Kerry to Imus: “They Were Hell Bent for Leather, to Take Out Saddam"

(Kpete: I do not know if anyone posted this, but I thought Kerry was great!!!)

Kerry Talks to Imus: “They Were Hell Bent for Leather, to Take Out Saddam Hussein”
December 9th, 2005
John Kerry was on Imus in the Morning today. Amid the humorous banter between Imus and John Kerry, about whether or not Kerry will run again (he’s still not talking), there were discussions over the recent right wing twist on Kerry’s “Face The Nation” interview; withdrawing troops from Iraq; the mis-leading information that was used to justify the war in Iraq and on Kerry’s call for Rumsfeld to resign.


IMUS: OK — that they lied. Why mislead us?

KERRY: Because they were hell bent for leather, determined to take out Saddam Hussein and go to war on a theory of Middle East transformation. And it was the theory of Mr. Wolfowitz and Doug Feith over at the Pentagon and others who had this view. And in retrospect, that’s what was driving things.

IMUS: Remember, for a long time, they tried to tie — I mean, for a long time, you take these polls, people thought that Iraqis were in those planes and flew them into the World Trade Center and in the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

KERRY: Yes, they did. And in fact — in fact, the president helped lend to that belief.

Last year during the election, we observed that about 70 percent of the American people or higher, 77 percent of the people supporting George Bush believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. Now, they didn’t just get there by accident.

And what’s really disturbing about this — and it ought to be to every single person in New York, especially, is that the people we were after who did what they did to New York, and to the Pentagon, and to, you know, the country, came out of Afghanistan, out of al Qaeda, out of Osama bin Laden.

We had Osama bin Laden trapped in the mountains of Tora Bora . But the president and Donald Rumsfeld decided not to use Americans, the best fighting in the world — we have SEALS on the ground there. I’ve talked to some of them.

They wanted to go up after Osama bin Laden. And the orders were never given to bring in the 82nd Airborne or the Marines, or others, surround that mountain, do anything necessary. We outsourced that job to Afghans, who went up in the hills and Osama bin Laden escaped.

There were other ways we could have gotten Osama bin Laden. I think the whole beginning of the war, you know, the three weeks of bombing, lost us the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we knew they used cell phones, we knew they traveled in convoys.

We have the best special forces in the world, and I think that was the time to have an entebbe-type raid, where you take the time to know with certainty where they are, and then you envelop, and then you go in, and then you can do your bombing and the other things necessary. But the object was to get Osama bin Laden, and frankly, through a series of decisions, they allowed Osama bin Laden to escape.

And I think that’s a much larger issue than a lot of people focus on.

The whole interview at:
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/

Why did you feel compelled to help by voting for IWR?

I mean, he has such a big vocabulary and all.

What the hell does that mean? I don't know anyone who speaks like that.

But that's a minor quibble. The phrase is correct although I have no idea what it means. It's kind of like "Hide the salami". :D

Top Web Results for "hellbent for leather"

hell-bent for leather

Moving recklessly fast, as in Out the door she went, hell-bent for leather. The use of hell-bent in the sense of "recklessly determined" dates from the first half of the 1800s. Leather alludes to a horse's saddle and to riding on horseback; this colloquial expression may be an American version of the earlier British army jargon hell for leather, first recorded in 1889.

This just proves Kerry has quite a vocabulary!
:)

Sounds like Kerry was right!

but he sure as hell can't say 'LIE'

Lame, uttered by anyone since the 1870's..especially lame from a cultured, intelligent easterner..

The US simply MUST start to shed this wild-west image we seem to cling to like a security blanket..

That era was not a good one.. lawless gunslingers running around shooting anyone and anything they saw fit.

it's * and his cronies that are the cowboys, riding hell-bent for leather. An obvious cowbow reference, pointing at the pseudo-cowboy in office. Brings to mind the cartoon images of little George in a too-big hat riding an out-of-control hobby horse.

The more your stir a turd, the worse it stinks"

Seeing that he was referring to the "bush bandit" bowlegged cowboy from Ct.!!!

Especially the song by Judas Priest "Hell Bent For Leather". Then again, Rob Halford is flaming gay.

Hmm. Gannon. Bush. Leather. :puke:

"Dreams.....crash one by one to the ground....."

he came out)

to the classic Judas Priest song

The British counterpart of this phrase is "hell for leather," meaning in a hell of a hurry. Evidently, the phrase was coined while the British army was in India, and most likely the leather refers to a horse's or team's leather gear, from saddle to bridle and reins, and the whipping given to these items when a rider or driver was pressed to attain full galloping speed. "Hell-bent" is an American term, meaning headed in a certain direction at all costs and with heedless speed, even if it means ending up in hell. Most likely, "hell-bent for leather" is a combination of these two phrases

that really bugged the shit out of him when it happened.

You know the guy supposedly behind the 9-11 murders...Instead of proper police action against the criminals we waged war on a helpless nation that had never done us harm.....

Americans if it wasn't for the fact that they were saving our military to invade some country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

The joke in the Pentagon after 9/11: If Saddam didn't do this, he sure should have because were gonna get him.

Why is bu$h still president?

Or are we just waiting to find Saddam's WMD's so we can put bu$h/Cheney on an atoll and nuke'em so that all future liars will know not to mess with America?

That's the post-emptive attack that Americans are waiting for. Then we'll go back to the stores and the war on xmas will end.

without mentioning PNAC.

It's right there, for anyone to read. It should be getting some attention.

Everyone talks *around* it....it's the PNAC agenda, dammit, and nobody wants to say it out loud (except for Helen Thomas.)

Thank you SO much for the heads-up....off to write to Michael Moore now, heh-heh!

"urgent chomping at the bit with intent" that people Kerry's age (and mine) still use.
I think there was no forethought in him using it, except that there was plenty of forethought about coming out swinging in this Imus interview, I could see it written all over him.

It hurts me to so simply recognize that now, with public opinion on his side, when it is almost cool to hate **Bush, Senator Kerry is finding his raised voice.
Though, politically covering his butt, he still carefully skirted around using the word "LIE". That will come when the polls are in the high 20's, or at some other time that is too late.

I will never forget my pain and frustration waiting for him to speak up after the election, and my hoping against hope that he was up to something big. Like counting all the votes :)

I feel that, if this poor little old lady, me, was able to see that there were no WMD, and no Al Quaida link why could our Senators not see it as well. I don't trust it not all being political then, and now, and I surely am way too disillusioned to trust Kerry going out on Imus "hell bent for leather" to augment his degree of objection to the regime's shenanigans in order to set the stage for a comeback.

As usual, after the train has left the station.

"It's PNAC stupid."

Now that people are starting to turn against Bush, he's trying to make a tough stance and prove how he was on the right side all the time. While he didn't fight to claim an election that was stolen from him.

Sorry, Senator. Go put on your fuzzy bunny slippers and leave the Presidential nomination to someone who will fight. (That is, if anyone in the Democratic Party still wants to fight.)