John F. Kerry

[Alfred]

By HOWIE CARR
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February 5, 2004 -- BOSTON

ONE of the surest ways to get the phones ringing on any Massachusetts talk-radio show is to ask people to call in and tell their John Kerry stories. The phone lines are soon filled, and most of the stories have a common theme: our junior senator pulling rank on one of his constituents, breaking in line, demanding to pay less (or nothing) or ducking out before the bill arrives.

The tales often have one other common thread. Most end with Sen. Kerry inquiring of the lesser mortal: "Do you know who I am?"

And now he's running for president as a populist. His first wife came from a Philadelphia Main Line family worth $300 million. His second wife is a pickle-and-ketchup heiress.

Kerry lives in a mansion on Beacon Hill on which he has borrowed $6 million to finance his campaign. A fire hydrant that prevented him and his wife from parking their SUV in front of their tony digs was removed by the city of Boston at his behest.

The Kerrys ski at a spa the widow Heinz owns in Aspen, and they summer on Nantucket in a sprawling seaside "cottage" on Hurlbert Avenue, which is so well-appointed that at a recent fund-raiser, they imported porta-toilets onto the front lawn so the donors wouldn't use the inside bathrooms. (They later claimed the decision was made on septic, not social, considerations).

It's a wonderful life these days for John Kerry. He sails Nantucket Sound in "the Scaramouche," a 42-foot Hinckley powerboat. Martha Stewart has a similar boat; the no-frills model reportedly starts at $695,000. Sen. Kerry bought it new, for cash.



Every Tuesday night, the local politicians here that Kerry elbowed out of his way on his march to the top watch, fascinated, as he claims victory in more primaries and denounces the special interests, the "millionaires" and "the overprivileged."

"His initials are JFK," longtime state Senate President William M. Bulger used to muse on St. Patrick's Day, "Just for Kerry. He's only Irish every sixth year." And now it turns out that he's not Irish at all.

But in the parochial world of Bay State politics, he was never really seen as Irish, even when he was claiming to be (although now, of course, he says that any references to his alleged Hibernian heritage were mistakenly put into the Congressional Record by an aide who apparently didn't know that on his paternal side he is, in fact, part-Jewish).

Kerry is, in fact, a Brahmin - his mother was a Forbes, from one of Massachusetts' oldest WASP families. The ancestor who wed Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter was marrying down.

At the risk of engaging in ethnic stereotyping, Yankees have a reputation for, shall we say, frugality. And Kerry tosses around quarters like they were manhole covers. In 1993, for instance, living on a senator's salary of about $100,000, he managed to give a total of $135 to charity.

Yet that same year, he was somehow able to scrape together $8,600 for a brand-new, imported Italian motorcycle, a Ducati Paso 907 IE. He kept it for years, until he decided to run for president, at which time he traded it in for a Harley-Davidson like the one he rode onto "The Tonight Show" set a couple of months ago as Jay Leno applauded his fellow Bay Stater.

Of course, in 1993 he was between his first and second heiresses - a time he now calls "the wandering years," although an equally apt description might be "the freeloading years."

For some of the time, he was, for all practical purposes, homeless. His friends allowed him into a real-estate deal in which he flipped a condo for quick resale, netting a $21,000 profit on a cash investment of exactly nothing. For months he rode around in a new car supplied by a shady local Buick dealer. When the dealer's ties to a congressman who was later indicted for racketeering were exposed, Kerry quickly explained that the non-payment was a mere oversight, and wrote out a check.

In the Senate, his record of his constituent services has been lackluster, and most of his colleagues, despite their public support, are hard-pressed to list an accomplishment. Just last fall, a Boston TV reporter ambushed three congressmen with the question, name something John Kerry has accomplished in Congress. After a few nervous giggles, two could think of nothing, and a third mentioned a baseball field, and then misidentified Kerry as "Sen. Kennedy."

Many of his constituents see him in person only when he is cutting them in line - at an airport, a clam shack or the Registry of Motor Vehicles. One talk-show caller a few weeks back recalled standing behind a police barricade in 2002 as the Rolling Stones played the Orpheum Theater, a short limousine ride from Kerry's Louisburg Square mansion.

The caller, Jay, said he began heckling Kerry and his wife as they attempted to enter the theater. Finally, he said, the senator turned to him and asked him the eternal question.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah," said Jay. "You're a gold-digger."

John Kerry. First he looks at the purse.

Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist and syndicated talk-radio host, has been covering John Kerry for 25 years.

[Alfred]

Oooops, sorry. Started another thread by accident.

