Hold the Mayo

January 27, 2007

Chronic Altitude Sickness

It was exactly one year ago today, back when I was dabbling in Podcasts - which I will again some day soon - that I asked the following

With no offense to the people of Switzerland, what is it about the resort village of Davos that makes people stupid?

I briefly noted how Eason Jordan's stupid comments about the U.S. Military deliberately targeting journalists lead to his downfall, but the focus of the podcast was John Kerry's call for a filibuster of the the Supreme court nomination of Samuel Alito, from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

It seems to be becoming an annual event. The hold this big conference and someone shows up and says something really stupid. Well since Kerry isn't going to run to run for President again, I guess he felt he got have another year to provide us with a Davos moment.

"When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy," Kerry said.

"So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East — in the world, really. I've never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today."

Now when the President signed the Kyoto protocol, that would be President Clinton in case you've forgotten, the U.S. Senate passed a unanimous resolution saying that if the treaty were submitted for ratification, it would fail. If memory serves me correctly, John Kerry was a part of that Senate that voted to walk away from Kyoto. George Bush's decision to rescind the Presidential signature from the accord, was merely making official the policy that Kerry and the rest of the Senate endorsed. So when Kerry is talking about not living up to our rhetoric and sending a message of duplicity and hypocrisy and being an international pariah, maybe he's just talking about himself.

But all of that is just political trash talk. Standard misrepresentation of your opponents actions and positions. Purely run of the mill partisan sniping. That was just the appetizer. The main course of stupidity was still to be served. Kerry should be reminded of this statement every time he has the nerve to say he supports the troops.

"I don't care how many troops are put in — Iraq is not going to be pacified," Kerry said. "Now, we are partly responsible. The absence of legitimate significant diplomacy is a disgrace. Quick flights in by a secretary of state are not diplomacy."

"There should be a special envoy, maybe a joint bipartisan special envoy. Why not a President Clinton together with a Republican of high ability, and bring them together and really work the process?(emphasis added (probably))"

Yeah. He supports the troops. He just doesn't think they can get the job done that's all. They failed. They are failing. They are going to fail. What a fantastic message to send to our troops and our enemies - right before your photo op with the former president of Iran.

Kerry in an embarrassment. I wish I could say he was an embarrassment to his party and to the Senate, but they honor him. Kerry is an embarrassment to to the idea of being an American. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I am not questioning his patriotism. There is nothing there to question.

UPDATE: A comentor @ Powerline actually went to the trouble of looking up the Senate resolution on Kyoto and reports:

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 105th Congress - 1st Session

Vote Date: July 25, 1997, 11:37 AM

Question: On the Resolution (s.res.98 )

Declares that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto in December 1997 or thereafter which would: (1) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex 1 Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period; or (2) result in serious harm to the U.S. economy.