always be my friend" but says that the person he considered for vice president in 2004 was a "very different John McCain." Kerry cites McCain's policy shifts on tax cuts, the treatment of detainees and the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, among others.Read more from Kerry's appearance on CBS' Face The Nation
McCain, through his aides, let it be known that he has no interest in talking about his relationship with Kerry. But Mark Salter, McCain's longtime chief of staff, rejected the idea of any tension between the two men. "If Senator Kerry is saying there was some kind of falling-out," he said, "he's inventing an excuse to justify the difference in their behavior to each other."
At one time the relationship was unusual for two senators from opposing parties. When Kerry faced an extremely tough reelection race in 1996 against Republican Gov. William F. Weld, McCain opted not to campaign against his Democratic friend. Four years later, when McCain was running for president, Kerry returned the favor by organizing Senate combat veterans to defend McCain from criticism of his record.
In 2004, many Democratic insiders thought a Kerry-McCain ticket would be a slam-dunk winner. And yet even as Kerry, a decorated Navy combat veteran, and McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war, seemed on the verge of making that happen, a rupture occurred and set the stage for everything that followed. But exactly what happened remains a matter of debate.
From the Kerry perspective, McCain had expressed genuine interest in the vice presidential nomination and then pulled away without warning, and while doing so leaked the story to the media to "put McCain in the best possible light," a Kerry friend recounted.
From the McCain perspective, Kerry was overly optimistic about the possibility of McCain joining him on the Democratic ticket. "Kerry convinced himself that he could convince McCain to be on the ticket," said one GOP strategist familiar with the discussions. "When that didn't happen, he took it really personally."
Kerry insists that the miscommunication about his conversations with McCain was the fault of staff members and not the two senators.
"I thought it was unfortunate that some people in his staff saw fit to leak someone's point of view which did not accurately reflect our personal conversations," Kerry said. "We never got to a serious point. We moved on."
If the vice presidential offer/non-offer strained Kerry and McCain's relationship, the ad that the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran during the 2004 campaign attacking Kerry's military record threatened to end it entirely.
McCain quickly spoke out against the ad, calling it "dishonest" and "dishonorable" and comparing it to the criticism of his military service during the 2000 presidential primaries. But he did not allow Kerry to use his image in rebuttal ads -- a decision that many Kerry supporters viewed as insufficient payback for Kerry's support of McCain in 2000.
"John McCain pretty thoroughly revealed his character when he refused to defend his Vietnam 'brother' from the slimy Swift boaters," said Jim Jordan, who managed Kerry's presidential bid for much of 2003. "McCain's second campaign for the Republican nomination and his support for more U.S. troops in Iraq added to the strain. As the senator from Arizona grew more and more strident about increasing troop levels and about the danger of setting timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, Kerry emerged as a leading voice in favor of beginning a drawdown.
In describing his differences with McCain over the handling of Iraq, Kerry repeatedly invokes Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and James Webb (D-Va.) -- two other senators who served in Vietnam and see the current conflict far more like Kerry does than McCain does. "They oppose him on the war and think he's dead wrong," Kerry said. "They oppose his judgment on the GI Bill."
Although Kerry insisted that he and McCain still share the "bond of service that never goes away," it is clear that he thinks McCain has made a colossal misjudgment about Iraq -- a decision that has distanced him from the other senators who have served in the military.
And Kerry's willingness to serve as the lead attack dog for Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's Democratic rival for the presidency, against McCain's policies on Iraq and national security is the clearest sign yet that the close kinship that once existed between the two men is gone.
Kerry described McCain as "unbelievably out of touch" and "confused" after the Republican said, "That's not too important," in response to a question about when U.S. troops might return from Iraq. In late June, when retired Army Col. George "Bud" Day, who was involved in the Swift boat group's effort, was part of a conference call defending McCain's military record, Kerry called on McCain to condemn the remarks and cut ties with Day.
Ed Reilly, a longtime Democratic pollster and Kerry adviser, insisted that the same traits that drew Kerry and McCain together -- shared service and commitment to country -- are what have driven a wedge between them.
"There will always be a bond there, because they're veterans and because they went through the POW investigation together, but the same intensity of their feelings as veterans which brought them together has pushed them apart on two big policy areas this election," Reilly said. "They took away very different lessons."
By Chris Cillizza
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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See all 115 CommentsAnyone disagree?
John Kerry is one thing in my book and that is a LOSER!!! He will hitch his wagon to anything and everything to advance HIS cause. I am truly sorry I didn''t have a better choice in 2004 but I do this time around and he is Senator John Sidney McCain.
If this is the best the Democrats can do, I sure they won''t miss my vote!!!
My goodness, I don''t think so, Obama is the one who isf= flip flopping all over the place. The polls are wrong, and the media is getting nervous. Time will tell, but I think I''m right with this one.
If this is the best the Democrats can do, I sure they won''''t miss my vote!!!
Posted by walker1209 at 10:00 AM : Jul 09, 2008
Yea, and MCBush the famous FLIP-FLOPPER will end up like Kerry down and out and you will have wasted your vote
[Posted by CiitzenUSA at 10:20 AM : Jul 09, 2008]
pure? c''mon ... i could see maybe 99 & 44/100''s pure ... but completely pure?
Posted by coppertales
******************************************************* Your username should be Talltales*******************
True Kerry did end up losing the election, but gee, I wonder if it had anything to do with the 6 election officials from Ohio who are in jail right now for what they did in the 2004 elections?
Don''t worry, I know you would never want to get bogged down with facts.
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Posted by CitizenUSA at 10:48 AM : Jul 09, 2008
+ report abuse
While I agree with most of your content, flip-flopping is equally bad. McCain has flip-flopped a minimum of 17 times, and I''m sure there is a lot more to come. If a candidate can''t stay with their own message what are the people going to believe? I can''t possibly imagine voting for someone that changes their message as often as they change their underwear. Don''t get me wrong, McCain does not have a monopoly going on flip-flopping, Obama has flipped flopped too, just not near as much as McCain. What a choice that we have, huh?
And therein lies the problem. He would rather listen to those who are jerks, or promote causes,i.e., pandering ILLEGALS, and pooh-poohing torture of Islamoroaches because of his own experiences.
That being said, I will vote for him because the Dems as cowardly and traitorious as usual are promoting America-haters for President. They got away with it with Carter and Clinton because people thought White Southerners would be Conservative. They never expected that a Klan acolyte, bigot and coward like Jimmeee or a serial pervert like Clinton would betray us.
But Obama reveals his true sentiments all the time and people are falling for it. To paraphase the Who, "don''t get fooled again". Obama is worse than John F. Kerry or Carter. And while McCain might be an ******, at least this ****** will defend our country. Obama, like the Glenn Frey clone here, never will.
When all of them - except McCain, who is RIGHT about Iraq, do so, and free the people their Democratic Party friends betrayed, and when THEY -i.e., Hagel, Kerry, McDermott and Webb march into downtown Hanoi with a democratic leader, not a Commie, to govern Vietnam - then they can talk.
Till then, shut up, especially a traitor like Kerry and a hypocritical angry potato-boy like Webb.
Ironic - because liberalism IS the plague...
That is why CBS has quickly buried any stories about the success in Iraq.
CBS''s new slogan:
"CBS News. Cherry-picking the news for the sake of the liberal agenda to destroy America."
But the sad fact is that liberalism''s popularity is sinking into the same quagmire that CBS''''s popularity ratings are, along with the Democrat-controlled congress'' miserable all-time low approval ratings.
Liberals are losing their War on America.
LOL OH POOR REPUBLICANS. STILL COMPLAINING ON INTERNET MESSAGE BOARDS.