[Alfred]

Sen. Kerry, the "noble statesman" and "highly decorated Vietnam vet" of today, is a far cry from Kerry, the radical, hippie-like leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in the early 1970s.
Soon after Kerry, as a Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) commanding a Swift boat in Vietnam, was awarded the Silver Star, he used an obscure Navy regulation to leave Vietnam and his crew before completing his tour of duty.
After returing home, he quit the Navy early and changed the color of his politics to become a leader of VVAW. Kerry wasted no time organizing opposition in the United States against the efforts of his former buddies still ducking communist bullets back in Vietnam.
Kerry participated in the so-called Winter Soldier Investigation where his fellow protesters accused his fellow GIs of war crimes.
Kerry's betrayal of American prisoners of war, his blatant disrespect for the families of our missing in action, Vietnam veterans, the military, his support for communist Vietnam and his waffling over the issue of use of force in Iraq proves he is a self promoting Chameleon Senator who cannot be relied on to protect the best interests of the United States.
Although Kerry voted to support military intervention in Iraq he is now claiming that he only approved the threat of force by the United States.
The Constitution for the United States of America declares: "The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."
Read the following and decide for yourself if you trust this man to be our Commander-in-Chief.

Kerry graduated from Yale University in 1966.
Like John F. Kennedy (who served on a World War II patrol boat, PT 109), Kerry sought to do the same. He enlisted in the Navy and became an officer.
After training, Kerry volunteered for Vietnam. He served a relatively uneventful six months, far removed from combat, from December 1967 to June 1968, in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
His ship returned to its Long Beach, Calif., port on June 6, 1968. Five months later, Kerry went back to Vietnam, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper.
Kerry commanded his first swift boat, No. 44, from December 1968 through January 1969.
While in command of Swift Boat 44, Kerry and crew operated without prudence in a Free Fire Zone, carelessly firing at targets of opportunity racking up a number of enemy kills and some civilians. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers.
"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry later said about the dead baby. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening."
Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy in Vietnam put civilians at such high risk.
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.
In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta.
Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.

On February 28, 1969:
When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he hot dogged his craft beaching it in the center of the enemy position. To his surprise, an enemy soldier sprang up from a hole not ten feet from Patrol Craft 94 and fled.
The boat's machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing Viet Cong as he darted behind a hootch. The twin .50s gunner fired at the Viet Cong. He said he "laid 50 rounds" into the hootch before Kerry leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a "coup de grace" to the wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.
Kerry was given a Silver Star for his actions.
When later asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it.

In April 1969, having engineered an early transfer out of the conflict because of his three minor wounds, John Kerry left his crew behind and returned home to a sweet assignment as an admiral's aide.

In October 1969, Kerry began to associate with anti-war protestor, Adam Walinsky, a former speech writer for Robert F. Kennedy.
On Jan. 3, 1970, Kerry requested that his superior, Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr., grant him an early discharge from the Navy so that he could run for Congress.
Kerry, a decorated veteran who seemed to be a clone of former President John F. Kennedy, right down to the military service on a patrol boat made a 1970 bid for Congress in Massachusetts' Third District.
Three-months later, when it became clear his opponent would get the Democratic Party nomination, Kerry dropped out.


http://www.usvetdsp.com/jf_kerry.htm

[Kev]

CAMPAIGN DRAMA ROCKS DEMOCRATS: KERRY FIGHTS OFF MEDIA PROBE OF RECENT ALLEGED INFIDELITY, RIVALS PREDICT RUIN





Teresa Heinz Kerry: Financier of the Radical Left

Tides has also given grant money to the Council for American Islamic Relations. Purportedly a “Muslim civil rights group,” CAIR is in fact one of the leading anti-anti-terrorism organizations within the Wahhabi Lobby. CAIR regularly opposes and demonizes American efforts to fight terrorism, claiming, for instance, that Homeland Security measures are responsible for an undocumented surge in “hate crimes.”

[Kev]

Further reading shows that Matt Drudge who claims to have the world exclusive, was a week late and it was all revealed on this web blog

http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/...es/000780.html

[Kev]

Matt Drudge was also the news source that broke the Clinton/Lewinsky story


and I thought some of you would be tickled pink by this news as i was

[Alfred]

Subject: FW: John Kerry

I thought you would be interested in this email from Ed
Morrison and his brother Mike. Ed worked at Triad in the early days and is ex-military. His brother Mike has some interesting first hand experiences in the same area and at the time John Kerry served in Nam. Bill

Subject: Fwd: John Kerry

A VERY interesting article by my brother, Mike (Morrison), who won a
bronze star in Vietnam. I hope this one becomes public.


Bigger things. I've long thought that John Kerry's war record was
phoney. We talked about it when you were here. It's mainly been instinct because, as you know, nobody who claims to have seen the action he does would so shamelessly flaunt it for political gain. So I spent a couple of hours on the internet yesterday, made a bunch of notes, and I'm sending them as an attachment. In addition, look at the website 25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15htm. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to chronicle Kerry's checkered career.

I was in the Delta shortly after he left. I know that area well. I
know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to
CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift boats), Kerry's command.

Here are my problems and suspicions:

(1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected, a
Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard of
anybody with any outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea Wolves, Riverines and the River Patrol Force) collecting that much hardware so fast, and for such pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job. But that duty wasn't the worst you could draw. They operated only along the coast and in the major rivers (Bassac and Mekong). The rough stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs.

(2) Three Purple Hearts but no limp. All injuries so minor that no
time lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for
medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on the boats was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour.
Fishy.

(3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star
make no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 was fired at the boat and
missed. Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with the twin 50, Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie, and retreives the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong.
(a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your
stern to the action and go balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic
integrity of a frisbie after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so between you and the beach and begin raking it with your .50's.
(b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber
round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was empty. There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was no danger to you just flopping around in the dust during his last few seconds on earth, and you wanted some “daring-do” in your after-action report). And we didn't shoot wounded people. We had rules against that, too.
(c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing
procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot
area. EVER!
The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your
boat was defenseless. It couldn't run and it couldn' t return fire. It was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a
boat during or after a firefight.

Something is fishy.

Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court
martial for carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running across the bow of a Jap destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early, requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress, finds out war heros don't sell well in Massachsetts in 1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets “Stillborn Pell” to invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter to do the heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a few years later, votes against every major defense bill, says the CIA is irrelevant after the Wall came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that
turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq, but oops, that didn't turn out so well so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war.

I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in
Vietnam. I sure don't want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record. I know in my gut it's wildy inflated. And fishy.

Keep smiling,

[Alfred]

This is from a friend of mine who drove similar boats in that same time period.

I've been hearing about this from other vets, and I agree Kerry's story seems, to be charitable, fanciful. First of all, the Swift boats were not used much at all on the rivers for several reasons. They were slower than the PBR's, drew way too much water (about 4' 6" with a full load) compared to the PBR's 18", and had a tall silhouette which made them easy targets. When Swifts did venture into the rivers, they stayed pretty much in the middle of the wider channels. Beaching one was considered not very smart because, with their great draft, they could easily become stuck in the mud, and would be sitting ducks. Service on the Swift's was miserable, boring, and uncomfortable, and their crews did occasionally get injured or killed, but THREE Purple Hearts in less than four months pushes the limits of credibility. As for Kerry's Silver Star, well, on PBR's NOBODY would ever leave the boat during a firefight, especially for something stupid like capturing a rocket launcher. A Silver Star seems rather excessive for the stunt Kerry supposedly pulled, especially when it unnecessarily endangered not only himself, but the boat and crew, as well. Kerry's story sounds odd, to say the least. You yourself know that someone knocked down by a .50 caliber round is not going to jump up again

As you and I know, career officers are always anxious to get combat experience on their records to enhance their future prospects and it is not unknown for officers to put each other in for medals on the slightest pretext as a "professional courtesy." There were a few "hot doggers", guys trying to build a reputation as warriors, or get their names in the paper, in every outfit; it would certainly appear that Kerry was involved in something similar during his four months in Nam.

I haven't read his book, "Tour of Duty", but what I have heard about it from other vets is that it's full of BS about what he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other Americans in Viet Nam. I do know that his testimony to Congress as a Viet Nam Veteran Against the War, was full of the lies and propaganda the Left put out about "atrocities" committed by our men over there. As someone who was there for at least four months, he would have had to know that was false, so I know he perjured himself before Congress. Personally, I can never forgive that or the fact that he consorted with a traitor like Hanoi Jane.

[Sana]

Originally posted by Kev
Matt Drudge was also the news source that broke the Clinton/Lewinsky story


and I thought some of you would be tickled pink by this news as i was

~Hey I love reading the Drudgereport.com, I also love BBC, ABC, Haretz Daily, Sauditimes, and Fox News. Just to name a few.~

[Kev]

JOHN KERRY:

I dont know if this is possibly shades to come of Kerrys campaign but on the TV Show "Inside Edition" they have just shown a photo of Jane Fonda and John Kerry together and the photographer himself is saying that this photo is doctored, and explains how easy it is to doctor one.

If memory serves me right, I have seen I believe a couple of photos of the two of them either together, or one with him sitting a few rows behind her?

Anyway, if anyone in a different time zone than I here in Toronto can catch this show at 7PM, you will see for yourself this pathetic attempt I assume it is to take the heat of his association with Jane Fonda.


Fake Photo of John Kerry & Jane Fonda Together:

When a photo of Presidential hopeful John Kerry and anti-war activist Jane Fonda emerged, some thought it could be a damaging blow to his campaign. But the photo was a fake and Inside Edition shows you how you can’t believe everything you see.

