Kerry Apologizes for 'A Botched Joke'

Associated Press

Published: November 1, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John Kerry apologized for "a botched joke" about President Bush's Iraq policies that led Bush and fellow Republicans to accuse him of insulting U.S. troops. Some Democrats in close races assailed Kerry, while others called the flap a ploy by the GOP to improve its chances in next week's midterm elections.

"Of course I'm sorry about a botched joke. You think I love botched jokes?" Kerry said during an appearance Wednesday on Don Imus' nationally syndicated radio program. "I mean, you know, it's pretty stupid."

Kerry, D-Mass., said he meant no offense to troops when he told a college audience Monday that young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they don't study hard and do their homework.

On Wednesday, he said, "You cannot get into the military today if you do badly in school." But he also said the White House was purposely twisting his words and asserted that it is Bush who owes troops an apology for a misguided war in Iraq.

"I'm sorry that that's happened," he said of his earlier comment. "But I'm not going to stand back from the reality here, which is, they're trying to change the subject. It's their campaign of smear and fear."

Kerry said he mangled the delivery of a line aimed at Bush. According to aides, the language was originally written to say that "if you're intellectually lazy, you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq - just ask President Bush."

But Republicans seized on it as evidence of troop-bashing by the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee, and the controversy quickly erupted into an issue for races across the country. The Republican National Committee released a Web ad, to be e-mailed to GOP activists and state party officials, called "Apologize."

Said Bush, in an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh: "Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words. ... We've got incredible people in our military, and they deserve full praise and full support of this government."

The White House took the unusual step of releasing in advance comments Vice President Dick Cheney was making later Wednesday at a Montana campaign rally, in which he scolded Kerry for taking "another swipe at the U. S. military."

"Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it," Cheney said in a line meant to recall Bush's skewering of Kerry in their 2004 race for saying he had voted for war funds before he voted against them.

GOP Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam veteran and possible 2008 contender, said Wednesday he wasn't sure "how you could construe" Kerry's comment as a joke.

And White House spokesman Tony Snow said Kerry's apology on Imus didn't pass muster. "He's insisting on pointing fingers at the president," Snow said. "Just say you're sorry. It's not hard."

The fiery exchange evoked memories of the bitter 2004 Bush-Kerry contest, and injected a last-minute curveball into a taut race between Republicans trying to cling to control of Congress in the Nov. 7 voting and Democrats striving to win it back.

With each party looking for any advantage in a campaign expected to turn in large measure on the unpopular war in Iraq, some Democratic candidates afraid of being tarred as antimilitary joined the Republican criticism of Kerry. The senator scratched campaign appearances for Democratic party hopefuls in Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

"Whatever the intent, Senator Kerry was wrong to say what he said," said Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., running for the Senate in Tennessee.

"I'm coming back to Washington today so I'm not a distraction," Kerry told Imus.

Kerry was frantically seeking to contain any damage - to his party next week and his own potential repeat run for the White House in 2008. He and some Democrats viewed the fracas as a key test of a lesson learned in the 2004 race - that he responded too slowly when hit with unsubstantiated allegations about his Vietnam war record from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Kerry's office released a supportive statement from retired Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, the first female three-star general in the Army and a supporter of his 2004 bid against Bush. "When it comes to Iraq, he's right to stand up against baseless attacks, and right to keep fighting for a better course for our troops and our country," she said.

Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat leading in late polls in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, said Republicans are merely trying to change the subject. "The people who should apologize are George Bush and Mike DeWine for sending our troops into battle without body armor and without examining the cooked intelligence," he said.

Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Vietnam, said, "The Republicans are so desperate that they'll take anything and try to make the most of it."

"Bloopers happen," Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told reporters in Burlington, Vt.

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Associated Press Writer Dan Sewell contributed to this story from Cincinnati.

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