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Cheney Jabs Kerry: We Missed the 'Nuance'

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Hoping to help sway Montana's undecided voters in a close Senate election, Vice President Dick Cheney came to the Flathead Valley on Wednesday for the second time since August to stump for Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, considered by many to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents.

At a rally for Burns and other Republican candidates, Cheney warned that the loss of party stalwarts like Burns this year could lead to a Democratic-controlled Congress - and that, he said, would mean higher taxes and less security.

Burns, seeking his fourth term, is in a very tight race with Democratic challenger Jon Tester, president of the Montana state Senate. Cheney's visit Wednesday was to be followed by a visit from President Bush on Thursday. Bush was to join Burns at another rally in Billings.

Cheney noted that Burns is the only Senate candidate in Montana who supports the Patriot Act, which the vice president said has been instrumental in the war on terror. Tester has said he wants to repeal the act, and Libertarian Stan Jones has been a very vocal critic of it as well.

"We must reject any strategy of resignation or defeatism in the war on terror," Cheney said.

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Cheney also used his appearance to chastise Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry for recent comments he made.

Kerry stirred controversy when he told a group of California students this week that individuals who don't study hard and do their homework would likely "get stuck in Iraq." Aides said the senator had mistakenly dropped one word from his prepared remarks, which were originally written to say "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

Kerry apologized Wednesday to "any service member, family member or American" offended by his remarks.

"Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up," Cheney told the crowd. "I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it."

The jab was a reference to Kerry's comment from the last election that he had voted for $87 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before he voted against it.

© 2006 Associated Press.

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