2 posts tagged “taranto”

Amid the breathless speculation comes this quote from James Taranto:

"If Gore really believes in global warmism, he couldn't possibly want to be president, a job that would require him to spend most of his time dealing with more important matters."

Well, it's Monday, and James Taranto's column posted much earlier than usual, but as expected, he addresses The Man Who Would Be Kerry's (or vice versa) letter of complaint about him which appeared in Saturday's OpinionJournal.

What was not expected, but was a very pleasant surprise, is that Mr. Taranto chose not to dignify Kerry with a formal reply other than to say the following:

"In typical Kerry fashion, he acknowledges in his letter that it did happen, but faults us for taking what he said at face value..."

Taranto instead posted reader responses to The Heinzinator. Here's a sampling. The entire column can be found here.

Kerry: "I traveled to Cambodia to help create a genocide tribunal to bring to justice the butchers of the killing fields."

Lewis Sckolnick, Lererett, Mass.: "If we prevent a genocide in Iraq, there will be no need for John Kerry to sit on another genocide tribunal."

Kerry: "We should not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq, but let's have an honest debate rather than a hysterical one. The agony of exiting a quagmire is that there are few certainties and no good options. That choice was created not by the advocates for changing course, but by the architects of a disastrous war."

Randy Watts, Rural Retreat, Va.: "Mr. Kerry exposes the illogical position of the leftist peaceniks on Iraq. No matter how many innocent civilians die because of their proposed U.S. 'cut and run,' it's not our fault. Blame it on the folks who started the war. Only the delusional left can advocate a course of action that can (and did in Vietnam and Cambodia) kill millions, and maintain that they are right because someone else is blamed for those deaths."

Will Anderson, Richmond, Va.: "While advocating an 'honest debate,' Mr. Kerry conveniently overlooks his own role in making Vietnam a quagmire. The North Vietnamese leaders knew that they did not have to win militarily if they could hold out long enough for antiwar propaganda to divide the American people. In this regard, Mr. Kerry surely exceeded Ho Chi Minh's expectations with his lurid, unsubstantiated tales of brutality by American soldiers. (Somehow the bland phrase 'advocates for changing course' fails to capture the recklessness and anti-American animus of much of the Vietnam antiwar movement.) Though he has never apologized for those defamatory statements, Mr. Kerry now has the nerve to call James Taranto 'hysterical' for pointing out the undeniable tragic consequences of our abandonment of the South Vietnamese people. If anything, Mr. Taranto was circumspect."

Dawn McCormick, Boca Raton, Fla.: "Sen. Kerry seems to overlook the fact that he himself was one of 'the architects of a disastrous war...