Kerry slams Norquist pledge

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry on Sunday slammed Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge, charging that Republicans weren't showing the same political courage in defying Norquist as veterans who have sacrificed for the United States.

"The other day, I went to Arlington Cemetery to visit the grave site of a college classmate of ours. ... I went with a bunch of my college buddies. As I was driving in there, and I went by that new flat area that's full of the graves of kids from Afghanistan and Iraq — some of whose funerals I've gone to over there — I've watched it grow," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I asked myself as I was going through there — are we living up to the sacrifice — to the level of commitment that these guys made for us? Are we willing to put our political lives on the line for our country — do what we need to do because it's right?" Kerry said.

"And then I hear about this pledge — a pledge to a lobbyist that gets in the way of us living up to that sacrifice," Kerry went on. "The fact is, I took a pledge. My pledge is to the Constitution of the United States, to defend it."