WP: Kerry Urges Democrats To Fight Values 'Assault'

Kerry Urges Democrats To Fight Values 'Assault'
E-Mail to Supporters Renews Battle Against Bush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63697-2004Nov19.html

"Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) signaled a return to partisan warfare with President Bush yesterday in an e-mail to supporters in which he accused the administration of preparing a "right-wing assault on values and ideals" and called on Democrats to fight back against what he labeled Bush's extreme agenda.

"Despite the words of cooperation and moderate-sounding promises, this administration is planning a right-wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply," Kerry said in the message that was sent to about 3 million supporters who had signed up on the Kerry Web site during the campaign.

Kerry accused Bush of moving to eliminate debate and dissent from the State Department and CIA. He also charged that Bush's Cabinet was being remade "to rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security and walk away from critical allies around the world."

-snip-
The e-mail message represented a call to arms to Democrats. At a time when many Democrats are looking inward to examine the reasons for Bush's victory and to take stock of what they need to do to make their time in the political wilderness as short as possible, Kerry said Democrats should in no way give Bush a pass at the beginning of his second term. "This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles," he wrote. "It is a time to stand firm."

Kerry's decision to challenge Bush so directly suggested that he hopes to return to the Senate as a much more aggressive and forceful legislator than he was in the years before he ran for president. By staking out health care as the first issue on his post-election agenda, Kerry showed he is also willing to tread on turf long claimed by other Democrats, particularly Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts's senior senator, in whose shadow Kerry has spent his entire Senate career.

I am tired of a party stunned.

That's what I'm talking about. None of this we need to be more like them BS. Grow a set Dem's and take it to these fascists with everything we got!!

demoralized. Enough of the that sh@#.

Establishing the real winner will take care of that Morals shit.

Dipshits. Kerry "signaled a return to partisan warfare"? WTF has the Bush Regime been doing every single damn day since WeeCowboy "won" the election? The Washington Post can bite me.

on C-Span earlier today. Some reporter implied that it was the Democrats' fault that there were battles in Congress. She said something like, "You really haven't been paying attention for the last two years."

I will support any Dem who will stand up and fight for me.

and other dems who stand up to the entrenchment of the fundies' "amoral values."

I love your signature line!

:toast:

Dear Rep. Pelosi

Just a quick note to let you know that you have supporters all across this nation and we believe in you and look up to you in fighting the good fight in our name...although we have lost this last election our principles and values are firm and they are at the core what drives us...and i know this is the same for you.

I am very proud how you are not backing down against Rep, Tom Delay...he, like the rest of House Republicans, and this Admin in general should not get a free pass in the second term..we need to hold them accountable, not just for a means to an end...but to also uphold OUR values and offer a real alternative to Right-Wing policies.

In closing Nancy...i know there are hard days ahead for you and your colleagues in the House and for all Americans who share our common beliefs...but to paraphrase John F Kennedy...we do these things NOT because they are easy, but because they ARE hard...it will make us a better party in the end i am sure of this, and please know (in John F Kerry's words) "we have your back"

Sincerely

right here (just ran across this this morning):

http://www.petitiononline.com/tdl0000/petition.html

I'm sending it to all my like-minded friends and family!

Talk about partisan!

I thought that's they way it worked. The people vote for who they want to represent them in Congress. I expect mine to fight, not roll over for a majority from a different party that other people voted for. It's dangerous if we all agree.

i haven't seen an article yet that doesn't call Dem's standing up, 'partisan'.

we need our own paper.

thank you John Kerry.

I can only hope that the advocates of the 3rd way in Congress would realize that "the third way" only works when both sides consent or if there is a balance of power, if not, it's simply capitulation.

President Clinton is right though, people first, as he calls it, should be the charge of any President whose concern for the people as a whole is greater than that for the select few, big business or worse, merely personal gain, power or image.

One could only hope that President Bush would espouse such values, but even as hope springs eternal, I would not bet the farm on it.
And so, fight we must.

Tyrant Tom whines about Texas DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into his criminal conduct being a "partisan witch hunt"?

STP to Tyrant Tom: if you think you're the victim of a partisan witch hunt because you have committed a crime against democracy, then it's because you're the freakin' partisan witch!

Dear John :you rock:

I hope this will put an end to those who have been accusing Kerry of wimpyness...Kerry is not a wimp!(just smart)

And I don't mean the day after Bush's second Inauguration!

