Kerry Sneers at Rumsfeld's Apology, Blames Bush for Abuses

Sen. John Kerry today scoffed at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's apology and blamed President Bush for the mistreatment of some prisoners in Iraq.

"The chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office," Kerry said in Phoenix. "Harry Truman did not say, 'The buck stops at the Pentagon.'"

Speaking to the "moderate" Democratic Leadership Council, the Massachusetts pol said a strong foreign policy meant "taking responsibility for the bad and good."

"We need a president who understands the difference between strength and stubbornness," he said.

His Idea of Leadership: 'Condemning'

"We should be the leaders in condemning the appalling images of abuse, not following others who showed them to us," Kerry told the Clintonoid group.

"We should be the leaders in setting a standard of behavior that we talk about in the abuse that we've seen flashing across television screens all across the world. We cannot ever succeed in Iraq or anywhere else on this planet by abandoning the values that define the United States of America."

He complained: "For 30 years since Vietnam, the other party has tried to frighten voters into thinking that only Republicans care about national security. They attacked us so often that some in our party would rather try to change the subject to the economy than show our national security strength."

He concluded, "I think it's time we have a president who understands that strength abroad means providing real leadership in the world, and taking responsibility for the bad as well as the good."

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush's campaign, responded by zinging Kerry for a "consistent pattern of inserting politics and playing politics with the war on terror and serious national security issues."

Still Trying to Talk Down the Economy

Here's how Kerry reacted earlier in the day to the great news (for President Bush and the rest of America, that is) of the addition by employers of 288,000 jobs and the dip in the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent - the same rate Bill Clinton bragged about when running for re-election and the same rate Kerry (and the pro-Democrat media establishment) didn't say a word against at the time:

"Any step forward in the job market is good news for America's workers, but let's be clear: We still have a long way to go to get America working again," Kerry pouted.

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