TARMAC LOITERER
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry belittled President Bush while the candidate's plane sat on the tarmac in Topeka, Kansas, on Monday. After making his speech commemorating the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Kerry and his entourage were boarding the Kerry charter, then due to fly west to Oregon. An advance staffer for the candidate informed Kerry that they had to hurry and take off so that the airspace around the airport could be secured for President Bush's arrival.
Kerry refused to move quickly, instead loitering and refusing to take his seat on the plane.
At one point, Kerry asked reporters, "You mean, you're not staying for what's his name?"
"He seemed to be enjoying putting out the President's flight," says a Kerry staffer. "It wasn't mean-spirited. He just kind of got on a roll humor-wise and went with it."
Kerry may have been in foul mood from his speech. It was noted by a number of supporters who were standing with Kerry in Topeka that one of his biggest applause lines had actually been John Edwards' big applause line when he was running for president. Kerry had told the civil rights audience, "Today, more than ever, we need to renew our commitment to one America."
Kerry blamed his speechwriters for the oversight, and, according to a Kerry staffer in Washington, asked that the line no longer be used in his speeches.
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