Close Kerry-McCain Kinship Has Dissolved

Washington Post: Since 2004, Relationship Between The Two Vietnam Veterans Has Gradually Deteriorated

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Chris Cillizza.

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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."

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Read more from Kerry's appearance on CBS' Face The Nation

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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.

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."

[kansas1946]

In addition to all the other reasons to NOT vote for this guy Obama, he is a security risk. It is highly unlikely he could get a low level security clearance, much less one of any significance.


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Posted by joe1022joe at 06:35 AM : Jul 10, 2008
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Time for your meds, joe. Nighty-night.

[likeitis5050]

When you''''re their age, I''''m sure your attitude will be different. How crass.




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Posted by Unmunificent

Don''t count on it...trolls don''t age like normal people.

[nvorr]

Posted by brain1014
HE ENTERED POLITICS AT THE STATE LEVEL AND THEN THE
NATIONAL LEVEL WHERE HE HAS MINIMAL EXPERIENCE.

Gee, this sounds like Bush too!

[unmunificent]

Kerry and McCain are both ready for a dirt nap...
Posted by wp4088
________________
When you''re their age, I''m sure your attitude will be different. How crass.

[newsjunky5]

"If you wish to doubt it, merely look what the current G.W. Bush economy has been able to withstand and it remains recession free. "

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Not true. The job numbers are fabricated then quietly corrected at the end of the year through a loophole. When they are corrected for the real situation, the recession started last quarter, or before. Bush even borrows more money to hand the public to push the problem onto another, (is this in-line with Republican philosophy?) but even that''s not working. You are promoting lies.

[newsjunky5]

I would rather Kerry had won in ''04. But he lied. At a "town hall" style campaign talk he gave, the excerpt I saw had a nervous, distraught man stand up and ask Kerry a question. He said in a shaky voice,(paraphrased) "Bush stole the election in 2000, how do you know he won''t do it this time?"
Kerry answered, "We''re not going to let that happen."
He did let it happen.
Diebold was revealed to have rigged the voting machines, there is a whistle blower. That guy was arrested in the middle of the night by the FBI for violating attorney-client privilege.

So Kerry was intimidated by this gang of thugs undermining democracy.

Soldiers "die for democracy" all the time. They are dying in hospital beds and on the streets of Iraq, this very second. And one of the official reasons for this is to make "the world safe for democracy."
But, perhaps Kerry didn''t think it was politically expedient to press for the will of We The People.

So I''ve lost much of the respect I would have for Kerry. Not that he could have been worse than Bush. Kerry is not a predator, just a mushassed doofus.

The split may have occurred because the Republican leadership/Big Oil tapped him as a possible for ''08. They probably offered him a boatload of our tax/gasoline dollars to come over to fascism, and attack Kerry.

[libh8er]

If you wish to doubt it, merely look what the current G.W. Bush economy has been able to withstand and it remains recession free.
Posted by JonGood65 at 01:25 AM : Jul 10, 2008

Well said. But you have to excuse libs. They have been taught revisionist history (or none at all), so they only know what they read on Rosie O''Lardass and Babs Strisand''s websites.

[joe1022joe]

Folks, Barak Hussein Obama is an accidental American. One-half of his family is Moslem and living today in Africa. This is a fact. On this basis alone he could not get a security clearance. Lets stretch our imaginations and fantasize that he has become president. A terrorist organization kidnaps 20 or 30 of his close relatives in Africa, an act that would be about as difficult as falling off a log. Now they announce through Al Jazeera television that they will behead one of his relatives every week on television until he concedes this or that issue to the terrorist group. How long do you think it would be before he found some tortured reasoning to cave iin to them? In addition to all the other reasons to NOT vote for this guy Obama, he is a security risk. It is highly unlikely he could get a low level security clearance, much less one of any significance.

[thedvirgil]

Brain, I would suggest that you read Dr. Seuss'' "The Snetches on the Beaches" and lose "That star upon thars" attitude. And I thank God for all the White Men and Women, who don''t have the hate-filled attitudes of people like "Brain." I thank God for the White abolitionist who read the same Bible as those slave owners and said, that is NOT what the word of God teaches. I thank God for White Civil Rights Leaders and supporters who established groups like the NAACP and marched along side Dr. King and even gave their lives for that which is righteous. I thank God for those White judges who demonstrate parity in the court room and won''t give a man more time simply because of the color of his skin. I thank God for those White supporters of Obama who are being guided by their intellect and moral compass and not the "Brain" mentality of hate and divisiveness. And I thank God for those McCain supporters who are voting for him because of their shared political beliefs and not because they simply refuse to vote for a "Black Man." Finally, despite the "Brains" in this country we are moving towards that America that is truly living out the true meaning of it creed "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

[thedvirgil]

"Brain." He is seriously afraid that Toto is going to pull the curtain on the Wizard revealing that he is not so all powerful after all, and that he''s really does not have the monopoly on intelligence, courage, or caring. Young Black Males will start realizing their own self worth despite people like "Brain" who would rather see them on the six o''clock news being charged with gang banging or drug selling as oppose to being lauded for being valedictorian of their classes or discovering a new drug that cures cancer. The curtains have been pulled "brain" and your complexion doesn''t automatically give you a bye on intelligence (just consider the current Commander in Chief). So now your worst nightmare is about to come true in that you will discover now that you really aren''t superior because of the color of your skin; and that the science is right in that skin color is truly only a variation of a trait just as eye color, hair color, height, musculature, head shape, chin shape or any other of a number of genetic expressions.