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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
It was billed as a blazing attack on the president's national security policies. But the Democratic contender's New York speech was tougher on Bush's firefighters budget than on his growing Iraq debacle. .
Jul 17, 2003 | John Kerry strode into a much-hyped national security speech today in the Bronx like a slugger ambling to the plate with two runners on base and the opposing pitcher fading.
Kerry then laid down a bunt.
Kerry's aides and the gods who time political cycles had seemingly set the stage for a powerful and biting critique of the Bush administration's recent intelligence debacles. The Massachusetts senator and presidential hopeful is a decorated war hero and he was coming in to give a speech in the Veterans' Memorial Hall. President Bush, on the other hand, skipped out on Vietnam and is now -- saddled with his highest disapproval ratings ever -- struggling mightily to explain how faulty intelligence on Iraq's nuclear ambitions made its way into his State of the Union address.
"Because of his unique national security credentials, [Kerry] can make a credible case that the others can't," said former New York public advocate Mark Green right before the speech. "He's not just a war hero, he's a warrior."
But then the warrior came out, flanked by 12 flags and some sharp-looking police and fire department brass, and mostly changed the subject.
Kerry came to national attention as a 27-year-old Vietnam vet asking Congress, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Today, as comparisons to Vietnam swirl and seem to be sticking to Bush, Kerry devoted most of his speech to arguing that we need to give more money to the New York police and fire departments. He added almost nothing to the attacks that have given the Democratic candidates sudden momentum against Bush and led normally staid Washington Post columnist David Broder to describe the evening news as "Karl Rove's worst nightmare" in his Tuesday column.
The headline chosen for the speech today, "Kerry challenges Bush to 'tell the truth' about America's security needs," didn't mean that the Massachusetts senator was going to fiercely challenge Bush's nuclear fibs, or ask where the WMD have gone. It rather meant that Bush hasn't fulfilled his promises to give cities enough money to defend against terrorism, a problem Kerry describes as the "preparedness gap," a phrase with plenty of syllables but not a lot of sting. Yes, it's bad that lies appeared in the State of the Union address. It's worse that we're not screening enough shipping containers.
According to Kerry: "The Preparedness Gap is the huge difference between where America needs to be to combat terrorist attacks -- and where we are now. The huge difference between what the administration in Washington is telling America -- and the reality which local firefighters, police officers, and frontline defenders are living with on the ground."
The one time Kerry invoked George Bush's full name for emphasis, it was to say, "One of the first things I'll do as president is reverse George Bush's wrongheaded rule change that is going to take overtime pay out of the pockets of fire and police sergeants and paramedics." Kerry's speech also called for putting 100,000 new police on the streets along with 100,000 firefighters as part of the Father Mychal Judge Fund, named for the New York Fire Department chaplain who died in the World Trade Center.
Much of the audience approved. "We're not into this for politics," said Stephen Carbone, vice president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and one of the men seated behind Kerry on the stage. "We're really excited about getting some money to the fire department." He then added that the government had given the police department 3,000 high-quality respirators without his people getting a single one.
Outside, a court officer named John Rowe said Kerry "should give some more money to the court officers."
Kerry wasn't silent on the debates buzzing all over Washington -- and New Hampshire, Iowa, and everywhere presidential candidates go. He threw in a line about the White House giving "presidential sanction to misleading information," criticized the administration for going to war "without a plan to win the peace," and called for an independent commission to investigate intelligence mistakes. But he stopped well short of his competitors and numerous other administration critics.
