Sick Of It All

I am officially sick of talking politics. I’m sure after a weekend of hanging out with the family and watching the Super Bowl (Go Pats!) I’ll be re-energized, but for now, it’s all just one big blah. Well, all one big blah except for one interesting thing I found while surfing around today.

John Kerry: tough on national security. Not a waffler, right? So, explain this:

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.”

Consistent? Consider the text of the letters (link via Kaus):

“Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition … to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war.”

–letter from Senator John Kerry to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, dated January 22 [1991]

“Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. 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.”

–Senator Kerry to Wallace Carter, January 31 [1991]

Doesn’t sound too consistent to me.