Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., replied to my column from last week. I had pointed out that his own behavior — including jokes about assassinating and overthrowing a president, and involvement in an anti-war group that discussed assassinating U.S. Senators at one of its leadership meetings — is at least as problematic as the heated rhetoric he is now lamely complaining about.
Kerry had sent a fund-raising email in an attempt to raise money from the Left by exploiting the Right’s anger and supposed “over the line” rhetoric against health care. Among his bogey-men: Rush Limbaugh, who said “defeat these bastards,” and Sarah Palin, who posted this map online showing targeted Congressional Districts:
The letter, from Kerry’s spokeswoman, does not even reference, let alone attempt to defend, Kerry’s own behavior. It does contain this:
Of course, Kerry made those enemies precisely through the kind of overheated rhetoric and lies that characterized the movement he helped lead — the kind of thing that resulted in soldiers being spat upon and derided as “baby-killers.” (As I noted, Kerry didn’t like it much when that same term was used on the House floor to describe a bill.) But the senator did exercise his right to free speech in those anti-Vietnam days — precisely the same kind of heated free speech that he now complains about.
I can’t wait to see Kerry lay into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which placed bull’s-eyes on Republican districts here:
In case you didn’t know, bull’s eyes are meant to be shot at. A good catch by the Verum Serum blog, which also points out this map at the Democratic Leadership Council’s website:
Are any of these maps offensive? No. Neither is the inherently violent concept of a “targeted” district. Nor, in my opinion, were Kerry’s stupid jokes offensive, but they were certainly worse than anything he’s complaining about now.
What is offensive is to watch Kerry’s whining now — or rather, his faux whining, designed to stoke fear and thus raise money. There’s nothing as pathetic as the bully who cries when a bigger kid picks on him.
