Kean’s Iraq strategy, 2

Here are what some of the state’s bloggers are saying about Tom Kean and his unwillingness to engage the families from Military Families Speak Out:

Opinion Mill:

Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., who wants people to think he’d be bold enough to be his own man even within the Republican Party, lacks the spine to directly address relatives of soldiers who are now facing deadly danger in Iraq. Kean, who supports the war and echoes the GOP line about staying the course instead of doing a “cut-and-run,” did a little cutting and running of his own a few days ago when a member of the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out confronted him at a studio taping. Kean turned his back on her and later accused his opponent, incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez, of “using their personal grief for his own partisan agenda.”

Trouble is, by not offering anything approaching a coherent explanation for his continued support of a disastrous war built on lies — and by refusing even to look a woman in the eye who wants him to explain his position on the biggest issue in this race — Kean is also trying to gain political advantage by not alienating conservative voters.

Blanton and Ashton’s:

Kean’s attack says much more about him than it does about these frightened New Jersey citizens. They aren’t political animals, these members of Military Families Speak Out. Their political position is all about one issue and they have no hidden agenda: they don’t think this war was worth the sacrifices and they want their people home. It isn’t a nefarious scheme. But Kean, the son of former Governor Tom Kean Senior, is a politician to the core of his being. For Kean, it’s not about public service. Last spring, with the state in a budget crisis, instead of showing leadership and remaining on the Budget Committee to help hammer out a budget for the state, he quit the committee so that he could avoid being responsible for the budget, just in case anyone complained about it. His goal is winning elections, period.

And the conservative blog, Enlighten-New Jersey:

Fausta describes how desperate the Bob Menendez for Senate campaign has become and provides a link to a must see report by WCBS TV on the anatomy of a smear campaign against Tom Kean by Menendez. The report entitled Behind the Scenes of a Political Smear catches the Menendez team in action. Check it out.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Hastert promises accountability, maybe

Dennis Hastert today vowed accountability in the Foley scandal:

Mr. Hastert, speaking to journalists in Aurora, Ill., in a question-and-answer session that illustrated how the Foley scandal is pushing other issues onto the sidelines, said he believed his assistants had handled the Foley affair “as well as they should.”

“However, in 20-20 hindsight, probably you could do everything a little bit better,” the speaker continued. “But if there is a problem, if there was a cover-up, then we should find that out through the investigation process.”

He said he first learned of Mr. Foley’s interest in former pages, and his e-mail messages to them, “last Friday. That was the first information that I had about it.” By “last Friday,” Mr. Hastert apparently meant Sept. 29, the day Mr. Foley abruptly resigned his seat after the explosive revelations of his sexually suggestive e-mails.

Mr. Hastert noted that the episode is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the House Ethics Committee. Anyone queried will be under oath “and we’ll find out,” he said. “If they did cover something up, then they should not continue to have their jobs.”

Does this mean he has to fire himself?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.