Pat, you also have only watched the Bush ads and listened to the right wing nonsense on this $87 billion thing...Kerry has explained that many times and it makes perfect sense...here he is talking to Tim Russert about it. Also, he never said he threw his medals over any wall...that is again a ridiculous Republican fairy tale...

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MR. RUSSERT:  Senator, what your opponents have seized upon is not what you said in 1970 alone but a vote that you cast regarding the Iraq war, and that was after voting for the president, authorizing him to go to war, you voted against $87 billion...

SEN. KERRY:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...to fund the troops.  They're on the air now with a commercial, and here's part of it.  Let's watch:

(Videotape):

Unidentified Man:  Mr. Kerry.

Unidentified Woman:  No, body army and higher combat pay for our troops.

Unidentified Man:  Mr. Kerry.

Unidentified Woman:  No, better health care for Reservists.

Unidentified Man:  Mr. Kerry.

Unidentified Woman:  No.  And what does Kerry say now?

SEN. KERRY:  I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

Unidentified Woman:  Wrong on defense.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  And what you're referring to there at the end is that you wanted to roll back the Bush tax cut in order to pay for the $87 billion for the troops in Iraq.  And yet, just a few weeks before that vote, you were on "Face the Nation" and this is what you said.  "I think we need to roll back the top end of the Bush tax cut."  Question...

SEN. KERRY:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ..."If that amendment does not pass, will you then vote against the $87 billion?" 

Kerry:  "I don't think any United States senator is going abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running.  That's irresponsible.  ...I don't think anyone in Congress is going to not give our troops ammunition, not give our troops the ability to be able to defend themselves."

And yet you voted against that very amount of money.

SEN. KERRY:  There's nothing inconsistent in either of those statements and that advertisement displays really how sad and full of distortion, almost pathetic, the Republican approach to this is.  First of all, they had a series of no's:  Mr. Kerry on this; no.  Mr. Kerry on this; no.  It wasn't a series of votes. It was one vote and that is a distortion to the American people.

Secondly, that vote would never have prevented any of the body armor, ammunition or anything from getting to our troops.  That's a lie.  That's just an outright lie.  In fact, the president of the United States himself, Tim, threatened to veto that very bill if we put health care for Reservists in the bill.  The president threatened to veto that bill if we had loans instead of a grant.  Think of that.  The president threatened to veto that bill, and yet he is now accusing me for voting no.

Secondly, I voted to have that bill paid for by reducing the tax cut to the wealthiest Americans so we would be responsible fiscally and that was a way to do it.  Now, when they weren't willing to do that and they weren't willing to change their policy to bring other nations to the table to reduce the cost to Americans, you're darn right I voted against it because one of the lessons I learned in Vietnam is when the policy is wrong, fix it, and I voted to fix it.

MR. RUSSERT:  If there's another bill to provide money for the troops, you'll vote against it again?

SEN. KERRY:  It depends entirely on what the situation is, Tim.  I'm not going to say that.  What I'm saying is even the generals in Iraq said the money in that bill had no impact on their ability to continue to fight.  We had money all the way through January, and if my vote had been the deciding vote, you know as well as the president knows, as well as every Republican knows, that if I'd been the deciding vote, we would have sat down at a table, we have worked out exactly how we were going to do this intelligently and we would have had a better bill.  That's how you change policy.  You stand up for principle.  That was a vote for principle.

And what the Republicans are doing is one of their craven, misleading, distorting ads, spending millions of dollars trying to suggest I'm not strong on defense.  I'm not going to let these Republicans, not for one instant, ever accuse me, who's voted for 16 out of 19 biggest defense bills in our history, who has supported our troops, while they're cutting even the VA budget.  I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism and defense of country.