Announcer: John Kerry has a little problem making up his mind. Okay, a big problem.
In 1996 he opposed the death penalty for terrorists. Now he claims to support it. Sometimes he's for welfare reform, sometimes against it. For a 50-cent gas tax hike, then maybe not. Kerry voted for higher taxes 350 times, but now says he'd cut taxes.
John Kerry - blowing in the wind.
Club for Growth PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.
Well, if you're responsible Club for Growth, then you should own up to both the lies in this ad.
Death Penalty for Terrorists:
Truth be told, Kerry did oppose the death penalty for terrorists and now supports it. However, what they fail to point out, that should be obvious to everyone in the world, is that circumstances in America changed, which altered his reasoning.
In 1989, he was among a small minority of senators who voted against a bill (S. 1798) to impose the death penalty ?for the terrorist murder of United States nationals abroad.? Instead, he wanted life imprisonment without parole.
The ad also gets it right when it says Kerry still opposed the policy seven years later in 1996. This just goes to show that he both doesn't flip flop and understands international law better than most politicians. In a debate with then-Massachusetts Governor William Weld, Kerry said anti-death penalty countries wouldn't allow the U.S. to extradite suspected terrorists who could be put to death. As quoted by the Boston Globe:
Your policy (the death penalty) would amount to a terrorist protection policy. Mine would put them in jail.
Anybody who has even a rudimentary knowledge of international law knows that caselaw proves this assertion. Countries will not extradite someone to a country if that person will face the death penalty.
That, of course, was long before September 11, 2001. Kerry now supports the death penalty for terrorists:
We are talking about people who have declared war on our nation, and just as I was prepared to kill people personally and collectively in Vietnam?I support killing people who declare war on our country.
Was Kerry simply "blowing in the wind" of public outrage? His explanation is that he responded to changed facts, not changed public opinion. He told the Boston Globe on Dec. 18, 2002 that anti-death penalty countries would be more willing to turn over terrorists after the 9/11 attacks: "I think 9/11 has changed the capacity for extradition."
"Higher Taxes" 350 Times? Wrong:
The Club for Growth is recycling a figure generated by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It is simply a lie.
Most of the 350 votes the Bush campaign lists are actually votes to keep taxes the same, and against proposed cuts. Some of the 350 votes are actually votes to cut taxes, but because they were votes for Democratic alternatives to Republican-sponsored tax-cut bills, the Bush camp counts them as votes for "higher" taxes -- meaning higher than they would have been had he voted the other way.
Kerry has voted to increase taxes in the past. He currently supports raising taxes on persons making over $200,000 a year by repealing Bush's cuts for individuals at that income level. On that issue Kerry isn't "blowing in the wind" at all -- he's steadfastly against the Club for Growth's agenda of making those tax cuts permanent.
