Sirota Hammers Evan Bayh - HuffingtonPost

[reprehensor]

The Wimpy Empty Suits Undermining Dems on National Security

I promised myself that on my vacation this week, I would try to block out politics, but in even briefly reading the newspapers from my vacation outpost, it becomes painfully clear why the Democratic Party is perceived so poorly throughout America: because for every courageous, stand-on-convictions Democrat out there, there are other wimpy empty suit Democrats running around undermining the party for their own personal gain - no matter how stupid, pathetic, hypocritical and weak they make themselves look in the process.

The case in point this week is Democratic Senator Evan Bayh (D). You remember Bayh - he's the stiff, corpse-impersonating guy from Indiana who likes to tell everyone what a great, strong, macho national security leader he is and what a supposedly "tough and smart" national security strategy he has. Every morning this week I have opened a new paper - USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times - and there is the smug, smiling Bayh making headlines running around the country with this "tough and smart" mantra, creating straw men in his own party that he says are "afraid" of national security, and essentially regurgitating Fox News talking points about Democrats supposedly being "weak" on security. Adding insult to injury, this sententious, chest-thumping, just-bomb-em-all-back-to-the-stone-ages lecture aimed at courageous war critics like Marine veteran Jack Murtha comes from the privileged son of a Senator who has never had to serve in a combat area and who unapologetically voted for the Iraq War - a war which Americans believe has severely weakened U.S. national security.

The pathetic nature of Bayh's behavior is two-pronged. First, from a political perspective, Bayh thinks he is making himself look "tough." In fact, he is making himself - and the party he claims to care about - look like a cowering, wimpy, whiney, gutless coward. He is behaving like a kid who was beaten up on the schoolyard, and now is so emotionally damaged by that treatment, he feels the need to run around as an adult telling everyone what a wimp he and his party is - when in fact its just not true...

...But beyond just the sheer wimp-reinforcing disloyalty of it all is just how much of an empty suit Bayh has now shown himself to be. In all his self-aggrandizing talk about him being "tough and smart" on national security, he basically offers up no concrete proposal for what a "tough and smart" national security strategy is beyond strict sanctions on Iran, and a litany of things most other Democrats have been saying for months. On almost every other concrete national security issue, its criticism of Bush, and vague blather about "benchmarks for success" and a "comprehensive strategy for Iraqi political progress" - nothing else (sounds really "tough and smart"). Then to follow up on Charlie Rose's show, he once again regurgitated Fox News talking points to about the NSA spying scandal, ignoring that its all about lawbreaking, and instead attacking his fellow Democrats and ramrodding it into a dishonest debate about whether to perform surveillance on Al Qaeda or not - even though no one is arguing we shouldn't do that.

Continued at link.

[izzybeans]

1. My senator to a T.

Sirota pretty much sums it all up for me.

[Warpy]

2. The sad part is the DLC would back this putz as a candidate

Let's hope the rest of the Democrats in the country see through him as easily as Sirota has.

[Pithy Cherub]

6. The DLC even has replacement putzes on backorder.

It's frightening...to the rational defenders of freedom, how little the constitution matters to these wet noodles. :crazy:

[hippiechick]

3. Spot on!

I've been saying exactly that about Bayh since the first time I saw him. :puke:

He's the Dems version of Bush - photogenic, empty headed, riding thru life on a famous political last name, probably not able to get a real job, and he'll say whatever his audience of the moment wants to hear.

[Mass]

4. This article is excellent - Stop saying weak on defense - Bayh is far

from being the worse offender. H.R. Clinton did exactly that earlier this week. Vilsack certainly did that.


This is harming us and it is a transparent ploy to promote your candidacy.

[ProSense]

11. Here's another one that makes no sense.

Carper addresses Iraq issue in SU talk

By James Fisher
Daily Times Staff Writer

SALISBURY -- America could withdraw between 40,000 and 60,000 troops from Iraq during 2006, sending Iraqis a signal that we do not want to permanently occupy the country and use its resources, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said Friday.

Snip...

"I heard from a lot of folks over there, including our own military people, that the Iraqis are ready to stand up," Carper said, giving the U.S. room to reduce its troop levels in the country. The message the Bush administration risks sending with its posture toward Iraq, Carper said, is "we're here for oil, and we're not going to leave until we get it."

While some number of troops could be withdrawn from Iraq this year, Carper said, Americans should prepare to keep some military presence in Iraq for many years, as it has done in South Korea and Central Asia.

Snip...

Asked about Friday's Congressional testimony by former FEMA head Michael Brown about the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Carper said, "I think we had the wrong people running FEMA. I think we know that."

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/NEWS01/602110310/1002

Isn't he contradicting himself on Iraq?

On FEMA: We?

[FrenchieCat]

5. shouldn't his ass be out there stumping for 2006 candidates

instead of for "himself"? :eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

7. Most Hoosier DUers would agree with Sirota about Bayh

which is why some of us prefer someone else as President, someone like Russ Feingold for example.

[radio4progressives]

10. anyother dem that could replace him? n/t

[IndianaGreen]

14. We can't even get a Dem to run against Lugar this year!

If Bayh is bad, Lugar is far worse, he has been nothing but a rubber stamp for everything Bush wanted.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. sirota is so spot on

[calimary]

9. I wrote him off when I saw him at a local meeting on CSPAN, meeting

his constituents. One elderly lady came up to him and asked about the stolen electionS - in 2000 AND 2004. His response was to dispute her suspicions about 2004 being stolen (never MIND all that voter fraud!!) and how he couldn't agree at all that the election then had been stolen. Just dismissed a full half of what she wanted to say - an issue that she clearly felt very strongly about. He did that, and I dismissed him. Sorry, this is a guy I can't support. He doesn't speak for me.

[Senator Obama]

12. Aren't we really Publicly weak on defense?

Objectively, if I were a Martian observing the Dems I'd perceive that. I haven't heard a coherent message. Our most conservative Dem goes out on a limb talking about a pullback and yet we have no party support for the man. I haven't heard Dem leadership promote anything that everyone is rallying behind. Bush is highly vulnerable on the war and yet we have no message. The Repugs have got to love us.

Where do I get something hard hitting that instills the idea that the DEMs are the only party able to restore foreign relations and achieve badly needed international participation in Iraq and the WOT in general.? Clearly we have to articulate a strategy to relieve the US taxpayer from going at the burden of rebuilding Iraq by its lonesome. Clearly we need to articulate a strategy that will make it more palatable for countries to contribute peace keepers and financial aid to the ME/Iraq. Meanwhile Katrina shows gaping holes in the Homeland security strategy. Bush's lack of attention and understanding of the ME are at issue with radical governments being elected in Palestine, Egypt and other parts of the ME. Iran is another issue that needs to be addressed. Russia and China are players here and this is about geopolitical control of the region. Russia has just one upped us by extending a recognition to Hammas. We cannot address the ME by unilateral withdrawal. We broke it, we need to fix it. We have a moral obligation to fix what we've broken. The EU is going to be more receptive to participation in the ME given the cartoon jihad currently being unleashed there. Bush policy has clearly squandered a lot of our international goodwill to the detriment of our national security. Are the DEMS the party to restore US international credibility and deliver on National Security? Where is the meat on the bones for a message like that?

Obama

[Donna Zen]

13. Weak on defense?

The MIC has two parties: one party favors their idiotic scams because it benefits their carefully crafted image. The other party favors their idiotic scams because they are kept on the short leash of "weak on defense." Thus, both parties are kept in line. Viola! Huge rewards for the MIC.

The Democrats are at least as well versed as their republican counterparts. Although for the majority, it is whatever the lobbyist say that counts. Nevertheless, both sides vote for and support (as Wes Clark says) the "make-want" budget.