Two Misstatements

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." - Senator John Kerry

"Secretary of State Powell and Secretary of State Rumsfeld and . . ." - President George W. Bush

Commented on the second of these last night, but other than noting it for posterity, didn't have much to say about it. After thinking about it, I have a bit more to say.

The first statement was clearly a boneheaded soundbite that Senator Kerry gave the Republicans. It fuels their suggestions that he's a flip-flopping ninny, and, naturally enough, it found its way into an attack ad almost immediately.

In the second example we all know that President Bush meant to say Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. In the first example, do we all know what Senator Kerry meant? We should, but in case we don't, let me run it down.

Senator Kerry apparently had nothing intrinsically against funding the $87 billion request; he did not, however, see the wisdom in adding to the national deficit when there are things that could be done to offset the $87 billion, such as limited or restructuring the Bush Tax Cuts (those that go to the wealthiest among us). He was willing to sign the bill, and in fact signed the bill with an amendment that would have called for a repeal of some of the Bush Tax Cuts. But of course, this didn't fly. Neither his Republican colleagues nor the White House would consider such an action. So in the end he ended up voting against the $87 billion in a protest vote (presumably he knew that it would pass, I would imagine everybody did).

Now you might disagree with his actions; fine. You might want to put the blame for some of the difficulties our troops are facing on John Kerry (for failing to vote for a bill that passed anyway); certainly the Bush Administration is in favor of that (much preferable to taking responsible for their own failure to plan for the occupation of Iraq). But is that really a flip-flop? Or is just a misstatement? An inelegant phrase?

Hard to say, but if the Bush Campaign has anything to say about it, you'll never even consider what Senator Kerry meant to say, will you?