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October 25, 2004
Mater Knows Best
I thought the 'family' stories Kerry told at the end of the last debate fairly odd.....his daughters 'keep him honest' and the whole 'integrity, integrity, integrity' thing from his mother. Interesting implication there, especially after all the claims there's been of Kerry's fabrications and distortions of his record. Now apparently Kerry's caught once again exaggerating claims of his derring-do.
At the second presidential debate earlier this month, Mr. Kerry said he was more attuned to international concerns on Iraq than President Bush, citing his meeting with the entire Security Council.
"This president hasn't listened. I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them, to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable," Mr. Kerry said of the Iraqi dictator.
Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in December 2003, Mr. Kerry explained that he understood the "real readiness" of the United Nations to "take this seriously" because he met "with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein." [Emphasis mine]
'All'? 'Entire'? Not exactly.
After conversations with ambassadors from five members of the Security Council in 2002 and calls to all the missions of the countries then on the panel, The Times was only able to confirm directly that Mr. Kerry had met with representatives of France, Singapore and Cameroon.
In addition, second-hand accounts have Mr. Kerry meeting with representatives of Britain.
Worse, not even the French representative is backing Kerry's story, saying that Kerry only had meetings with 'a few' UN representatives and that there was no group meeting with all the Security Council members.
The Kerry camp has already backed off his claims, releasing a statement that basically confirms these charges.
The statement did not repeat Mr. Kerry's claims of a lengthy meeting with the entire 15-member Security Council, instead saying the candidate "met with a group of representatives of countries sitting on the Security Council."
Guess it all depends on what your definition of 'all' is, dunnit?
Posted by Rita at October 25, 2004 06:28 AM
Comments
Sadly, I expect that this won't be widely reported, nor will it much matter to the Bush Haters.
Posted by: Jim at October 25, 2004 07:36 AM
I'm afraid you're right. The general reaction from both sides seems to be 'Ho-hum. So he lied again so what?'
Posted by: rita at October 25, 2004 10:02 AM
Geez! If this man lies this much before the election, what's he gonna do when IF he gets elected? That's when the real pressure starts.
Posted by: yayaempress at October 25, 2004 02:27 PM