FACE IT, YOUR PARTY HAS LOST ANY INTEGRITY IT MIGHT HAVE HAD, THE PEOPLE NOW WANT A COMPLETE CHANGE OF POWER STRUCTURE.
GOOD THING TOO. ITLL GIVE US LIBERALS MORE TO LAUGH AT WHEN COMING ONTO CBSNEWS.COM :)
It''s NOT whether just flip-flopping is bad. After all, adapting to situations should be the most important.
What makes FF''ing an issue is that the ''CONS said it was 4 years ago, and now they''re IGNORING their own candidate changing positions on almost ALL ISSUES!
The issue is the hypocrisy of the neocons...
What makes FF''''ing an issue is that the ''''CONS said it was 4 years ago, and now they''''re IGNORING their own candidate changing positions on almost ALL ISSUES!
The issue is the hypocrisy of the neocons...
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Posted by actornaught at 12:30 PM : Jul 09, 2008
Oh yeah, right! So that justifies the hypocrisy of Obama!!!
OK, we got that! NEXT!!!!
Well, if the Eagles ever need a replacement for Glenn Frey, he can always sit in. After all, he''d be a perfect foil for that other wuss Henley.
All of the polls show that the American people are no longer buying into the garbage that the RNC is trying to feed them. The lies and fear mongering that were so effective four years ago will not work this time.
McCain had better decide whether he wants to ''flip'' or to ''flop'', and at least put forth a coherent message.
Accusing Obama of flip-flopping is false, empty, and won''t work.
Posted by ChrisL45
Waht poor and sick stream of conscience. Seriousl dude you need some xanax
Posted by RGRXX175
We have some one taht is bipartisan.
Appropriate and necessary step to improve the Air Force-what more can we say? That America is it!
Either you are with us or against us!
Without the Military we would not be here. I commend & honor those who fight for us and for those support our country.
A War- sometimes is neccessary to keep our FREEDOMS.
God Bless.
Mass why do you keep this guy in office...really
Who cares?
And, with friends like this, you do not need any enemies......... Kerry was always an opportunist but this is about as bad as it gets.
Posted by GreatDriveW at 05:11 PM : Jul 09, 2008
About what?? YOU nazi''s are getting so desperate it''s funny!! ROFLMAO He''s going to blow away McSame because he has the ability to INSPIRE people, to cause them to DREAM again.. to believe they can make a difference. BECAUSE he reaches out, something you Nazi''s have NEVER done, you think that''s a bad thing?? Maybe YOU love Fascism but it does NOT work, has NEVER worked in this nation. ONLY together, ONLY as a United Country can we solve some of the problems we face. Now let''s stand... sing it out so Shooter can hear you!! SIEG HEIL BUSH
The McCain campaign yesterday acknowledged that seats on the "Straight Talk" airplane are assigned to reward "positive" reporters with special access seating in the front of the plane. The seats are REWARDED TO REPORTERS WHO PROVIDE POSITIVE COVERAGE TO McCAIN.
These seats provide direct access to McCain, access denied to other reporters on the McCain airplane. As you know, "ACCESS IS MONEY." Reporters are rewarded by their media companies and bosses for gaining access to candidates. The more access the better the reporter is viewed by their boss. This means MORE MONEY AND MORE PROMOTIONS.
So the McCain campaign has set up a program to PROVIDE FINANCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL REWARDS TO REPORTERS THAT PROVIDE McCAIN WITH POSITIVE COVERAGE.
What we need is for HORSERACE to create a new section, "WHO IS THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN REWARDING TODAY." All that is required is for ONE reporter to daily send the seating assignments on the McCain airplane. Who got the "SPECIAL ACCESS SEATS" in first class? Who is being punished for critical reporting and is sitting in the back of the plane? It will make for VERY interesting reading.
UnderMyBoot: If you don''t think Obama does the same thing You''re thinking is flawed.
Maybe they won''t delete this one. Never seen a comment get pulled so quickly.
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