Kerry Campaign Fakes Schwartzkopf Endorsement
The stop-at-nothing Kerry campaign apparently is making phone calls in Florida, falsely claiming that Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf is supporting Kerry. Today, Schwartzkopf demanded that the DNC cease making false representations about his support:
The Democratic National Committee is making fraudulent phone calls claiming that I have endorsed Senator Kerry. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I demand that they stop immediately.Senator Kerry opposed the Reagan defense build-up that won the Cold War. Senator Kerry opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Senator Kerry proposed billions in intelligence cuts after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Senator Kerry voted against funds to equip our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition.
I am supporting President Bush for reelection, because he is the candidate who has demonstrated the conviction needed to defeat terrorism. In contrast to the President's steadfast determination to defeat our enemies, Senator Kerry has a record of weakness that gives me no confidence in his ability to fight and win the War on Terror. His attempt to make up for these deficiencies by falsifying my endorsement only confirms my impression that he is not the man we need to lead our nation.
CORRECTION: False alarm. Reader Greg Campbell explains what happened:
[There] is an actual robocall made by Tony McPeak in support of John Kerry [which is] the same message [as the tape complained about by the Republicans], except that the second one has the first few seconds cut off. Unfortunately, cutting off those few seconds ("Hi, I'm General Tony McPeak and as Chief of the air force during the first Gulf War, I worked closely with Colin...") causes it to begin with "...Powell and Norm Schwarzkopf", which sounds an awful lot like "Hello, I'm Norm Schwarzkopf". I assume somebody got the DNC robocall on an answering machine with the first few seconds cut off and overreacted.
