Bush, Kerry clash over Iraq 'joke'

By THOMAS FERRARO
Reuters

WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry drew election-year fire from President Bush and other Republicans Tuesday for saying college students could "get stuck in Iraq" if they do not study hard.
While campaigning in California, Kerry told a college crowd Monday: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

This is Reuters 1am update on yesterdays kerfuffle. I read and listened to all of it until my brain became mush. There is no doubt Kerry said what he said. Whether it was a "botched joke" or not, the man should apologize. His indignant response to the white house and Sen. John McCain only inflamed the situation.
In his 'non-apology' Kerry said: "I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium or doughy (talk-show host) Rush Limbaugh." "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq — and not the president who got us stuck there — they're crazy,"
This is the same guy whom a few months ago said the troops were terrorizing Iraqi women and children. the same guy who went before the senate while we were still at war in vietnam and spelled out a litiney of attrocities by our troops he supposedly saw and admitted to taking part in. The guy is in a meltdown.