John Kerry on the Week of Phony Iraq Debate

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry on the Week of Phony Iraq Debate
June 16th, 2006 @ 2:49 pm

It’s was Phony Iraq Debate Week in Congress this week. What a show the Republican’s put on — they had a quite a script to read from courtesy of the Pentagon. There were truly some Oscar nomination worthy performances, including Senator Mitch McConnell for “Best Borrowing of Resolution” and Senators Bill Frist and John Cornyn deserve nominations for “Best Supporting Phony Debaters” for recreating the role first played by Tom Delay, in the House last November. Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on Phony Iraq Debate Week:

“While Senate and House Republicans played political games to avoid meaningful debate on Iraq, Americans who know war is not a game prayed for the 2,500 brave troops lost in Iraq. While Don Rumsfeld arms surrogates with 74 pages of hollow talking points, Karl Rove spells out a political strategy on Iraq, and Dick Cheney dissembles with Sean Hannity, Americans are caught in the crossfire of vicious sectarian strife in Iraq.

“This has been the duck and cover Congress. For three years, Congress has sat on its hands or played political games while the war in Iraq has gone on unchecked and unending. It’s time for a Congress that shares responsibility for getting us into Iraq to take responsibility for helping to get us out and get resources refocused on the war on terror.

“Every month we are in Iraq, we lose more American lives and over $8 billion dollars. It’s time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq.

“Since October, I have been pushing for a clear deadline in Iraq. We cannot take the heat off the Iraqi leaders to do their job and stand up for their own country, and we can’t take the heat off Washington to do the job of applying pressure in Iraq. There will be a real Iraq debate next week, and it will address the real needs of our troops, not the political needs of the Republican Party.”

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3334

[karynnj]

1. I heard Cheney obnoxious lies - replayed on the Hannity radio show.

In his most condesending voice - he said of Kerry that he had supported the war in the beginning, had now turned 180 degrees. He mentioned that it was like the $87 billion that Kerry was for and then against. He also said Kerry wasn't misled that he had as much information as anyone. Cheney doesn't have an honest bone in his body. Hannity played the Kerry comment from the TBA where he said that "the war was wrong and he was wrong in his vote - but he chopped the clip at the second wrong. (This was a replay - I wonder if the interview was before Kerry's comment yesterday.)

[emulatorloo]

2. The Cheneys - Dick, Lynne, Mary - are the most vicious horrible liars

They are so disingenuous and dishonest.

[karynnj]

3. Their family certainly has no value

I still can't believe that in the VP debate in 2000 - Lieberman was unable to show Cheney for what he was before he became more powerful. He voted against Head start, and school lunch subsidies. He was against supporting Mandella and MLK day. He is a despicable man who married a despicable woman and the kids are what you would suspect.

[emulatorloo]

4. an old article - "The Long March Of Dick Cheney"

http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/blumenthal/2005/11/24/cheney/index.html

Good history of Cheney, chilling, worth a read if you haven't seen it already.

<snip>

The long march of Dick Cheney

For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him -- and he's not about to give it up.

By Sidney Blumenthal

November 24, 2005 | The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.

Richard Nixon is the model, but with modifications. In the Nixon administration, the president was the prime mover, present at the creation of his own options, attentive to detail, and conscious of their consequences. In the Cheney administration, the president is volatile but passive, firm but malleable, presiding but absent. Once his complicity has been arranged, a closely held "cabal" -- as Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calls it -- wields control.

<snip>

[MonteLukast]

5. Remember how he treated Edwards, too, in the VP debate?

It was like listening to a mean father trying to put his wayward son in his place. I half expected Cheney to cram a bar of soap in Edwards' mouth and take him over his knee. Talk about undignified. :puke: Sickening.

[kerrygoddess]

6. A couple of related posts...

Political Talking Points, From Pentagon Office, May Have Been Illegal
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3335

John Kerry: Bring U.S. Troops Home by End of ‘06
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3333

Hotline’s Blogometer and Right Wing Blogs Get it Wrong on Iraq Vote
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3331