Kerry apologizes to troops after ‘botched joke’

updated 8:40 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Thrust into the midst of the midterm election campaign, Sen. John Kerry apologized Wednesday to “any service member, family member or American who was offended” by remarks deemed by Republicans and Democrats alike to be insulting to U.S. forces in Iraq.

Six days before the election, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said he sincerely regretted his words were “misinterpreted to imply anything negative about those in uniform.”

In a brief statement, Kerry attacked President Bush for a “failed security policy.” Yet his apology, issued after prominent Democrats had urged him to cancel public appearances, was designed to quell a controversy that party leaders feared would stall their drive for big gains on Nov. 7.

Kerry beat a gradual retreat in his return to the national campaign spotlight. Earlier in the day, appearing on the radio program “Imus in the Morning,” the Massachusetts senator said he was “sorry about a botched joke” about President Bush. He heaped praise on the troops, adamantly accused Republicans of twisting his words and said it was the commander in chief and his aides who “owe America an apology for this disaster in Iraq.”

Democrats cringed, though, at the prospect of the Massachusetts senator becoming the face of the party for the second consecutive national campaign. “No one wants to have the 2004 election replayed,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

'A real dumb thing to say'
A congressional candidate in Iowa said swiftly he no longer wanted him to appear at a scheduled rally. Kerry abandoned plans to attend events in Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

“Whatever the intent, Senator Kerry was wrong to say what he said. He needs to apologize to our troops,” said Rep. Harold Ford Jr., locked in a close Senate race in Tennessee.

“It was a real dumb thing to say. He should say sorry,” added Claire McCaskill, the Democrat in an equally tight Senate campaign in Missouri.

The White House accepted Kerry’s statement as a legitimate apology.

“Senator Kerry’s apology to the troops for his insulting comments came late but it was the right thing to do,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

She said it was too soon to say whether the White House would now stop noting the controversy. “We’ll see,” Perino said. “Once he has apologized, I don’t know that there is anything more to say.”

Kerry’s prepared vs. actual statement AP What Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said about Iraq: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” What his spokesperson, Amy Brundage, said Kerry’s prepared text called for him to say: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”

Moments after Kerry issued his statement, House Majority Leader John Boehner said, “I think he has apologized. It sounds good enough.” He spoke on CNN.

With Bush showing the way, Republicans had worked energetically to turn Kerry into an all-purpose target in a campaign that has long loomed as a loser for the GOP — much as they ridiculed him two years ago on their way to electoral gains.

“Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words. ... We’ve got incredible people in our military, and they deserve full praise and full support of this government,” Bush said in an interview with conservative talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh.

“Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up,” Vice President Dick Cheney said in remarks prepared for a campaign appearance in Montana. “I guess we didn’t get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it.”

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