House Editorial: Swift boats and Belgium
Sen. Kerry, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t disrupt a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to say it
Posted on March 1, 2007

To paraphrase former Sen. Bob Dole’s comments about Theresa Heinz-Kerry (full name: Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz-Kerry), there is not a muzzle big enough to silence her husband, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Walking in late to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, the former presidential candidate decided to make a scene over the nomination of St. Louis businessman and super Republican donor Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium.

Unfortunately for Fox, who had been treated to what the Associated Press considered “glowing tributes” at the start of the hearing, was subjected to the wrath of Kerry over his 2004 donation of $50,000 to the “527” group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose unsubstantiated accusations against Kerry’s Vietnam war record cost him much-needed votes.

“Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?” Kerry asked, without providing an explanation as to why the nominee’s opinion on the politics of personal destruction would be relevant as he represents the United States in the “Land of Beer and Chocolate.”

Fox offered a dim response about the damage done by 527s across the political spectrum, claiming that his donation to the group was to counterbalance the other side, prompting Kerry to respond with the earth-moving question: “So is that your judgment that you would bring to the ambassadorship, that two wrongs make a right?”

Clearly, Kerry has fallen off the horse since his defeat two years ago. Combined with his over-reported “misspoken” joke from back in October regarding the intelligence of the president and the troops serving in Iraq was not enough, it is becoming increasingly clear that Kerry’s foot has taken up permanent residence in his mouth.

Nothing in his slap-fight with Fox was, in any way, appropriate or significant in a hearing to decide whether he was eligible for what, at some level, is a paid European vacation. And even if Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did need to be discussed, it would have served Kerry better to let one of his compatriots, like Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois who chaired the committee, to pursue the line of questioning. For Kerry, any business with the organization is inescapably personal.

Whatever happens with Fox’s nomination is of precious little concern to us. Kerry, on the other hand, has a few more years left in politics. For that reason, it would behoove the senator to mind his temper and hold his tongue, even when faced with the chance to attack a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. After all, two wrongs don’t make a right.