Kerry's Iraq speech

[BenGarrett]

Where's the dissent about source of quote?

/April 30, 2006/

*BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST *
<http://a3.suntimes.com/RealMedia/ads...3438653330>



John Kerry announced this week's John Kerry Iraq Policy of the Week the
other day: "Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15
to deal with these intransigent issues and at last put together an
effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military."

With a sulky pout perhaps? With hands on hips and a full flip of the hair?

Did he get that from Churchill? "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the
streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, at least
until May 15, when I have a windsurfing engagement off Nantucket."

Actually, no. He got it from Thomas Jefferson. "This is not the first
time in American history when patriotism has been distorted to deflect
criticism and mislead the nation," warned Sen. Kerry, placing his
courage in the broader historical context. "No wonder Thomas Jefferson
himself said: 'Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism.' "

Close enough. According to the Jefferson Library: "There are a number of
quotes that we do not find in Thomas Jefferson's correspondence or other
writings; in such cases, Jefferson should //not //be cited as the
source. Among the most common of these spurious Jefferson quotes are:
'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.' "

Did Kerry's speechwriter endeavor to point that out? "Hey, boss, diss
ain't a Jefferson quote."

"Yeah, that's right. Dissent -- a Jefferson quote. Shove one in around
the fifth paragraph, but snap it up, will you? I got a fitting for my
new even-more-buttock-hugging yellow lycra cycling shorts in 20 minutes."

It was the Aussie pundit Tim Blair who noted the Thomas Jeffefakery.
American commentators were apparently too busy cooing that "Kerry may be
reflecting a new boldness on the part of liberals to come out and say
what they believe and to reclaim the moral high ground on patriotism"
(CBS News) to complain that KERRY LIED!! SCHOLARLY ATTRIBUTION DIED!!!
Instead, KERRY MISQUOTED!! MEDIA DOTED!!!

Indeed, America's hardboiled newsmen can't get enough of the Thomas
Jefferbunk. The Berkshire Eagle used it as the headline for last year's
Fourth of July editorial. Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press
thundered: "We need to stop slicing this country in half, and saying
those who support this act or this politician are 'good' Americans, and
the rest are not. Sometimes 'dissent is the highest form of patriotism.'
I didn't make that up. Thomas Jefferson did."

Er, no. You made up that he made it up. But former Georgia state Rep.
Mike Snow uses it, and Miranda Yaver of Berkeley wore it on a button to
the big anti-war demo in Washington last year, and Ted Kennedy deployed
it as the stirring finale to his anti-Bush speech:

"It is not unpatriotic to tell the truth to the American people about
the war in Iraq. In this grave moment of our country, to use the words
of Thomas Jefferson, 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.' "

The last time Sen. Kennedy went rummaging for an old quote was when he
stood up at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston and announced that
"here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shirt around the
world." But at least several of those words are genuine, albeit not the
reference to the menswear department.

As far as I can tell, it was Nadine Strosser, the ACLU's head honcho,
who cooked up the Jefferson fake. At any rate, she seems to be the only
one who ever deployed it pre-9/11. Since then, however, it's gone
nuclear, it's everywhere, it's a bumper sticker and a T-shirt slogan and
a surefire applause line for the entire Massachusetts congressional
delegation. As Sen. Kennedy's brother so memorably said, "Ask not what
your country can do for you, ask what a fake quote can do for you."

What does it mean when so many senior Democrats take refuge in an
obvious bit of hooey? Thomas Jefferson would never have said anything
half so witless. There is no virtue in dissent per se. When John F.
Kennedy said, "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and
the success of liberty" -- and, believe it or not, that's a real quote,
though it's hard to imagine any Massachusetts Democrat saying such a
thing today -- I could have yelled out, "Hey, screw you, loser." It
would have been "dissent," but it wouldn't have been patriotic, and it's
certainly not a useful contribution to the debate, any more than that of
the University of North Carolina students at Chapel Hill who recently
scrawled on the doors of the ROTC armory "F--- OFF!" and "WE WON'T FIGHT

YOUR WARS!"

But the high holiness of dissent for its own sake is now the core belief
of the Democratic Party: It's not what you're for, it's what you're
against. Their current denunciations of Big Oil have a crudely effective
opportunism but say to them "OK, what's your energy policy?" and see
what answers you get: More domestic oil? Ooh, no, we can't disturb the
pristine ANWR breeding ground of the world's largest mosquito herd. More
nuclear power, like the French? Ooh, no, might be another Three Mile
Island. Er, OK, you're the mass transit guys; how about we go back to
wood-fired steam trains? Ooh, no, we're opposed to logging, in case it
causes global warming, or cooling, or both.

Dissent for its own sake is like the Democrats' energy policy: We're
opposed to any kind of energy; we prefer to be mired in enervated
passivity. If the right is full of armchair generals, the left is full
of armchair generalities: Nothing can be done, any course is futile,
everything's a quagmire. All we can say for certain is that saying so
for certain is the highest form of patriotism.

It's truer to say that these days patriotism is the highest form of
dissent -- against a culture where the media award each other Pulitzers
for damaging national security, and the only way a soldier's mom can
become a household name is if she's a Bush-is-the-real-terrorist kook
like Cindy Sheehan, and our grade schools' claims to teach our children
about America, "warts and all," has dwindled down into teaching them all
the warts and nothing else. Or as the Capital Times of Madison, Wis.,
concluded its ringing editorial on the subject:

"Thomas Jefferson got it right: 'Dissent is the highest form of
patriotism.' And teaching children how to be thoughtful and effective
dissenters is the highest form of education."

Teaching them authentic Jefferson quotes would be a better approach.

[kevin1]

What the hell would Skerry know about diplomacy anyway?
Here's my opinion of his speech , picture the sound of a very loud duck call , now picture it emanating from a very incontinent moose's ass . That pretty much sums it up for me . Thank you .

[burniegoeasily]

Kevin
Lmao.

[Knightia]

picture the sound of a very loud duck call , now picture it emanating from a very incontinent moose's ass

nice pict-works/fits kerryto me.

Reminds me of one ofMy gramas ol/odd favor sayings.

Your mouths going faster then a clacker?-in a ducks ass in the springtime.

She had(has shes still alive) many involving anal things.Your ass suks buttermilk(never understood that one elither)

Go pound salt up your-
Kiss my royal Canadian-

A few others.

[smokeman]

ORIGINAL: Knightia

nice pict-works/fits kerryto me.

Reminds me of one ofMy gramas ol/odd favor sayings.

Your mouths going faster then a clacker?-in a ducks ass in the springtime.

She had(has shes still alive) many involving anal things.Your ass suks buttermilk(never understood that one elither)

Go pound salt up your-
Kiss my royal Canadian-

A few others.

The buttermilk saying was referring toyour tenuous hold on sanity...
The mind your Ps and Qs comes from ireland and they would drink to much liquor and get obnoxious and rowdy and they was told to mind their Pints and Quarts..... I find these philosophy of sayingsmore interesting than what kerry has to say....

[Knightia]

The buttermilk saying was referring toyour tenuous hold on sanity...
The mind your Ps and Qs comes from ireland and they would drink to much liquor and get obnoxious and rowdy and they was told to mind their Pints and Quarts.....

Thanks smokeman intresting info - i have heard the P&Q one i think but the buttermilk one i had no idea- buttermilk -going insane eh?
My grama was a lill salty but didnt swear really- just went around most of the day saying ass,arse, hiney, or tukus etc inone form or anotheri think a lill french to.

I find these philosophy of sayingsmore interesting than what kerry has to say....

I agree.