[Kev]

Great Reading About Kerry


There is a very funny opener on this weblog:
Colonic Conservatism for those Who's Ignorance Tilts Left



Kerry: Working Both Sides Of The Fence

Working both sides of the fence

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe finds that John Kerry's position[s] regarding Israel's security fence are a further manifestation of his inability to take a consistent stand and his general lack of political courage. Jacoby notes:

"Last week the Jerusalem Post reported that Kerry strongly defended Israel's controversial security fence as 'a legitimate act of self defense.' He said 'the fence only exists in response to the wave of terror attacks against Israel,' and insisted that the International Court of Justice in the Hague has no authority to pass judgment on it. Yet just a few months ago, Kerry gave every indication of being firmly against it. 'We don't need another barrier to peace,' he told the Arab American Institute in October. 'Provocative and counterproductive measures only harm Israelis' security over the long term, increase the hardships to the Palestinian people, and make the process of negotiating an eventual settlement that much harder.'"

Jacoby concludes that "this may be the first time that a politician has literally come down on both sides of the fence. It can't be a comfortable position. But it's the one in which Kerry can all too often be found."

This article however, IMO is the BEST ONE yet about Kerry!


Kerry's Dirty Diplomacy

Special Report
Kerry's Dirty Diplomacy
By George Neumayr
Published 3/2/2004 12:07:27 AM


To most sentient observers, Aristide is an obvious Marxist crook and thug. To John Kerry, he is "Father Aristide." That's what Kerry quaintly called the brutal strongman in a 1994 New York Times op-ed, even though Aristide had been sacked from the Salesian order several years earlier after the Vatican grew weary of his preaching in favor of Marxist violence.

In that 1994 op-ed, Kerry played the apologist for Aristide. "Father Aristide may not be perfect (what elected leader is?), but we have never discarded whole democracies because of an individual leader," Kerry wrote. "Moreover, he has already demonstrated his willingness to compromise, agreeing to share power with a broad-based coalition with safeguards for everyone's rights."

Here Kerry was trying to pass off a thug as a conciliatory priest. Aristide was a known inciter of "necklacing," the practice of throwing flaming tires around opponents' heads. He had compiled a voluminous record as an abuser of human rights. Kerry, nevertheless, had a weakness for the defrocked priest.

A dissenting Catholic himself, Kerry sympathized with Aristide's attempts to turn Catholicism into communism under the guise of "liberation theology." Which explains why Kerry even to this day whines about conservative criticism of Aristide's liberation theology. Last week Kerry accused the Bush administration of "a theological and ideological hatred" of Aristide. "It goes back to the liberation theology that he preached earlier in his career," Kerry said. "It's part of the right's attitude about Aristide."

Joseph Kennedy, another dissenting Catholic with a soft spot for liberation theologians, invited Aristide to his 1993 wedding in Massachusetts. Kerry was at the wedding too. Kennedy, then a Congressman, must also have regarded Aristide as still "Father Aristide," as he had the exiled thug deliver one of the wedding readings, according to the Boston Globe.

How did these Democrats manage to overlook Aristide's abuses? In part, because they were too busy looking at his skin color. Kerry ever so subtly played the race card in Aristide's favor in his New York Times op-ed by writing of "deep-seated hatreds between the small, wealthy ruling mulatto elite, which is in league with the military, and the poor, largely uneducated, which make up 90 percent of the population." In other words: Aristide isn't part of that odious "ruling mulatto elite" but a champion of the black underclass, so America has a duty to restore him to power.

Kerry, with great urgency, wrote about the need to restore Aristide to power through U.S. military might -- a stance that appears ludicrous in light of his go-slow diplomacy over the last few years. Was he pandering to the vocal Haitian-American community in Boston? For whatever reason Kerry was in rush-to-war mode on behalf of Aristide, writing that "nothing has worked -- not diplomacy, not tighter sanctions, not a partial naval embargo." Kerry wasn't going to stand for "Haiti's military thugs," who "continue to thumb their noses at the United States." He worried that "our credibility as a world leader is at stake."

Haiti's military leaders, Kerry wrote, "must now be put on notice that we're prepared to take all steps necessary to restore democracy and prove to all renegade elements that we mean what we say." He waived away objections by saying that diplomacy without force is feckless: "Failure to threaten to use force now would significantly increase the probability that diplomacy will fail. In the end, we'd wind up where we are today: unprepared and with a weak hand." He even fended off the "prospect of a Vietnam-like quagmire" by suggesting that after propping up Aristide Haiti wouldn't be America's problem anymore. The international community would nurse Haiti along: "The presence of a neutral, civilized power will allow Haiti to rebuild its political institutions, its schools and its health system, and provide some cooling-off time."

"Father Aristide," no pacifist himself, must have been pleased with this advocacy, especially since Kerry, along with every other Senator briefed by the CIA, knew of his established reputation as a near-demented rabble-rouser. Even as Kerry was writing about "military thugs" in need of an American beating, the CIA (as news reports from that period show) was providing the Senate with evidence that Aristide was a thug himself who, if returned to power, would wreak havoc on Haiti again.

