During the presidential debates Senator John Kerry argued that he was more attuned to international concerns, that he would be able to build a true coalition of partners to help share the burden instead of assembling a coalition of the bribed, the coerced.

To help underscore how effective he would be he described how he had already been hard at work before we made the decision to invade Iraq, while President Bush did not listen to our allies, brashly making the decision to go alone.

This president hasn't listened.

I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable.

I came away convinced that, if we worked at it, if we were ready to work and letting Hans Blix do his job and thoroughly go through the inspections, that if push came to shove, they'd be there with us.

It was revealed in the Washington Times this morning that Senator Kerry did no such thing.

He lied.

But of the five ambassadors on the Security Council in 2002 who were reached directly for comment, four said they had never met Mr. Kerry. The four also said that no one who worked for their countries' U.N. missions had met with Mr. Kerry either.

The former ambassadors who said on the record they had never met Mr. Kerry included the representatives of Mexico, Colombia and Bulgaria. The ambassador of a fourth country gave a similar account on the condition that his country not be identified.

After conversations with ambassadors from five members of the Security Council in 2002 and calls to all the missions of the countries then on the panel, The Times was only able to confirm directly that Mr. Kerry had met with representatives of France, Singapore and Cameroon.

In addition to making his experiences in Vietnam a central plank to his campaign, hasn’t Senator Kerry made honesty a plank as well? He certainly goes out of his way to paint President Bush as a liar and himself as a champion of the Truth. He goes out of his way to underscore his own military service while his staff calls the President's service in the Texas Air National Guard an elitist escape from responsibility.

I have frequently said that I do not agree with all of President Bush's policies, that if the Democrats had put up a serious contender for my vote that I might be tempted.

Senator Kerry, standing next to you George W. Bush looks like a true hero.

Mr. Kerry closed the final debate by recounting what his mother told him from her hospital bed, "Remember: integrity, integrity, integrity."

Watching that debate from the comfort of our bed, I remember Wendy almost choking when he said that. "You would think", my wife said. "That she would wish him luck from her death-bed instead of telling him to maintain his integrity. Does she know something we don't?"

I don't think so.

Hat tip to powerline

Posted by Michael at October 25, 2004 07:43 AM