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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Former Norwood aide says he’ll try to topple John Barrow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press is reporting that John Stone, who served as a top aide to two of Georgia’s former Republican congressmen, is seeking the GOP nomination for a shot at defeating U.S. Rep. John Barrow, the Savannah Democrat.
Stone said Thursday he recently moved back to his hometown of Augusta from Virginia so he could run in the 12th District, which includes parts of Augusta and Savannah, the AP reported.
The 51-year-old Stone served on the Republican congressional staffs of U.S. Reps. Charlie Norwood, who died in February, and Max Burns, who lost his seat to Barrow in 2004 and ran unsuccessfully for a comeback last year. Burns has already passed on a re-match.
Stone was also a consultant to Jim Whitehead, who sought to replace Norwood in the 10th District seat. Whitehead lost in a run-off to Republican Paul Broun of Athens.
‘No way’ was the general a Clinton plant, CNN producer says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The man who put together Wednesday night’s CNN/YouTube presidential debate said “there’s no way” that a retired general who asked Republican candidates a gays-in-the-military question was a plant by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
“It’s hard to imagine that that was a plant. He had no idea — none — that his question was going to be used,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president for CNN and executive producer of the Florida debate.
See this earlier post for details.
Only after the debate was over did CNN learn that Keith Kerr, a retired general with the California National Guard, was a member of a gay-and-lesbian steering committee for the Clinton campaign.
Kerr said he was acting on his own initiative when he submitted the question, and had done no work for the Clinton campaign other than lend his name to a press release issued last June.
Early Thursday morning, over Bohrman’s name, CNN issued an apology for the situation. “We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the General’s question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate,” he was quoted as saying.
A few minutes ago, while he was waiting for his flight to take off, we got a few quick questions into the CNN producer.
“There’s no way that was a plant. There were 5,000 questions. There were many gay questions. This was a very good one.
“If you’re going to go into the topic of gays in the military, where there’s some interesting nuance among these candidates, it’s a pretty good way to do it — through a brigadier general with 43 years of experience,” Bohrman said.
They passed over a question from a gay IED demolitions expert, and “a couple of Arab linguists who were dismissed” in favor of Kerr.
So they vetted Kerr’s military credentials. CNN, in fact, had used Kerr in a gays-in-the-military story four years earlier.
“To make sure that he wasn’t an obvious campaign supporter, we took the next step of looking in the FEC records, to make sure he hadn’t contributed, which I think is the best way to make sure someone’s not in a campaign. People who really are give money,” Bohrman said.
But Bohrman also conceded that if you “google” Kerr’s name and Hillary Clinton, the press release naming him to the steering committee pops up.
Bohrman said this about CNN’s process of winnowing down to 40 the 5,000 questions it was handed by YouTube:
“We had a team of about 10 people who were looking and looking and looking. No one at YouTube had any idea of what we were going to use,” he said.
When the CNN team had narrowed the field to 150 questions, Bohrman was approached by YouTube, which wanted to invite some of the questioners to the debate.
“So I said, look here’s about a dozen people whose questions are interesting to me. I have absolutely no idea and will not tell you if their questions are going to be asked. So they invited some of them, not all of them, to come to the debate,” Bohrman said.
Kerr was among them, which Bohrman admitted gave the retired general “an inkling that his question was of interest.”
But until the question flashed on the screen, he didn’t know for sure, Bohrman said. Even the CNN staffer who put the microphone in front of the general didn’t know until 30 seconds beforehand, the producer said.
Whoops. The general who asked the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ question was a Hillary Clinton supporter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CNN’s Anderson Cooper is admitting that his cable network goofed last night when it included a video question about the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy from a retired National Guard general — who is a Hillary Clinton Supporter.
About 40 video clips from YouTube users drove Wednesday’s Republican debate in Florida, selected from among about 5,000 submitted. Bloggers were on the hunt this morning for other questioners with Democratic sympathies as well — supporters of John Edwards and Barack Obama.
In a clip now posted on YouTube, Cooper said former Reagan education secretary Bill Bennett, a CNN contributor, was the first to let him know that the retired general, Keith Kerr, was part of a gay-and-lesbian steering committee for Clinton.
“We don’t know if he’s still on it, we’re trying to find out that information. Certainly had we had that information, we would have acknowledged that in using his question — if we had used it at all,” Cooper said.
This morning, CNN followed with a more specific mea culpa from David Bohrman, the network’s senior vice president and executive producer of the debate.
“We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the general’s question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate,” Bohrman said.
“Prior to the debate, CNN had verified his military background and that he had not contributed any money to any presidential candidate. Following the debate, Kerr told CNN that he’s done no work for the Clinton campaign. He says he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans and was representing no one other than himself,” the statement from CNN continued.
In this June press release, Kerr is listed as part of the LGBT Americans for Hillary Steering Committee.