With typical gall, Kerry now blames a crisis he helped create with his pro-Aristide advocacy on Bush. Did Bush call for the restoration of a known inciter of necklacing to power in Haiti? No, Kerry did.

George Neumayr is managing editor of The American Spectator.

A Leftist specialty: seeing nuances where there are none - seeing 'shades of gray' where that is only black and white

[RichardP]

Originally posted by Kev
Great Reading About Kerry


There is a very funny opener on this weblog:
Colonic Conservatism for those Who's Ignorance Tilts Left



Kerry: Working Both Sides Of The Fence




This article however, IMO is the BEST ONE yet about Kerry!


Kerry's Dirty Diplomacy






A Leftist specialty: seeing nuances where there are none - seeing 'shades of gray' where that is only black and white

John Kerry can do more flip-flops than a trained seal. One minute he is all for the President’s war on terror; the next, he’s sounds like the appeaser that he really is. The media will crown him as the upcoming Messiah… or a Renaissance, the ‘new improved’ Camelot. The mass-media loves Kerry; they bubble with orgasmic delight, when he wins a primary. No doubt, his military record is more than a tad stretching of the truth.
America has been looking for someone to fill J. F. Kennedy’s shoes for decades; Bubba Clinton was to be that man… cigars all around, folks, if we swallow this media hyperbole.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.zoa.org/pressrel2004/20040303a.htm


All Four of Kerry's Possible Candidates for U.S. Envoy
To Arab-Israeli Talks Are Biased Toward Arabs

NEW YORK- All four of the reported candidates for a future position of U.S. envoy to Arab-Israeli negotiations have records of pro-Arab bias, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has warned.

The New York Times reported on March 1, 2004, that U.S. Senator John Kerry has mentioned former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and former Mideast envoy Dennis Ross as possible choices for the post. Previously Senator Kerry also named former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker as additional candidates.

* SANDY BERGER - IMPLICITLY JUSTIFIED ARAB VIOLENCE: Berger, who served as National Security Adviser in the Clinton administration, is remembered for his statements implicitly justifying Palestinian Arab violence against Israelis. In a speech he gave at Tel Aviv University on May 21, 2000, Berger said that Palestinian Arab violence was not only a "curse," but also "a blessing" because it might speed up the negotiating process. In a similar vein, Berger said before a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on July 31, 2000, that "If there is no agreement, we may be sadder and bloodier, but then maybe they'll be prepared to make a deal." (Washington Times, Aug.4, 2000) Berger's remarks were strongly criticized by Jewish leaders, and sixteen Members of Congress signed a letter of protest.

* JAMES BAKER - "JEWS FORGET INSULTS AS SOON AS THEY SMELL CASH": His frequent public condemnations of Israel earned Baker a reputation as the most anti-Israel Secretary of State in U.S. history. In 1992, Baker even used a four-letter obscenity when referring to American Jews who disagreed with his pressure on Israel. Jerusalem Post editor David Bar-Illan revealed that Baker once remarked, "Don't worry, Jews remember the Holocaust, but they forget insults as soon as they smell cash." N.Y. Post, March 6, 1992)

* DENNIS ROSS - "HIS VISION OF PEACE RESTS ON PRESSURING ISRAEL": After serving as James Baker's right-hand man in the Bush administration, Ross became chief U.S. envoy to the Arab-Israeli talks in the Clinton administration. He frequently pressured Israel to make one-sided concessions and almost never criticized the Palestinian Arabs' constant violations of the Oslo accords. An investigative report in The New Republic (July 8, 1996) concluded that Ross's vision of a Mideast peace agreement "rested on pressuring Israel," and even after Baker left office, Ross "wound up executing Baker's anti-Israel agenda." In October 2003, Ross brought three officials of Yasir Arafat's terrorist Fatah movement to Washington, where he presented them as moderates and arranged for them to meet with Members of Congress and journalists.

* JIMMY CARTER - WAS "BUOYED BY THE INTIFADA": During his presidency, Carter frequently pressured and criticized Israel. After leaving the office, Carter continued to exhibit a strong pro-Arab bias. A 1998 book (The Unfinished Presidency) by Prof. Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, concerning Carter's post-presidential activities, revealed that Carter was "buoyed by the Intifada [and] passed on to the Palestinians through Arafat, his congratulations" (p. 247); Carter privately believes "that the Israeli government ran an apartheid state" (p. 239); Carter claims that Yasir Arafat has been "unfairly maligned in the Western press" (p. 121); and Carter "drafted on his home computer the strategy and wording for a generic speech Arafat was to deliver soon for Western ears" (p. 341).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "For there to be any chance of facilitating a durable and meaningful peace, a U.S. envoy must have an appreciation of the importance of the Israel-America alliance so that the Arabs understand from the beginning that the U.S. will not join them in pressuring Israel for one-sided concessions. In addition, the U.S. envoy must recognize that the Palestinian Arabs have consistently violated all of the agreements they previously signed with Israel, and that the Palestinian Authority does not accept Israel's right to exist as demonstrated by its official maps, letterhead, and school textbooks, which show "Palestine" replacing all of Israel. None of these four candidates meet those basic criteria."

