Bad quotes aren’t hard to find

By Jesse D. Hamilton
Senior Staff Writer
November 15, 2006

In the wake of Veterans’ Day, it is perplexing how much bad press Vietnam War veteran John Kerry is still receiving for his now infamous “botched joke.” When Senator Kerry told college students, “if you don’t [study hard and do well in school] you get stuck in Iraq,” he admittedly blundered. Politicians, speaking in public on a regular basis, mess up from time to time, botch a line or two; just ask President Bush.

From publicly berating a blind man for wearing sunglasses, to giving a back massage to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one could fill a whole newspaper with botched comments and international faux pas committed by our commander in chief. President Bush publicly criticized Sen. Kerry for his allegedly offensive comments, an interesting dose of hypocrisy considering the offensive comments that have come from his own corner in the past, especially one from his Vice President.

Dick Cheney, who stays behind the curtains of the Bush farce, rarely misspeaks when addressing an audience. With an icy stare and vacuous words, Cheney’s speeches are executed precisely. That is, however, not to conclude that what he says is offensive to the keen observer.

Finishing his speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention, Cheney describes his frequent helicopter flights over Washington, D.C. while serving as Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush. “But just before you settle down on the landing pad, you look upon Arlington National Cemetery...its gentle slopes and crosses row on row. I never once made that trip without being reminded how enormously fortunate we all are to be Americans, and what a terrible price thousands have paid so that all of us and millions more around the world might live in freedom,” Cheney emotionally stated.

Cheney’s vivid description of the final resting place of thousands of brave uniformed personnel is stunningly beautiful, visually stimulating and poetic, to say the least. Well, except for the sobering fact that the headstones at Arlington are not crosses. Cheney, in his infinite ignorance, must have confused Arlington National Cemetery with the U.S. memorial at Flanders Field in Northern France, thousands of miles away.

Cheney should have been well aware of this considering he stole the line “crosses row on row” from Lieutenant Colonel John McCrea’s 1915 poem, “In Flanders Field,” which was dedicated to the young American patriots who lost their lives there in WWI. Cheney, who never donned a uniform or picked up a rifle for his country, not only plagiarized a veteran, but disgraced the final resting place of so many of our nation’s soldiers.

Cheney did not botch his lines: he executed his speech exactly how he intended. In doing so, however, he straight up lied, plagiarized and dishonored every man and woman who has served and given their life for our great nation. Kerry, who served valiantly in Vietnam, only misspoke. That’s the difference between Vice President Cheney’s comments and Senator Kerry’s.

hamiltonj2@lasalle.edu