Democrats, As Usual, Allow Themselves To Be Distracted

Kerry apologized for supposedly insulting Americans fighting in Iraq:

"Of course I'm sorry about a botched joke. You think I love botched jokes?" Kerry said during an appearance Wednesday on Don Imus' nationally syndicated radio program. "I mean, you know, it's pretty stupid."

Kerry, D-Mass., said he meant no offense to troops when he told a college audience Monday that young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they don't study hard and do their homework.

On Wednesday, he said, "You cannot get into the military today if you do badly in school." But he also said the White House was purposely twisting his words and asserted that it is Bush who owes troops an apology for a misguided war in Iraq.

Democrats made every effort to outdo Republicans in piling on Kerry for what either was or wasn't a "botched joke" about the intelligence of U.S. troops in Iraq -- who are in Iraq because George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and others lied shamelessly about weapons of mass destruction, Al Qaeda connections, 9/11 connections, and the imminent survival of the entire planet in order to justify a war of aggression that had nothing to do with national security and everything to do with safeguarding U.S. access to Iraqi oil reserves. Whatever John Kerry meant or didn't mean when he made his remark about "getting stuck in Iraq," the true disgrace is that almost 3,000 American men and women are dead, and tens of thousands maimed in body, mind, and spirit, because their president conned them into believing they were fighting to liberate Iraq and keep Americans free. And the disgrace continues, as Pres. Bush consigns yet more Americans to death and grievous injury because he can't or won't admit error or hold himself accountable; and because he wants a Republican victory on November 7 and thinks he can get it by refusing to budge on his Iraq policy.

That Democrats are permitting Republicans to get away with this travesty by focusing on what John Kerry says about the educational attainments of U.S. troops instead of on what Pres. Bush is doing to those troops and their families is contemptible, if not surprising:

Democrats are our own worst enemy. There are plenty of ways to prove how much you "support the troops," without calling for Kerry to apologize for something he didn't say. Just like Durbin should not have apologized for what he didn't say. Why not just turn this around on Bush and the Republicans: Where was the apology when Bush joked about our troops running around not finding WMD in Iraq? 2814 of them dead as of today.

The more Democrats apologize -- or call on fellow Democrats to apologize -- the more we look like the losers we apparently insist on being.

Damn straight. And, as Josh Marshall pointed out yesterday, Democrats need to remember that John Kerry is not the point in this election:

Whatever Kerry meant to say, it provided plenty of grist for feigned outrage from Republicans. It certainly didn't sound good. But I take it as a given that it was a botched jab at President Bush because I don't believe a bunch of Republicans who never served in the military have more respect for the military than a Democrat who did. But that's life. Republicans are looking for everything they can get. Fine.

But it's important not to forget one thing. John Kerry isn't the Democratic party. And this election isn't about John Kerry. It's about Iraq. It's about the man who's actually president, the man whose policies have led to the disaster the country is facing. George W. Bush.

This whole national drama we're involved in is about the president's continued refusal to accept responsibility, or more properly speaking, accountability for anything. He wants the policies and politics of the country to proceed along as if his policies hadn't already led us into disaster after disaster. That's what this election is about, not the 2004 election or anything else.

Everything that's not about that is a distraction.