Biden vs Wallace, THK vs Heckler

Joe Biden did a nice smackdown of Chris Wallace and the media on a visit to the Fox televisions studio this morning.

WALLACE: Senator Biden, how do you reconcile those two statements as anything more than saying what would get you the most votes at two different times?

BIDEN: Well, that's easy. There's nothing at all contradictory at the time. The assumption was, when Saddam Hussein was knocked out, that we'd act rationally and we'd manage the situation in Iraq, that there wouldn't be chaos.

And the fact of the matter is, that what we have done, we have traded a dictator, who, in fact, no one wanted to stay there, happy they're gone, like to have him gone, thinks it's good we're gone, and it's resulted in chaos because of the incredible mismanagement, as Dick Lugar said, of this president.

That's a statement of fact. It's very, very good he's gone. Kerry's happy he's gone. Kerry would have done everything to get rid of him. But he would not have mismanaged and sent so many mixed signals that this administration has, so that the end result is today we have something close to chaos in that region.

WALLACE: But, Senator...

BIDEN: That's totally consistent.

WALLACE: First of all, the situation back last December when he was saying this was bad. That's why Howard Dean was doing...

BIDEN: No, nothing like this. It wasn't even remotely like this, Chris. It wasn't remotely like this.

WALLACE: Forgive me, but there were heavy casualties. That's why Howard Dean was doing so well.

BIDEN: Chris, there weren't. There are 700 causalities since he said that. Seven hundred casualties since he said that, Chris. Over probably somewhere in the order of 6,000 or 7,000 wounded since then, Chris. Five, six, seven, eight times the number of bombings, Chris.

Come on, as they say where I come from, get real. It wasn't remotely the situation it is now.

At the time, you had the international community saying they wanted the G-8 and the neighbors to get together. They weren't talking about anything massive. John Kerry back then, Joe Biden back then said, "We should have the G-8."

I met with Allawi right after — in Baghdad with him immediately after he got sworn in. He said to me he wanted a regional meeting. He asked if I could help. He said the G-8 should be involved. I came back and wrote a report to that effect. The administration and Rumsfeld said, "We don't want any meeting over there." And now all of a sudden they're deciding on a meeting?

At the time that John Kerry said that back in December, it was the expectation was we would have spent by now $12 billion to $14 billion rebuilding Iraq. This administration has spent less than $500 million of the appropriated money.
.....
Look, this guy's in a tough, tough, tough spot. John Kerry wasn't criticizing him. John Kerry was pointing out — why is it you guys — I mean, here the president of the United States of America stands up there and sends this signal to the entire world that our intelligence community isn't worth a damn, all it does is guess. And you guys say when he says, "Well, he really meant to say estimate," you say, "well, OK."

Kerry says something, you know what he means, and you make it sound like he's indicting Allawi. That's malarkey, pure malarkey. He wasn't indicting Allawi. He was saying, "Level with the American people, Mr. President, for god's sake.

And the last thing I want to make this point: I find the way the opposition is dealing with this is really, really dangerous. They're telling everybody that basically if Kerry becomes president of the United States, he's not going to stick with Iraq.

Nice work Joe. And Teresa Heinz Kerry confronted a heckler during an appearence in Colorado.

Teresa Heinz Kerry delivered for her supporters when she talked back to a heckler who implied her husband's a flip-flopper.

During a question and answer session, a young man demanded to know why Kerry voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq but voted against an $87 billion appropriation bill to support the war effort there.

"Is that the kind of thing he would do as president?," the man asked.

Heinz Kerry sharply asked the man whether he had read the legislation that was voted on.

When he said no, she told him that Kerry had supported $60 billion in military appropriations for Iraq, but would not vote for the full $87 billion because he considered it a "blank check." Kerry was one of 11 Democrats to vote against the bill.

"And we knew they'd already given Haliburton millions in no-bid contracts," she snapped, referring to the company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you want to say (Kerry) flip-flopped, just say so, don't try to hide," Heinz Kerry scolded.

The young man responsed with chanting "Four more years!" as he walked out of the auditorium. The partisan crowd's cheer of "Six more weeks!" quickly drowned him out.

Roberto Costales of Canon City liked the way she dealt with her heckler.

"Did you notice how she handled that one guy? I bet she doesn't back down from anybody," he laughed.

The mouthbreathing media will likely have their panties in a bunch over her "assertiveness", but you know what, screw them.