Dole Takes Kerry To The Woodshed

Apparently, Senator Kerry was paying attention:

Presidential candidate John Kerry telephoned former Senator Bob Dole this morning to complain about Dole's demand a day earlier that he apologize to Vietnam veterans for protesting the war, the one-time Republican presidential candidate revealed Monday afternoon.

"John Kerry called me this morning, which surprised me," Dole told radio host Sean Hannity.

"He said he was very disappointed, we'd been friends. I said John, we're still friends, but [the Swift Vets] have First Amendment rights, just as your people have First Amendment rights."

Dole told Kerry, "I'm not trying to stir anything up, but I don't believe every one of these people who have talked about what happened are Republican liars. And very frankly, Bush is my guy, and I'm tired of people on your side calling him everything from a coward to a traitor to everything - a deserter."

Dole said he urged Kerry, "Why don't you call George Bush today and say, 'Mr. President, let's stop all this stuff about the National Guard and Vietnam - and let's talk about the issues.'"

Dole said Kerry responded, "I haven't spent one dime attacking President Bush."

But the Republican war hero shot back, "You don't have to. You've got all the so-called mainstream media, plus you've got MoveOn.org and all these other groups that have spent millions and millions of dollars trying to tarnish Bush's image. Don't tell me you don't know what some of these people are doing," he told Kerry.

"Everybody likes quiet heroes," Dole added, saying he told Kerry, "John, everybody knows you were in Vietnam and the less you say about it, the better.”

You learn so much about the real John Kerry from this conversation. His hauteur in presuming the prerogative to call up Dole to chew him out like the latter is a washed-up has-been (which he is, but work with me here…); his underestimation of Dole that he didn’t think Dole would publicly defend the Swifties; his expectation that their personal friendship (which, from Kerry’s standpoint is probably as ersatz as most everything else about the guy) should have kept Dole quiet; and his condescending patronization in telling Dole a bald-faced lie – that he hasn’t “spent one dime attacking President Bush – as though Dole had Alzheimer’s or something.

Even if Kerry meant he hasn’t “spent a dime” to attack Bush in the context of Vietnam and his National Guard service, it’s still disingenuous and harkens right back to the incestuous collusion between Team Kerry and the phalanx of hard-left 527s – yet another petard on which Lurch has hoisted himself.

And there was poor ol’ Bob Dole on the other end of the blower, blistering his padawan apprentice – er, “good friend” – “You've got all the so-called mainstream media, plus you've got MoveOn.org and all these other groups that have spent millions and millions of dollars trying to tarnish Bush's image. Don't tell me you don't know what some of these people are doing.”

Wish I could have seen the expression on Kerry’s face when he hung up.