Karen Hughes Repeats Republican Distortions
On the O’Reilly Factor Tuesday night, Karen Hughes appeared to discuss her
latest book. In a quick exchange with O’Reilly, Hughes snuck in the contention
that Kerry was uncomfortable using the word “war” to describe the war on terror
– thereby implying that Kerry was weak on national defense. O’Reilly challenged
her on this accusation and requested a source. Her only response was that she
heard “from somewhere” that Kerry was uncomfortable using the word “war.” This
may be a shock – but would anyone be surprised that that “someone” would be Dick
Cheney and George Bush? Peel the onion more and you’ll find that this
irresponsible accusation was first uttered and repeated weeks ago and
independently debunked last week. Why would Hughes repeat such a careless and
misleading attack? One can only presume that there is a concerted and
coordinated effort on the part of senior administration officials to disseminate
reckless attacks and systematically have them repeated in the press even in the
face of clear proof to the contrary. It is clear that Hughes is not acting
independently but must have conferred with or received guidance from high level
Republican officials to spread these negligent comments.
Here’s where the story begins. On March 5th, Kerry was interviewed for an hour
on foreign affairs aboard his plane. His words were published verbatim in the
New York Times. The relevant portion is provided here:
There are a whole set of
unbelievable global challenges looking at us which we're not adequately dealing
with today, in the context of the war on terror. The combination of economic,
the economic bleakness, the devastation, within countries that are potentially
explosive, where you have very large young populations of uneducated people ripe
for the pickings of radicalism, is a much bigger challenge than the world as yet
has been willing to grapple with.
The war on terror depends on the most unprecedented cooperation in American
history, the thing they're worst at. The final victory in the war on terror
depends on a victory in the war of ideas, much more than the war on the
battlefield. And the war - not the war, I don't want to use that terminology.
The engagement of economies, the economic transformation, the transformation to
modernity of a whole bunch of countries that have been avoiding the future. And
that future's coming at us like it or not, in the context of terror, and in the
context of failed states, and dysfunctional economies, and all that goes with
that.
When reading the entire passage any reasonable reader would understand that
Kerry was discussing the war of ideas in contrast to the physical battlefield
war. The first paragraph provides a discussion regarding “global challenges”
such as economic realities in the context of the war on terror. Every
supporting thought around the reluctance to use the term “war” unmistakably
refers to the war of ideas, economic bleakness, and economic transformation. In
fact, Kerry uses the phrase “war on terror” three times in this passage alone.
Clearly, it would be a misrepresentation to claim that Kerry is uncomfortable
using the term “war.”
Mr. Bush first advanced the attack on
March 8th saying that “Some are skeptical that the war on terror is really a
war at all. Just days ago my opponent indicated he's not comfortable using the
word, ‘war,’ to describe the struggle we're in. He said, ‘I don't want to use
that terminology.’” Bush repeated the same accusation
later that day, then again on
March 11th and finally (so far) on
March 12th.
Mr. Cheney must have gotten wind of Bush’s scholarly analysis because on
March 17th he said that: “Senator Kerry has questioned whether the war on
terror is really a war at all. Recently he said, and I quote, ‘I don’t want to
use that terminology.’” Even after
Salon.com exposed the inappropriate attack, Cheney repeated it again on
March 22nd, (“Senator Kerry has questioned whether the war on terror is
really a war at all. Recently he said, quote: "I don't want to use that
terminology."). One day after the
Philadelphia Inquirer exposed the attack, Cheney said it twice! Once in the
afternoon, then later in the
evening.
Shame on Karen Hughes for advancing Bush administration lies while purporting
now to be on the outside looking in. I guess once you’re in the circle of
confidence your loyalty continues. Further shame on the media for allowing these
smears to be perpetuated without challenge. The
Kentucky Courier-General reported Cheney’s accusation with the headline
“Blasting Kerry.” The
USA Today did the same with the headline “Kerry Full of Inconsistencies.” If
Bush said that the Earth was flat, the headline would read “Bush and Kerry
opinions’ differ.”