Intentional Insults

I listened to a news clip (FoxNews) by John Kerry about his botched xyz is stupid joke. You remember, this is the guffaw that Kerry made when he was trying to insult George Bush but ended up insulting the US troops.

Mr. Kerry's comment was as follows:

"Let's be honest about this ... The whitehouse knew that I did not set out to or into insult anybody. [...] What those troops heard they heard because the White House attack machine took those comments and turned them into what they want."

Kerry is right about the horrible effects that attack machines can have on discourse. I suspect that never ending onslaught of attacks is a primary reason why Bush fails to engage the public at critical points like the aftermath of Katrina and the build up to the Iraq invasion.

The key to Kerry's comment, though, is that bit I emphasized in bold. The words: "I did not set out to or into insult anybody."

In the speech with the guffaw, Kerry had a long string of insults aimed directly at George Bush. Kerry was trying his hardest to insult someone. For that matter, he was even trying to hurt somebody at a subliminal level by heaving a series of insults directly at George Bush.

Kerry complains about Republican Attack Dogs. However, Kerry was playing the role of an attack dog when he made his Freudian slip. The fact that Kerry was playing the attack dog when he made his freudian slip is the exact reason why he is fair game.