RUSH: Whoa! CNN gets in on the act here. We ought to just push John Kerry off the ticket. So this little germ of a thought has sprouted out there into a full-fledged virus, folks, in the Democratic Party. Now, here’s this business From The Hill. Senator John Kerry’s top campaign surrogates received an earful yesterday from a smattering of House Democrats concerned that he was failing to “bring it on” as he promised he would in the primaries. Several liberal Democrats, most of whom did not support Kerry during the primaries, asked his national chairbabe, former governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who was appearing at a House Democrat caucus meeting, why the party’s presumptive presidential nominee has not responded more forcefully to Republican broadsides on his patriotism and his service in Vietnam. However, other Democrat lawmakers and aides said those criticisms were without merit and could potentially alienate the Kerry campaign by inundating it with gratuitous advice and dire warnings from congressional Cassandras.
Now, at the meeting, Jeanne Shaheen testified to Kerry’s flinty performance in the Granite State, and campaign strategist Tad Devine deconstructed the team’s money situation and previewed two new campaign commercials. They also expressed disgust with what they regard as the Bush campaign’s blatant McCarthyism in questioning Kerry’s protesting of the Vietnam War upon returning from active duty with three Purple Hearts. I have to tell you Democrats something out there. Vietnam War would not be an issue in this campaign, were it not for two things: one, Kerry can’t leave it alone. Kerry has to constantly remind people he was in Vietnam. It’s the Democrats that are trying to refight Vietnam, folks, it’s the Democrats that are trying to bring this back as an issue 34 years later because they are so over the top with excitement, they think they finally have somebody in their party on their ticket who is a genuine war hero. It is so rare. The last one they had, JFK. And they’ve been pummeled on this, and so they thought Kerry is a genuine hero and they forgot to check his votes in the Senate and they forgot to check his anti-war activities when he got back, and they expect everybody just to overlook that.
Well, if he’s going to bring it up and if the Democrats are going to make it an issue, well, hubba hubba! You know, more and more of you Democrats are starting, stop this criticism. I mean even some editorials today, Boston Globe, New York Times, maybe other columns, I can’t remember which, but I’ve got ’em here, they’re all saying, “stop this attacking of John Kerry!” They don’t like it, they don’t like being hit like this. What do they think this is, what do they think they’ve been doing for three and a half years to President Bush? They can’t take it, folks. They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
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RUSH: “Let’s Keep Gunning for Kerry,” ladies and gentlemen. That’s the headline in the Boulder Daily Camera. I mean it’s even reached into the small enclaves of liberal academia. And that is the Boulder Daily Camera. That’s the University of Colorado. I don’t know if this is the city paper. “If presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s recent flaccid campaigning is any indication, why, he’s in trouble. Despite being served a smorgasbord of issues, the Kerry campaign looks more starved of momentum than that of Michael Dukakis at the same point in 1988.
“It if there’s one thing Kerry shouldn’t have to sweat over it’s his personal military record, but of late the press has been pondering even that. Just how injured was he when he earned those Purple Hearts in Vietnam?” And that’s true, it was the Boston Globe that did that. But here’s the point of this piece. They gave him a little advice unsolicited. “Senator Kerry, look America in the eye and say, ‘I released all of my service records. You’ll find the answers you need. My opponents truly want to make an issue of this, bring it on. They may regret it come debate time this fall.'” That’s what they want Kerry to say. Then they say he should stop talking about his own service and start showing voters how Bush has been supporting the troops, in quotes, numerous sorry examples, they say. So they’re unhappy, they’re unhappy with him out there, even, as I say, in the enclaves of liberal academe.
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