20 Questions Kerry Won't Answer

20 Questions John Kerry Won’t Answer
By Peter Kirsanow

Senator Kerry has been pretty successfully avoiding the media, but sometime between now and November 2 he'll have to sit down for a far-ranging
interview on a program other than The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Thus
far, most Kerry interviews have been less-than-penetrating (one recent poll
even indicates that nearly a third of the electorate knows very little
about John Kerry) and certainly not hostile (in comparison, see, among
other things, President Bush's press conference of last spring). Bill
Clinton was subjected to far-greater scrutiny by this time in the 1992
election cycle. Kerry's legendary policy flip-flops as well as his
campaign's shifting stories related to the current controversy compel
questioning at least as tough as that directed at Kerry's critics.
Here are only a few of the questions Kerry hasn't adequately addressed.
They don't even have anything to do with swift boats. There are no "gotcha"
questions. They're posed in a respectful manner. In fact, many are
softballs. After all, few interviewers would wish to alienate Kerry and
foreclose the possibility of follow-up interviews. With that in mind, here
goes:
1. The Bush campaign maintains that you spent 20 years in the Senate with
no signature legislative achievements. What do you consider to be the five
most important pieces of legislation that you've authored?
a. What's the most important piece of legislation regarding intelligence
you've authored?
b. What's the most important piece of antiterrorism legislation you've
authored?
c. What's the most important piece of health-care legislation you've
authored?
d. What's the most important piece of education legislation you've
authored?
2. You'd agree that on paper, Dick Cheney's experience and qualifications
dwarf those of your running mate. Why would John Edwards make a better
president during the war on terror than Dick Cheney?
a. It's been widely reported that John McCain was your first choice as
running mate. If true, why did you prefer Senator McCain to Senator
Edwards?
3. Earlier this year you told Tim Russert that you'd release all of your
military records, yet you've failed to do so and you refuse to release your
Vietnam journal. Why shouldn't the public infer that the contents of these
documents would undermine your credibility or otherwise damage your
candidacy?
a. When will you release the documents?
4. You've stated that you believe that life begins at conception yet you
voted against the ban on partial-birth abortions. At precisely what point
is a life worth protecting?
a. Is there any limitation on abortion (waiting periods, parental
notification) for which you'd vote? If so, what?
5. You've promised to repeal much of the Bush tax cut and while in the
Senate you voted to raise taxes an average of five times per year. If
current economic trends remain largely unchanged during a Kerry presidency,
would you seek additional tax increases?
a. How would you raise taxes and what are the highest marginal tax rates
that you'd support?
6. You opposed the 1991 Gulf War even though Saddam Hussein had weapons of
mass destruction, had invaded another country, and France and Germany had
supported the war. In the current conflict no WMDs have been found, France
and Germany oppose the action, and Saddam hadn't invaded another country.
Yet you recently stated that knowing what you know now, you'd nonetheless
authorize the use of force even though you voted against funding it.
Could you please reconcile these positions?
7. You acknowledge meeting with representatives of North Vietnam and the
Viet Cong in Paris in 1970. Afterward you urged Congress to accept the
North Vietnamese proposals. Please explain how this wasn't a violation of
the Logan Act and, if you were still in the Naval Reserves at that time,
how it wasn't a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice
prohibiting unauthorized communications with the enemy.
8. In several speeches before black audiences you've stated that a million
African Americans were disenfranchised and had their votes stolen in the
2000 presidential election. There are no official or media investigations
that support that statement. What evidence do you have to support the
statement and if you believe a million blacks had their votes stolen, why
haven't you called for criminal prosecutions and congressional
investigations?
9. Do you dispute the National Journal's assessment that you're the
nation's most liberal senator? If you do, which senators do you consider to
be more liberal and why?
10. Why did you propose cutting the intelligence budget by $6 billion in
1994?
11. As president, would you nominate anyone to be either an attorney
general, FBI director, or CIA director who had been a leader and chief
spokesman for a group that had discussed and voted upon a plan to
assassinate U.S. senators (even if the proposed nominee had opposed such
plan)?