[Mediocrates]

But then on the other hand......


GEORGE WASHINGTON was the first President to write to a synagogue. In 1790
he addressed separate letters to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, and to
Mikveh Israel Congregation in Savannah, GA, and a joint letter to
Congregation Beth Shalom, Richmond, VA, Mikveh Israel Philadelphia, Beth
Elohim, Charleston, S. C., and Shearith Israel, New York. His letters are
an eloquent expression and hope for religious harmony and endure as
indelible statements of the most fundamental tenets of American democracy.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was the first President to appoint a Jew to a Federal
post. In 1801 he named Reuben Etting of Baltimore as US Marshall for Maryland.

JAMES MADISON was the first President to appoint a Jew to a diplomatic
post. He sent Mordecai M. Noah to Tunis from 1813 to 1816.

MARTIN VAN BUREN was the first President to order an American consul to
intervene on behalf of Jews abroad. In 1840 he instructed the U.S. consul
in Alexandria, Egypt to use his good offices to protect the Jews of
Damascus who were under attack because of a false blood ritual accusation.

JOHN TYLER was the first President to nominate a U.S. consul to Palestine.
Warder Cresson, a Quaker convert to Judaism who established a pioneer
Zionist colony, received the appointment in 1844.

FRANKLIN PIERCE was the first and probably the only President whose name
appears on the charter of a synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in
1857 that amended the laws of the District of Columbia to enable the
incorporation of the city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew
Congregation.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the first President to make it possible for rabbis to
serve as military chaplains. He did this by signing the 1862 Act of
Congress which changed the law that had previously barred all but Christian
clergymen from the chaplainry. Lincoln was also the first, and happily the
only President who was called upon to revoke an official act of
anti-Semitism by the U.S. government. It was Lincoln who cancelled General
Ulysses S. Grant's "Order No. 11" expelling all Jews from Tennessee from
the district controlled by his armies during the Civil War. Grant always
denied personal responsibility for this act attributing it to his subordinate.

ULYSSES S. GRANT was the first President to attend a synagogue service
while in office. When Adas Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. was
dedicated in 1874, Grant and all members of his Cabinet were present.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES was the first President to designate a Jewish
ambassador for the stated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he
named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to Rumania. Hays also was the first
President to assure a civil service employee her right to work for the
Federal government and yet observe theSabbath. He ordered the employment
of a Jewish woman who had been denied a position in the Department of the
Interior because of her refusal to work on Saturday.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT was the first President to appoint a Jew to a
presidential cabinet. In 1906 he named Oscar S. Straus Secretary of
Commerce and Labor. Theodore Roosevelt was also the first President to
contribute his own funds to a Jewish cause. In 1919, when he received the
Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts while President to settle the
Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt contributed part of his prize to the National
Jewish Welfare Board.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT was the first President to attend a Seder while in
office. In 1912, when he visited Providence, RI, he participated in the
family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish
Welfare Board, in the Cutler home on Glenham Street.

WOODROW WILSON was the first President to nominate a Jew, Louis Dembitz
Brandeis, to the United States Supreme Court. Standing firm against great
pressure to withdraw the nomination, Wilson insisted that he knew no one
better qualified by judicial temperament as well as legal and social
understanding, confirmation was finally voted by the Senate on June 1,
1916. Wilson was also the first President to publicly endorse a national
Jewish philanthropic campaign. In a letter to Jacob Schiff, on November 22,
1917, Wilson called for wide support of the United Jewish Relief Campaign
which was raising funds for European War relief.

WARREN HARDING was the first President to sign a Joint Congressional
Resolution endorsing the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate
supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national Jewish home for the
Jewish people. The resolution was signed September 22, 1922.

CALVIN COOLIDGE was the first President to participate in the dedication of
a Jewish community institution that was not a house of worship. On May 3,
1925, he helped dedicate the cornerstone of the Washington, D.C. Jewish
Community center.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was the first President to be given a Torah as a
gift. He received a miniature Torah from Young Israel and another that had
been rescued from a burning synagogue in Czechoslovakia. [Note: "burning
synagogue in Czechoslovakia" may be redundant. Burning synagogues in
Czechoslovakia used to be an Olympic sport. In fact, one of the torahs in
the Fort Collins synagogue was rescued from a burning synagogue in Prague,
buried in the ground for safe-keeping, then repurified and sent to London,
then here. - CHC] Both are now in the Roosevelt Memorial Library in Hyde
Park. The Roosevelt administration's failure to expand the existing refuge
quota system ensured that large numbers of Jews would ultimately become
some of the Holocaust's six million victims. Fifty-six years after
Roosevelt's death, the arguments continue over Roosevelt's response to the
Holocaust.

