Saturday, October 09, 2004

Then there's Lurch's other sister

If the bumptious Peggy Kerry wasn't enough, there is sister Diana who was telling the Aussies to vote appeasement in today's election:
As the head of Americans Overseas for Kerry, Diana Kerry is a campaign official. And she was speaking in that capacity when, in reference to the invasion of Iraq, she said, "Australia has kept faith with the U.S., and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels."

The Weekend Australian's Roy Eccleston, who broke the story, added: "Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms. Kerry said: 'The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta--I would have to say that.'" She also mentioned the October 2002 bombing of two Bali nightclubs, in which many of the victims were young Australians.

Alert readers, including Amanda Sokolski on this magazine's website, quickly picked up on errors in Ms. Kerry's timeline. The Bali bombing took place long before Australia got mixed up with those nasty Americans and their "wanton disregard for international law." And the September 9 attack on the Australian embassy was perpetrated by Jemaah Islamiyah, al Qaeda's Southeast Asia franchise, which has considered Australia a target since well before the Iraq war.
Before she got the campaign gig, Diana was apparently an itinerant drama teacher and translator in foreign lands. The good news is that, unlike Diana, she's no longer feeding at the public trough:
She says she is only free to crisscross the globe because she was laid off from her public school job thanks to U.S. President George W. Bush's budget cuts.
Even better news is that the Australians are rejecting her sage counsel. Drop by Tim Blair's place where the commenters are live blogging John Howard's looming victory at the polls.