The Clinton campaign pointed us to video clip, also posted this morning on YouTube, in which CNN correspondent John Roberts asked Kerr whether the Clinton campaign was involved in formulating his question.
“Absolutely not. This was a private initiative on my own,” Kerr said.
Kerr was apparently known to CNN as a gay activist. The conservative web site NewsBusters noted that the network had featured him in an article in December 2003.
The problem for CNN wasn’t necessarily the question posed by Kerr, which was among thousands submitted via YouTube:
“My name’s Keith Kerr, from Santa Rosa, California. I’m a retired brigadier general with 43 years of service. And I’m a graduate of the Special Forces Officer Course, the Commanding General Staff Course and the Army War College. And I’m an openly gay man.
“I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.”
But after Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney responded, Cooper asked Kerr — who was among several questioners flown in by YouTube for the event — if he thought the Republicans had responded to his question.
“With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates,” Kerr said — and followed that comment with a short speech.
You can read a transcript of the exchange, provided by CNN, on the jump.
(ON VIDEO) BRIGADIER GENERAL KEITH KERR (RET.): My name’s Keith Kerr, from Santa Rosa, California. I’m a retired brigadier general with 43 years of service. And I’m a graduate of the Special Forces Officer Course, the Commanding General Staff Course and the Army War College. And I’m an openly gay man.
I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.
COOPER: I want to point out that Brigadier General Keith Kerr is here with us tonight. I’m glad you’re here.
(APPLAUSE)
Again, the question to Congressman Hunter.
HUNTER: General, thanks for your service, but I believe in what Colin Powell said when he said that having openly homosexual people serving in the ranks would be bad for unit cohesion.
The reason for that, even though people point to the Israelis and point to the Brits and point to other people as having homosexuals serve, is that most Americans, most kids who leave that breakfast table and go out and serve in the military and make that corporate decision with their family, most of them are conservatives.
They have conservative values, and they have Judeo-Christian values. To force those people to work in a small tight unit with somebody who is openly homosexual goes against what they believe to be their principles, and it is their principles, is I think a disservice to them. I agree with Colin Powell that it would be bad for unit cohesion.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: I want to direct this to Governor Huckabee.
Thirty seconds.
HUCKABEE: The Uniform Code of Military Justice is probably the best rule, and it has to do with conduct. People have a right to have whatever feelings, whatever attitudes they wish, but when their conduct could put at risk the morale, or put at risk even the cohesion that Duncan Hunter spoke of, I think that’s what is at issue. And that’s why our policy is what it is.
COOPER: Governor Romney, you said in 1994 that you looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve, and I quote, “openly and honestly in our nation’s military.” Do you stand by that?
ROMNEY: This isn’t that time. This is not that time. We’re in the middle of a war. The people who have…
COOPER: Do you look forward to that time, though, one day?
ROMNEY: I’m going to listen to the people who run the military to see what the circumstances are like. And my view is that, at this stage, this is not the time for us to make that kind of…
COOPER: Is that a change in your position…
ROMNEY: Yes, I didn’t think it would work. I didn’t think “don’t ask/don’t tell” would work. That was my — I didn’t think that would work. I thought that was a policy, when I heard about it, I laughed. I said that doesn’t make any sense to me.
ROMNEY: And you know what? It’s been there now for, what, 15 years? It seems to have worked.
COOPER: So, just so I’m clear, at this point, do you still look forward to a day when gays can serve openly in the military or no longer?
ROMNEY: I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say.
(AUDIENCE BOOING)
COOPER: All right. General Kerr is — as I said — is here.
Please stand up, General. Thank you very much for being with us.
Did you feel you got an answer to your question?
KERR: With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: What do you feel you did not…
KERR: American men and women in the military are professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.
For 42 years, I wore the army uniform on active duty, in the Reserve, and also for the state of California. I revealed I was a gay man after I retired.
Today, “don’t ask/don’t tell” is destructive to our military policy.
KERR: Every day, the Department of Defense discharges two people, not for misconduct, not for the unit cohesion…
COOPER: Wait, the mike is — you’ve lost me. Is the microphone not working? Please, just finish your — what is your question?
KERR: Not for the unit cohesion that Congressman Hunter is talking about, but simply because they happen to be gay.
COOPER: OK. Senator McCain…
KERR: And we’re talking about doctors, nurses, pilots, and the surgeon who sews somebody up when they’re taken from the battlefield.
COOPER: I appreciate your comments.
Senator McCain, I want to give you 30 seconds. You served in the military.
MCCAIN: General, I thank you for your service to our nation. I respect it. All the time, I talk to our military leaders, beginning with our joint chiefs of staff and the leaders in the field, such as General Petraeus and General Odierno and others who are designated leaders with the responsibility of the safety of the men and women under their command and their security and protect them as best they can.
Almost unanimously, they tell me that this present policy is working, that we have the best military in history, that we have the bravest, most professional, best prepared, and that this policy ought to be continued because it’s working.
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