HARRY S. TRUMAN, on May 14, 1948, just eleven minutes after Israel's
proclamation of independence, was the first head of a government to
announce to the press that "the United Stated recognizes the provisional
government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel." Truman
was also the first U.S. President to receive a president of Israel at the
White House - Chaim Weizman, in 1948 and an Ambassador from Israel - Eliahu
Elat in1948. With Israel staggering under the burdens of mass immigration
in 1951-1952, President Truman obtained from Congress close to $140 million
in loans and grants.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER was the first President to participate in a
coast-to-coast TV program sponsored by a Jewish organization. It was a
network show in 1954 celebrating the 300th anniversary of the American
Jewish community. On this occasion he said that it was one of the enduring
satisfactions of his life that he was privileged to lead the forces of the
free world which finally crushed the brutal regime in Germany, freeing the
remnant of Jews for a new life and hope in Israel.

JOHN F. KENNEDY named two Jews to his cabinet - Abraham Ribicoff as
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Arthur Goldberg as
Secretary of Labor. Kennedy was the only President for whom a national
Jewish Award was named. The annual peace award of the Synagogue Council of
America was re-named the John F. Kennedy Peace Award after his
assassination in 1963.

JIMMY CARTER in a number of impassioned speeches stated his concern for
human rights and stressed the right of Russian Jews to emigrate. He is
credited with being the person responsible for the Camp David Accords.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH in 1985 as Vice President had played a personal role in
"Operation Joshua," the airlift which brought 10,000 Jews out of Ethiopia
directly to resettlement in Israel. Then, again in 1991, when Bush was
President, American help played a critical role in "Operation Solomon", the
escape of 14,000 more Ethiopian Jews. Most dramatically, Bush got to the
U.N. to revoke its 1975 "Zionism is Racism" resolution.

Consider the last two officeholders:

BILL CLINTON appointed more Jews to his cabinet than all of the previous
presidents put together.

George W. BUSH is the first president since Herbert Hoover who has no Jews
in his cabinet at all.

[RichardP]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
But then on the other hand......


GEORGE WASHINGTON was the first President to write to a synagogue. In 1790
he addressed separate letters to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, and to
Mikveh Israel Congregation in Savannah, GA, and a joint letter to
Congregation Beth Shalom, Richmond, VA, Mikveh Israel Philadelphia, Beth
Elohim, Charleston, S. C., and Shearith Israel, New York. His letters are
an eloquent expression and hope for religious harmony and endure as
indelible statements of the most fundamental tenets of American democracy.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was the first President to appoint a Jew to a Federal
post. In 1801 he named Reuben Etting of Baltimore as US Marshall for Maryland.

JAMES MADISON was the first President to appoint a Jew to a diplomatic
post. He sent Mordecai M. Noah to Tunis from 1813 to 1816.

MARTIN VAN BUREN was the first President to order an American consul to
intervene on behalf of Jews abroad. In 1840 he instructed the U.S. consul
in Alexandria, Egypt to use his good offices to protect the Jews of
Damascus who were under attack because of a false blood ritual accusation.

JOHN TYLER was the first President to nominate a U.S. consul to Palestine.
Warder Cresson, a Quaker convert to Judaism who established a pioneer
Zionist colony, received the appointment in 1844.

FRANKLIN PIERCE was the first and probably the only President whose name
appears on the charter of a synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in
1857 that amended the laws of the District of Columbia to enable the
incorporation of the city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew
Congregation.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the first President to make it possible for rabbis to
serve as military chaplains. He did this by signing the 1862 Act of
Congress which changed the law that had previously barred all but Christian
clergymen from the chaplainry. Lincoln was also the first, and happily the
only President who was called upon to revoke an official act of
anti-Semitism by the U.S. government. It was Lincoln who cancelled General
Ulysses S. Grant's "Order No. 11" expelling all Jews from Tennessee from
the district controlled by his armies during the Civil War. Grant always
denied personal responsibility for this act attributing it to his subordinate.

ULYSSES S. GRANT was the first President to attend a synagogue service
while in office. When Adas Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. was
dedicated in 1874, Grant and all members of his Cabinet were present.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES was the first President to designate a Jewish
ambassador for the stated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he
named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to Rumania. Hays also was the first
President to assure a civil service employee her right to work for the
Federal government and yet observe theSabbath. He ordered the employment
of a Jewish woman who had been denied a position in the Department of the
Interior because of her refusal to work on Saturday.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT was the first President to appoint a Jew to a
presidential cabinet. In 1906 he named Oscar S. Straus Secretary of
Commerce and Labor. Theodore Roosevelt was also the first President to
contribute his own funds to a Jewish cause. In 1919, when he received the
Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts while President to settle the
Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt contributed part of his prize to the National
Jewish Welfare Board.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT was the first President to attend a Seder while in
office. In 1912, when he visited Providence, RI, he participated in the
family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish
Welfare Board, in the Cutler home on Glenham Street.

