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MEDIA ADVISORY:
GOP Rhetoric on Kerry's Voting Record Goes Unchallenged
March 8, 2004
After John Kerry emerged as the likely Democratic nominee for president, the Republican National Committee (RNC) began
criticizing his record on military spending. The campaign against Kerry's record escalated on February 22 when the RNC
released a list of weapons systems that Kerry allegedly "voted against."
Republican spokespeople used this list to make sweeping claims about Kerry in the media: "I think the more that the
president and the Republicans describe accurately-- they don't have to exaggerate at all; they just have to describe
accurately and calmly-- what it means...to have voted against every major weapon system," Newt Gingrich declared on
Fox's Hannity and Colmes (2/26/04), "I think if they stick to that and stick to the facts, Senator Kerry will react by
saying that he's being smeared by his own record."
Partisan TV pundits like Sean Hannity quickly echoed these charges: "He's voting against every major weapons system we
now use in our military," Hannity told his Fox News audience (3/1/04). Hannity's participation in the RNC's attack was
perhaps to be expected, but he was not the only media figure to simply pass on the Republican allegations without
examination. CNN anchor Judy Woodruff (2/25/04) framed the issue this way in an interview with Rep. Norm Dicks
(D.-Wash.): "The Republicans list something like 13 different weapons systems that they say the record shows Senator
Kerry voted against. The Patriot missile, the B-1 bomber, the Trident missile and on and on and on."
Embarrassingly, Dicks had to explain to Woodruff that most of the weapons "votes" weren't individual votes at all, but a
single vote on the Pentagon's 1991 appropriations bill. Woodruff responded with surprise to this information: "Are you
saying that all these weapons systems were part of one defense appropriations bill in 1991?"
But Woodruff wasn't alone. Appearing on CNN (2/3/04), Bush-Cheney campaign strategist Ralph Reed explained to anchor
Wolf Blitzer that Kerry's record was one of "voting to dismantle 27 weapons systems, including the MX missile, the
Pershing missile, the B-1, the B-2 stealth bomber, the F-16 fighter jet, the F-15 fighter jet, cutting another 18
programs, slashing intelligence spend by $2.85 billion, and voting to freeze defense spending for seven years." Blitzer
responded by pointing out to guest Ann Lewis of the Democratic National Committee, "I think it's fair to say, Ann, that
there's been some opposition research done."
For many reporters, the charges against Kerry's record were recorded as just part of the back-and-forth of a campaign:
Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron (2/27/04) explained: "With the GOP attacking John Kerry's votes to cut defense over the
years, the Democratic front-runner, once again, counter-attacked what he calls the president's 'mishandling' of the war
on terror."
Associated Press reporter Nedra Pickler (2/27/04) noted that "the Bush campaign has criticized Kerry in recent days for
voting against some increases in defense spending and military weapons programs during his 19-year congressional career.
Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot said Kerry's policies would weaken the country's ability to win the war on terror."
NBC anchor Tom Brokaw (3/2/04, MSNBC) also seemed to accept the charges at face value, noticing that "the vice president
just today was talking about his votes against the CIA budget, for example, intelligence budgets and also weapons
systems. Isn't he [Kerry] going to be very vulnerable come the fall when national security is such a big issue in this
country?
One of the few reporters to take a serious look at the RNC's list-- on which 10 of the 13 items refer to the single 1991
vote-- was Slate's Fred Kaplan (2/25/04). Kaplan noted that 16 senators, including five Republicans, voted against the
bill. Kaplan concluded that the claim against Kerry "reeks of rank dishonesty."
Kaplan also pointed out that at the time of the 1991 vote, deeper cuts in military spending were being advocated by some
prominent Republicans-- including then-President George H.W Bush and Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the
time. As Kaplan noted, Cheney appealed for more cuts from Congress: "You've squabbled and sometimes bickered and
horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight
budgets and new requirements."
Cheney went to name the M-1 tank and the F-14 and F-16 fighters-- all of which appear on the RNC's list-- as "great
systems" that "we have enough of."
Ironically, Cheney made the rounds on the cable channels on March 2, criticizing Kerry's record in terms parallel to the
RNC's release. During an interview with Fox News Channel's Brit Hume, Cheney said: "What we're concerned about, what I'm
concerned about, is his record in the United States Senate, where he clearly has over the years adopted a series of
positions that indicate a desire to cut the defense budget, to cut the intelligence budget, to eliminate many major
weapons programs."
Unfortunately, Hume failed to raise an important follow-up: Why was Cheney now criticizing Kerry for having essentially
the same position Cheney advocated back in 1991?
The Bush/Cheney campaign plans to spend $133 million over the next several months in an effort to "redefine" Kerry
(Sydney Morning Herald, 3/4/04). If this charge is an indication of the Republicans' approach, then the media would
perform a valuable service if they took a keen interest in evaluating the accuracy of such campaign rhetoric.
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