Thirteen Years Ago Today, Sen. John Kerry Sent a Letter to a Constituent

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CLII

As reported in the Boston Globe, June 21, 2003:

.... After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Kerry suggested that the United States needed to give Saddam Hussein enough diplomatic "wiggle room" to leave Kuwait without losing face. He then voted against the congressional resolution authorizing military force, but became an enthusiastic supporter of the war as the allied coalition drove to victory in early 1991. His position was so nuanced that his office couldn't keep up with the changes, at one point mistakenly mailing out letters to his constituents that appeared to take both sides in the debate.

On Jan. 22, 1991, Kerry's office sent a letter to a constituent, thanking him for expressing opposition to the deployment of additional US troops in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. "I share your concerns," Kerry wrote, noting that on Jan. 11 he had voted in favor of a resolution opposing giving the president immediate authority to go to war and seeking to give economic sanctions more time to work.

On Jan. 31, the same constituent received a letter stating that, "From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf."

Kerry blamed the mix-up on a computer error and subsequently wrote in defense of his position on the Gulf war: "The debate in the Senate was not about whether we should or should not have used force, but when force should be used." ....

Ramesh Ponnuru wrote about this at NRO, Oct. 25, 2002 (brackets in original):

John Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts and a candidate for president in 2004, is renowned for his foreign-policy expertise — at least in certain circles. "[N]o Democrat has offered a more coherent criticism of the Bush national security policies," wrote Al Hunt in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. So much the worse for the Democrats, one might conclude. Kerry spent the run-up to the Iraq vote taking shots at President Bush from right and left before finally voting with him. Hunt quotes Kerry remarking of Bush's national-security team: "These guys are fakers."

On the subject of fakers, Kerry surely knows whereof he speaks. Consider his record on the first Gulf War, which he voted against. In early January 1991, constituent Walter Carter sent Kerry a letter urging him to back the war. He received two responses. A January 22 letter from the senator, addressed to Carter as though he were an opponent of the war, indicated that Kerry favored sanctions and opposed war. A January 31 letter said, "From the outset of the invasion [of Kuwait by Iraq], I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf."

Kerry aides at the time said that a computer error was responsible for the screw-up. The "unequivocal support" letter dated from the previous September, when the Iraqi invasion and American deployment had just happened but senators were not voting on war. Carter should have gotten yet a third letter saying that Kerry had thought war inadvisable but supported the troops. Kerry's press secretary explained that the senator's "position has been 100 percent consistent on this issue." Maybe so, but it sure sounds as though constituents were hearing different tunes from Kerry depending on their own beliefs and the shifting political circumstances of the moment....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 01/31/04 12:04:05 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & John Kerry & Political.