Bush Campaign Lies
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Bush Campaign Lie #39: Kerry Has a Long Record of Opposing Programs Vital to National Security
This is the gist of a memo Republican party chair Ed Gillespie sent out to all members on April 28. The memo lists four of Kerry's votes and/or policy proposals from his 19-year Senate career, as well as a 1984 memo Kerry put out when he was first running for the Senate.
In other words, Gillespie cites five instances over a 20-year period where Kerry has supported policies that might be construed as 'opposing defense programs', and calls it a 'pattern'. And one of those instances --- Kerry's vote against the $87 billion appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan --- was clearly an effort to call attention to Bush's mishandling of the war in Iraq, and had nothing to do with Kerry's stand on defense. See lie #8.
However, as FactCheck.org points out, if one considers Kerry's Senate record in its entirety, one concludes that Kerry is not weak on defense. He voted for the Pentagon authorization bill in 16 of the 19 years he's been in the Senate: by that measure, he's an absolute hawk on defense. And Arizona Republican John McCain, who is heading up the Bush re-election efforts in Arizona, has defended Kerry.
And because they deserve it, the Center for American Progress lets us know, once again, what a shameless bunch of hypocrites the Republicans are --- or at least Dick Cheney.
