More Cussing Candidates

BOSTON -- A 12-year-old girl from California nearly upstaged some long-time Democratic leaders on the second night of the party's convention in Boston.

Ilana Wexler won a speaking role for launching a Web site called kidsforkerry.org. She described Kerry as a "hero to America" and a "great and positive role model."

But she clearly doesn't feel the same way about Vice President Dick Cheney.

Wexler told delegates that she'd heard about Cheney's heated exchange with Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor -- during which Cheney used what the 12-year-old calls "a really bad word." She said if she used that word herself, she'd get a "timeout" -- and she thinks that's what should happen to Cheney.

Senate aides said Cheney was upset with Leahy's criticism of alleged impropriety in Iraq military contracts awarded to Halliburton. Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton.

Leahy responded during a photo session in the Senate chamber by saying the vice president had once called him a bad Catholic.
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There is something wrong when the most memorable line from Tuesday nights convention speakers is a twelve year old who said that Cheney should take a time out for dropping the f-bomb. Of course she was probably not aware of the time-out material from Sen. Kerry's Rolling Stone's interview earlier this year. When asked about voting for the war in Iraq he said.

`I'm against everything?' Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f*** it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did".

And of course there was the controversy of Teresa's "shove it" comment after her speech about civility. Another sign that the convention hasn't generated anything substantive to talk about. I think the greater mistake besides the momentary lack of composure when faced with a question about the "un-American" comment that she made, was that no later apology when it was shown she had actually used the word. And then later her defenders excused her behavior with no mention that she was wrong in her defense of not saying it.

Now I wouldn't totally excuse Dick Chantey's comment, but if I was accused of basically being a war profiteer by someone who later wanted to shake my hand - I might revert to my previous sailor's vocabulary. This is a little different than dropping the f-bomb in an interview to appear hip or losing your temper after being accused of something you actually did.

Here is a post I did earlier on cussing candidates after both Gen. Clark and Sen. Kerry let out expletives. I tried to update it with a Cheney image but my limited artistic skills were not up to the task.