:grr:

His power comes from his ability to rally and unite US. Good grief.

Did Kerry even say anything about the voter "irregularities", or did the WaPo conveniently leave that part out?

mention the voting irregularities. He is well aware of the situation and is hard at work.

if bush* and his neo-cons were Partisan they would be also be working with moderate/liberal Repubs -- which they do not

if bush* and his neo-cons were BI-Partisan they would be also be working with Dems -- which they do not

This is a MY-PARTISAN mis-administration -- it's the neo-con way or the highway

You would cry too if it happened to you.

Sorry couldn't resist...

Gotcha!

Really - He was. In a situation like this, Reagan took it to the people. He had so many people calling and writing their senators, congresspeople, state legislators, etc that his position couldn't be ignored - especially when he didn't seem to have the votes in Congress.

Well...( as RR would say), unless something changes drastically, we're in for four years of being the minority, outsiders if you will.

The only way to make our elected officials (including rethugs) give us a second thought, is for Dems , in big numbers, to be the vocal minority for the next four years. Remember all politics are local (Tip O'Neil(sp)).

Amazingly, I've already gotten a call back from my (R)Congressman. They were surprised I called with hard facts about his positions and voting record.

I think Kerry is right here. We can't lend tacit approval to this extremist agenda by being silent. Many translate silence as approval.

Don't worry about the media. It's to their benefit (access, $$$)to kiss up to those in power. We'll create our own outlets and support
them.

God Bless America.

It is no surprise the Washington Post did not mention Kerry talking about every vote being counted and calling for a national standard for federal elections.Gee, they must have missed that part.Yeah,right.

clever way to hide behind jesus.

Is this Kerry person supposed to be famous or something?

anything. And these newspapers wonder why they are losing readers.

Btw, this is a good return for Sen. Kerry.

I got the bulk email and this is good.

He's recognizing that the grassroots movement can democratize our government.

Plus, he's coming out swinging on the radical right, which is about time.

Call a spade a spade.

I sure hope they start using the web and all of the grassroots/blogger
tools to start to democratize the entire process.

I read a report that the voting records of representatives versus
what people want diverge 81%.

This is BS....they are supposed to be representing the people and this
"image" election and then they just go and give the paybacks to their
'donor' class has got to stop.

During the debates, the issue of the Supreme Court came up. Kerry had the opportunity to hammer home the fact the we are one vote away from losing a Roe v. Wade, plus a hell of a lot of hard won civil liberties. Like with many other things, he chose to play it safe.

These maniacs now own the Federal Government and by the time they're done with us, all that we hold dear will be reduced to a pile of smoldering ruins. Unless we can fight like the Republicans did during the Clinton administration, the Democrats will go the way of the Dodo bird and the Whig party.

For the last four years the Democrats have continued to be nice and lose, so concerned are they with receiving their fat paychecks. Obviously that doesn't work because a lot of them have deprived of their cushy jobs anyway. Why not go down fighting?

the only way to cut through the incredible propaganda machine of the radical right is to call a spade a spade, all use the same terminology,
hard cutting, simple English.

Why they don't come out and say what overturning Roe V. Wade means
to women and their rights across this country is ridiculous.

Deal with it. It means women become a vessel to a man's seed, a 2nd class citizen with less rights than a potential bundle of cells or
even a "sack of eggs".

That's what I understand. We are never satisfied, are we?

and I'd rather that wasn't four from now.

We should also begin educating the religious right.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/scolding.html

http://www.light-to-dark.com/bushworm.html

http://www.light-to-dark.com/dubyas_commandments.html

http://www.light-to-dark.com/libertys_boil.html

http://www.light-to-dark.com/cabush.html

Regards,

sp

I know that this may sound like something conservatives may say, but i'll say it anyway.

"Let's rally around our leader, John Kerry." Like it or not he received 55.5 million votes. Of all the democrats out there he is the most visible, we need to stand firm with him and await his next move.

Do you all really think that Kerry doesn't know about the whole fraud issue. He isn't a hermit you know, he's probably visited this site with the advice of Elizabeth Edwards.

Just when I was starting to have serious misgivings about John Kerry because of the $15 million thing, he goes and does this. This is what we wish that Al Gore did in 2000. Who cares who the Senate and House minority leaders are -- Kerry is leading all of those millions of people who voted for him and I am more than just a little enthused about it.

