Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. has asked Sen. John Kerry to apologize for comments he made that infer U.S. military personnel are uneducated.
Ford served as an honorary co-chairman of Sen. Kerry’s 2004 failed presidential bid. He is now involved in a tight Senate race with Republican Bob Corker that may decide which party will hold a majority after the November elections.
In a written statement released Wednesday morning, Ford said: "Whatever the intent, Senator Kerry was wrong to say what he said. He needs to apologize to our troops.”
Kerry touched off a storm of protest when he told a college audience on Monday that "if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
As NewsMax reported earlier, 99.9 percent of the enlisted forces have at least a high school education, and 73.3 percent have been to college.
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President George W. Bush, responding to Kerry's remarks, said they were "insulting and shameful." He has also called for an apology by Kerry, but Kerry in a Tuesday news conference said he will "apologize to no one" for his comments.