Levin Undercuts Kerry Claim August 12, 2004 Listen to Rush… Carl Levin denying what Kerry said about him. BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go back, August 1st, 2004, on This Week With David Brinkley, actually This Week Needed David Brinkley. Actually, George Stephanopoulos the host. John Kerry was on this program, Senator John Kerry. And Kerry is talking about his secret plan. Remember that? Kerry's got a secret plan for Iraq. Now, think of this timeline. He's got a secret plan for Iraq. That was August 1st. Here we are on August 12th, nearly two weeks later, and in the meantime between August 1st and August 12th Kerry's secret plan has become "I would have gone in there even without weapons of mass destruction" and the whole lib establishment is up in arms how do we handle this one. The swift boat vets starting to get some traction out there. Kerry got mad because Stephanopoulos said that this secret plan of yours sounds like Nixon, remember that? Remember that? And so Kerry says, (doing Kerry impression) "I dooon't care whaaat it sounds like, doesn't booother me. I've got a plaaan and I can't announce that plan until I haaave somebody to negotiate with, and I can't negotiate--" blah, blah, blah, blah. Later on Stephanopoulos said again, "Senator Kerry, this sounds like this Nixon secret plan." KERRY: I know from colleagues of mine, Senator Biden, Senator Levin, you go talk to them, they've been abroad recently, they've talked with many of these leaders. They know there's a different equation available to us. This administration has failed in its diplomacy. I will not. RUSH: Ah, yes, yes, I told you all earlier that Kerry is making a mistake when he answers Bush's questions and then issues challenges to Bush. He's in this mode where he needs to demonstrate his macho-ness because it doesn't stand on its own. As I've said about Senator Kerry, you know, greatness doesn't need to be explained. He is constantly having to explain his, and his greatness of his life he thinks is his four months in Vietnam. So he told the media on the show, "You go ask 'em, you ask Senator Biden, Senator Levin, go ask them about it, they'll tell you." Well, this was a mistake. Because CNN did this morning. Bill Hemmer interviewed Carl Levin, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, and Bill Hemmer said, "John Kerry was quoted earlier as suggesting that Joe Biden, your colleague out of Delaware, and yourself have been in consultation overseas with certain allies who say that they would look more favorably upon American foreign policy if Kerry were president and not Bush." Hemmer admitted he was paraphrasing some of this. "Is that the case? Did you and Senator Biden tell Senator Kerry that there are leaders out there that would prefer to see him in the White House?" LEVIN: I have not had those discussions with allies and would not have those kind of discussions, at least on the record. But talking informally to people, I think it's clear that the unpopularity, however, of President Bush in many countries makes it difficult for those countries, many of whom are democratic, to come to our support in Iraq because their populations are so much opposed to the president and his policies. But in terms of negotiations and discussions of any kind of formality, I would not and could not have those discussions. RUSH: And so Hemmer says, let me just follow up. Is the suggestion wrong, then, by Senator Kerry? LEVIN: That I have had discussions with leaders of countries? I have not had discussions with leaders of countries in any formal sense. RUSH: All right, there's a hedge there, "in any formal sense." Can we go back, I want to play cut 7 again, Alltmont, and then cut 5, and I want them back-to-back, no cue between me and them, just bammo, 7 and 5. Are you ready? Let's listen to Levin deny what Kerry said and then Kerry say it. LEVIN: That I have had discussions with leaders of countries? I have not had discussions with leaders of countries in any formal sense. KERRY: I know from colleagues of mine, Senator Biden, Senator Levin, you go talk to them, they've been abroad recently, they've talked with many of these leaders, they know there's a different equation available to us. This administration has failed in its diplomacy. I will not. RUSH: Okay, so Biden in the New York Times today says it's frustrating as hell that Kerry is losing traction on Iraq, and here's Carl Levin saying, "I haven't talked to any of these leaders, formally." What are we to make of that? The point is this: Whether he talked to them or not, he's not supporting Kerry, he's undercutting Kerry. He's trying to hedge this by saying, "Well, I haven't had any formal, because I can't." And what he means by that is it's against the law. Senators can't go out there and conduct official negotiations with foreign leaders. They don't negotiate treaties, they ratify them, for example, as an example, but they don't do this. And he's not going to get caught up in it. And Kerry is out there saying, oh, yeah, you go talk to them, Biden, Levin. Now, I was going to say there are a lot of Levins out there, and they could have been confused, Kerry could have been confused, but he's not confused because he said senator. And there's only one Senator Carl Levin, and he's from Michigan, and he denies on CNN, which people do watch, as opposed to Stephanopoulos. END TRANSCRIPT