WOODROW WILSON was the first President to nominate a Jew, Louis Dembitz
Brandeis, to the United States Supreme Court. Standing firm against great
pressure to withdraw the nomination, Wilson insisted that he knew no one
better qualified by judicial temperament as well as legal and social
understanding, confirmation was finally voted by the Senate on June 1,
1916. Wilson was also the first President to publicly endorse a national
Jewish philanthropic campaign. In a letter to Jacob Schiff, on November 22,
1917, Wilson called for wide support of the United Jewish Relief Campaign
which was raising funds for European War relief.

WARREN HARDING was the first President to sign a Joint Congressional
Resolution endorsing the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate
supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national Jewish home for the
Jewish people. The resolution was signed September 22, 1922.

CALVIN COOLIDGE was the first President to participate in the dedication of
a Jewish community institution that was not a house of worship. On May 3,
1925, he helped dedicate the cornerstone of the Washington, D.C. Jewish
Community center.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was the first President to be given a Torah as a
gift. He received a miniature Torah from Young Israel and another that had
been rescued from a burning synagogue in Czechoslovakia. [Note: "burning
synagogue in Czechoslovakia" may be redundant. Burning synagogues in
Czechoslovakia used to be an Olympic sport. In fact, one of the torahs in
the Fort Collins synagogue was rescued from a burning synagogue in Prague,
buried in the ground for safe-keeping, then repurified and sent to London,
then here. - CHC] Both are now in the Roosevelt Memorial Library in Hyde
Park. The Roosevelt administration's failure to expand the existing refuge
quota system ensured that large numbers of Jews would ultimately become
some of the Holocaust's six million victims. Fifty-six years after
Roosevelt's death, the arguments continue over Roosevelt's response to the
Holocaust.

HARRY S. TRUMAN, on May 14, 1948, just eleven minutes after Israel's
proclamation of independence, was the first head of a government to
announce to the press that "the United Stated recognizes the provisional
government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel." Truman
was also the first U.S. President to receive a president of Israel at the
White House - Chaim Weizman, in 1948 and an Ambassador from Israel - Eliahu
Elat in1948. With Israel staggering under the burdens of mass immigration
in 1951-1952, President Truman obtained from Congress close to $140 million
in loans and grants.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER was the first President to participate in a
coast-to-coast TV program sponsored by a Jewish organization. It was a
network show in 1954 celebrating the 300th anniversary of the American
Jewish community. On this occasion he said that it was one of the enduring
satisfactions of his life that he was privileged to lead the forces of the
free world which finally crushed the brutal regime in Germany, freeing the
remnant of Jews for a new life and hope in Israel.

JOHN F. KENNEDY named two Jews to his cabinet - Abraham Ribicoff as
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Arthur Goldberg as
Secretary of Labor. Kennedy was the only President for whom a national
Jewish Award was named. The annual peace award of the Synagogue Council of
America was re-named the John F. Kennedy Peace Award after his
assassination in 1963.

JIMMY CARTER in a number of impassioned speeches stated his concern for
human rights and stressed the right of Russian Jews to emigrate. He is
credited with being the person responsible for the Camp David Accords.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH in 1985 as Vice President had played a personal role in
"Operation Joshua," the airlift which brought 10,000 Jews out of Ethiopia
directly to resettlement in Israel. Then, again in 1991, when Bush was
President, American help played a critical role in "Operation Solomon", the
escape of 14,000 more Ethiopian Jews. Most dramatically, Bush got to the
U.N. to revoke its 1975 "Zionism is Racism" resolution.

Consider the last two officeholders:

BILL CLINTON appointed more Jews to his cabinet than all of the previous
presidents put together.

George W. BUSH is the first president since Herbert Hoover who has no Jews
in his cabinet at all.

Thanks Mediocrates, excellent points: that said, Clinton would have appointed an organ-grinder, if he felt in any way, that it would boost his polls. Not to say that, I don’t find the “GW” info more than disconcerting. Although, I still believe, the Democrats will be week-kneed not only with the war on terror, but within the alliance with Israel. The latter being of my utter most concern; and one’s importance does not override the other.
If Clinton had been in office during 9/11, do you believe he would have been effective as Commander-in-Chief? This is not to say that Bush has not made blunders, as that would be totally unfounded and a lie. Unlike you, I have little faith in the Democrats; however, time will tell and I truly hope I’m wrong, if and when Kerry becomes Commander-in-Chief… thanks for the information; disturbing to say the least!