12. You have consistently stated that you "never, never" attended the
November 1971 Kansas City meeting of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War
at which a plan to assassinate six pro-military U.S. senators was
discussed. Several newspapers reported that when confronted with FBI
surveillance reports, your campaign "all but conceded" that you were in
attendance , but claimed that this was a mere "footnote in history."
a. Were you there?
b. Did you discuss the assassination of U.S. senators? What did you say?
c. Did you vote upon such a plan? How did you vote? Were any similar plans
discussed by your group at any time? What were they?
d. If the plan was voted down, what steps did you take to insure that
supporters of the plan didn't carry it out anyway?
e. Especially considering that this took place in an era of political
assassinations and assassination attempts (Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther
King Jr., George Wallace, etc.), did you report the discussion to any
law-enforcement authorities? If not, why not?
f. When did you resign from the organization?
g. Do you dispute reports that you continued as a spokesman for the
organization for more than a year after the Kansas City meeting?
h. If this was a mere footnote in history why have you repeatedly and
vehemently denied you were there?
i. Did your campaign, as alleged in several newspaper accounts, attempt to
get a witness to change his story about your attendance?
13. You have criticized the Patriot Act. What portions would you repeal or
amend and why? What evidence do you have of any abuses of the Patriot Act?
14. As president, what would you do about Iran's emerging nuclear
capability?
15. During your eight-year tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee you
missed more than three fourths of all public meetings. It's also been
reported that you have skipped or delayed receiving intelligence briefings
during the campaign. Why should the public believe that you're serious
about this issue?
16. What do you think is appropriate punishment for guards (and their
superiors) found guilty of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib? Do you believe
they should be stripped of command and receive dishonorable discharges and
prison time?
17. On May 6, 2001, on Meet the Press, you stated that you had committed
"the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers" in violation
of the Geneva Convention. Specifically, you said you burned villages and
"used 50-calibre machine guns, which [you] were granted and ordered to use,
which were our only weapon against people."
a. Who ordered you to use 50-caliber machine guns on people?
b. How many people did you shoot with the 50s and how many of them were
killed or wounded?
c. When and where did these shootings occur?
d. What other atrocities did you commit and when?
e. Which village(s) did you burn down and when?
f. Were any of your crewmembers present during the commission of any of
these atrocities?
g. Did you order them to participate in the atrocities? Did they follow
your orders?
h. Why were there no reports of these atrocities? Did you order your crew
not to report them?
i. Are any of these incidents described in your Vietnam journal? If not,
why not?
j. Did you observe thousands of (or any) other troops committing
atrocities? When, where and what kind? Did you report them? If not, why
not?
k. In light of your admitted atrocities, if Abu Ghraib guards found guilty
of abuse should receive prison time and be stripped of command, why do you
believe you should be considered for commander-in-chief?
18. Who among the justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court would be
a model for your nominees to the federal bench? Why?
19. In a speech before Drake University Law School you characterized U.S.
allies in the war in Iraq as "some trumped-up so-called Coalition of the
bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted,..." Do you maintain that
Great Britain has been bribed, coerced, bought, or extorted? What about
Italy? Japan? Poland? Please specifically identify those members of the
Coalition that have been either bribed, coerced, bought, and extorted and
the officials who were bribed or bought.
20. You told George Stephanopoulos that you had a plan to get out of Iraq
but refused to provide details. Would you consent to having your secret
plan privately evaluated by an independent, bi-partisan panel of military
experts who could report the plan's merits to the electorate without
divulging the details?
a. Would you also consent to privately revealing to an independent panel
the names of the foreign leaders who secretly support you so that the panel
can confirm your story to the electorate?
b. Ditto regarding the leaders whom you say have secretly told Senators
Biden and Levin that you must win?
Obviously, there are a lot more questions Social Security, health care,
etc. Certainly there are tougher questions and those more artfully crafted.
This is just a start. Feel free to add your own. TV-newsmagazine producers
are welcome to use any of the above.
Peter Kirsanow is...not holding his breath.