Video & Multimedia

alp227

(32,020 posts) Mon Jun 3, 2013, 08:39 PM Jun 2013

BOTH of Sen. Lautenberg's "chickenhawk" speeches from 2004

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey), who died today of pneumonia, gave two powerful speeches in 2004 referring to the Bush administration officials who orchestrated the way to the Iraq War as chickenhawks.

The first one from February 24, 2004:

Excerpt:

My definition of a chicken hawk is someone who talks tough on national defense and military issues, casts aspersions on others who might disagree on the vote, but when they had a chance to serve, they were not there. Now they are attacking the Senator from Massachusetts for opposing bloated or poorly designed defense bills. Is it known how much courage it takes to vote against a bad Defense authorization or appropriations bill? We all know it takes a lot of political courage, because even if the bill contains wasteful and damaging provisions, the vote can be twisted by your opponents. But when faced with a bad defense bill, what do the chicken hawks do? They take the easy road. They fly the easy route. They always vote for it, no matter what it says. How much courage does it take to vote for a bad defense bill? None. Zero. It is the easy thing to do

Full transcript: http://votesmart.org/public-statement/30730/

Then on April 28, 2004, Lautenberg again took to the floor to condemn the hypocrisy of the Bush administration for having chickenhawks like Bush and Cheney lead the way to Iraq:

Thanks to Garden State DUer RedSpartan for providing this graphic of the poster that accompanied Lautenberg's April 28 speech:

Excerpts:

Nothing could be more poignant, as we view what has taken place in Iraq, than the bravado that led us into the battle and the boastful statements that were made, such as ``mission accomplished.'' What the mission accomplished was, was to get a picture that could be used in an election campaign. That was the mission that was accomplished.

This week is the anniversary of the photo on the bridge of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. Photo on the bridge--that is the memory that is going to be conveyed out there. This is the photo on the bridge. Here is the aircraft carrier looking very splendid in a display of power, but the timing was so far off and the statements were so empty: ``Mission accomplished.'' Ask the 600 families who have lost children; ask those 22 families of sons and daughters in the State of New Jersey whether they think the mission was accomplished May 1 a year ago. I don't think they would agree.

We now have discovered a return of the chicken hawk. We thought they flew the coop, but in the last week or two, they have returned aplenty. If anyone is curious about what a chicken hawk is, I have a definition right here on this placard. We see the chicken in a uniform with medals. The definition obtained from the Internet goes as follows: Chickenhawk, n.: A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else does the fighting, particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person's youth-- I am extending it--to serve their country, unless you had a good excuse, unless you had other priorities.

Chicken hawks shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of a chicken. We know who the chicken hawks are. They talk tough on national defense and military issues and cast aspersion on others. When it was their turn to serve, where were they? A-W-O-L, that's where they were.

Now the chicken hawks are cackling about Senator JOHN KERRY. The lead chicken hawk against Senator Kerry is the Vice President of the United States, Vice President Cheney. He was in Missouri this week claiming Senator Kerry is not up to the job of protecting this Nation. What nerve. Where was DICK CHENEY when that war was going on where 58,235 young men died and many more wounded and many with wounds that were never visible, but you could see it in their emotional structure and in their psychology? It was a war everyone thinks in retrospect was misguided. But JOHN KERRY volunteered for hazardous duty on a swift boat going up a river with people shooting at him all over the place. Cowardly? What an insult. I plead with veterans across this country. Look at what they are saying about your service. Exemplified: Max Cleland lost three limbs. What a sacrifice he made, and they beat him in the election, beat him in the polls because they characterized him as soft on defense. Now they want to take JOHN KERRY who served nobly and establish that he, too, is soft on defense. I don't know where they get it.

full transcript: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r108:S28AP4-0016:

Sources for the videos: C-SPANvideo.org
Feb. 24: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/appearance/595998428
Apr. 28: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/appearance/595991038
(The April 28 video on YouTube isn't the complete speech but the Feb. 24 one is.)

I used FlashRip to download the videos and VLC Media Player to record the specific segments I wanted (given that FlashRip rips the ENTIRE C-SPAN program not just the segment shown on the page).