What Kerry is attempting is very interesting here. He is taking the grassroots movement stirred up by Moveon.org, DU and the Dean campaign and he is channeling it into the legislative process. This is something very new and it is a very interesting way of counter attacking.

Also, although his message about making sure that every vote is counted is probably not enough for the people on this board, but I believe that it is Kerry's way of letting all of us know that he is quietly looking into voter fraud.

I know that I am preaching to the choir here, but I really urge people to support Kerry here. He is doing the right thing. He is fighting back without appology and this is what we have wanted from our democratic leaders since 2000. It took two years for Gore to start doing this. Kerry is rallying the troops here. Let's be rallied.

Stop the lies about what Kerry did in Viet Nam!
Kerry should follow through with the plan reported in a NY Post article and sue the Swift Vets. He should get them in court, sign the privacy waiver, and let those 100 undisclosed pages of his Navy record speak for themselves.

I know because I am one!

for you...

You pretend to be a newbie freethinker, but your name says it all...

Your posts are quite revealing too...Nothing about you seems "real"...bet your not even "female" as your post suggests....

I say 86 before 30..... :hi:

http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage8.asp
Mr. Kerry, for instance—if he were smart, if he were truly forward-thinking and unselfish—could have changed what is now becoming the Master Narrative of the Election (a "mandate" based on "values" means: get pious or else). If he had made the speech I suggest (or some version of it), he could have changed the focus from Mr. Bush’s popular-vote win (only 51 percent anyway) to a narrative about the unresolved closeness of the margin. About how the country remains divided—at least electorally—rather than the false (based on misread, inaccurate exit polls) triumph of righteousness (and self-righteousness).

The Democratic Party would be exposing the scandal of the failure to reform our voting procedures to affirm fairness (no more four-hour lines in minority urban precincts, as in Ohio, and similar abuses) rather than getting its collective knickers in a twist over how to appease the intrusive, self-proclaimed moralists by discarding its principles.

But nooooo …. Mr. Kerry denied us the focus on the failure to obtain confidence in the exactitude of voting. (As someone pointed out, if we know how to make A.T.M.’s that don’t make tens of thousands of mistakes every day—and that give out receipts—then why not voting machines?)

And it’s that lack of exactitude, that lack of confidence, that has engendered the paranoia and alienation from the political process that may never be healed.

We need to get more news about non-rolling-over democrats.

When it's Bush & Co. making shady overtime rollbacks, issuing cuts in education funding, implementing tax breaks for the rich, moving our economy into bankruptcy, and a thousand other right-wing agenda items ad nauseum, it's somehow NOT partisan???

I say let the "right-wing assault on values and ideals" begin, here and now.

At this point I do not care who that is, if they want my support I want some blinding honesty.

It can be John Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards there are many potentials.

So for it is not Reid or Leahy.

Does Kerry somehow think he's some kind of leader of the Dems or the party now? Or is it the media who are confused?

:puke:

Kerry showed he is also willing to tread on turf long claimed by other Democrats, particularly Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts's senior senator, in whose shadow Kerry has spent his entire Senate career.

WaPo has the ethical compass of a pogo stick.

Your time to "fight" has was yesterday; and when we needed the fight, yours was all about the self-aggrandizement of Vietnam medals. You let us down, Mr. Billionaire.

Yes, progressives need to fight the right wing. No, we aren't following Kerry.

I know you are angry about the election and the acquiecses he demonstrated the day after the election. But, in times when we need to stick together and when we feel somewhat outnumbered, wouldn't it be circumspect that we embrace all in our side whose willing to fight whether it be John Kerry or Ahnold. This is just a reflection and I really dislike putting people down, the more we do it to each other the happier the other side is.

Has Kerry made mistakes? Sure he has. He is less than perfect but who is perfect? While other democrats are sounding the concilatory tone that Bush wants to hear, John Kerry is firing back. He is doing the right thing and we should support him in this -- plain and simple.

Now I don't want us to lose the careful criticism that I believe is part of what makes us democrats but in these times we need to stand behind those willing to lead us and stand by our values. I don't want to stop questioning Clinton or Kerry or any of them, but when John Kerry does the right thing, even if he may not have yesterday, then we should give him our firm support.

that's that the repukes would like to see.