Caught this citation over on the Corner at NRO.
The original story can be found here.
You should definitely read the whole thing, but the bottom line is that Kerry (while recently campaigning down in Florida) bragged about supporting the Helms-Burton sanctions against Cuba back in 1996.
''I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world,'' Kerry told WPLG-ABC 10 reporter Michael Putney in an interview to be aired at 11:30 this morning.Then, reaching back eight years to one of the more significant efforts to toughen sanctions on the communist island, Kerry volunteered: "And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him.''
The Miami Herald continues:
There is only one problem: Kerry voted against it.Asked Friday to explain the discrepancy, Kerry aides said the senator cast one of the 22 nays that day in 1996 because he disagreed with some of the final technical aspects. But, said spokesman David Wade, Kerry supported the legislation in its purer form -- and voted for it months earlier. (emphasis added)
In other words, he voted for it, before he voted against it. And where have we heard that before, hm?
Damn. Figures. Tell me again why I'm voting for this guy.
Oh yeah, cuz a Bush unconstrained by the necessity of sort of appealing occasionally to anything I might like scares the bejeezuz outta me.
At least we know that Kerry reads the fine print and not just the title of the bill.
Posted by: Mark Adams at August 31, 2004 10:34 PMC'mon, Mark, admit it: Kerry got caught trying to BS the voters in Florida.
I've always said Kerry isn't a "flip-flopper," or "waffer," but someone who tries to make both sides happy at the same time. Bit of a difference there.
Lord knows there's things Bush has pulled that made me shake my head (like, ohhh, the McCain-Feingold act), but he never said he vetoed the damn thing. :)