"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq," stated Kerry in a statement released earlier today, "and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy.

"I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did," the statement continues.

"I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq," rails Kerry, in the statement. "It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have."

"These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor," the statement continues. "Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions."

He concluded his statement, "No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq."