Biden to White House: 'Here’s What I Disagree With' (5/16)

[Muttocracy]

Let me know if this was already posted.

http://biden.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=2A5B0968-A0E9-4DBE-BDD4-C4657AD42DBD

in response to Gillespie at the White House (explained at that link)

“Here’s what I disagree with – this White House long ago perfected the art of the political misrepresentation and innuendo masquerading as policy and stringing together sentences that seem unobjectionable when read in isolation, but send a very different message when read together. What is stunning is that this is the only president I can think of – and I’ve served with seven of them – who would engage in this kind of activity while overseas in the Knesset, even as he revealed a totally incoherent policy.

“In the space of three paragraphs, the President cited the outrageous statements of Iran’s leader; said “some” believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals; and drew a parallel to “an American senator” in 1939 declaring that talking to Hitler might have prevented World War II and the Holocaust. Then, his staff told the press on background that the remarks were a reference to calls by Senator Obama and other Democrats to engage with Iran, only to later say on the record the President intended no such thing. Karl Rove would be proud.

“As to the incoherence, to say that those who would negotiate with these terrorists and radicals are peddling “the false comfort of appeasement” is one of the most extraordinary self-indictments by any administration in history. As recently as the day before the President made his remarks, his own Secretary of Defense called for engaging Iran. His Secretary of State has done so repeatedly. And the President himself struck a deal with Libya’s Qadafi and wrote polite letters to North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, who would make most people’s top ten lists of “terrorists and radicals.”

“The President was right to engage Libya and North Korea, just as his cabinet officials are right to want to engage Iran. That’s the best way to get them to change their conduct. The President was profoundly wrong to launch a political attack from abroad. That’s beneath the office of the Presidency. Ed Gillespie should stop playing the American people for fools.”

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Edit to add - also a release of comments from 5/15 to the press, detailed examples of Bush admin. talking to hostile governments

http://biden.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=C41CA2A4-DC82-4C6C-B0A2-ACC0E808BCB5

[msongs]

1. nice to have a real adult like biden in the democratic party is it not? nt

[napi21]

2. I only wish we had MORE Biden's! Ted Kennedy can do that too,

and the very frightening thing is that all the GREAT ONES are getting older. Teddy scared all of us today with his health scare, but any rational person has to recognize that he's 76, and the day is probably not too far off when we won't have Teddy anymore. Joe is in his 60's. Where the hell are the new generation people to take their place?

[Muttocracy]

5. you know, part of me hates the idea of "career politicians" but the reality is

the world has gotten so complex, and the U.S. govmt is so complex, that we need people with experience just to get stuff done. Biden, Kennedy, other long-term senators just know how to do stuff, have cultivated great staffs, etc. And most of all, they have historical perspective. For instance, Biden can actually say, hang on, the last 6 presidents haven't acted like that!

The more I watch c-span and senate hearing videos, the more respect I have for many of them. I think most people's approval of them would increase if they actually understood how the federal legislature works and saw pieces of it in action.

[napi21]

6. Maybe you're onto something there. Maybe it's experience that makes the statesman.

I keep looking for the next generation of Senators who will take their place, but maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Jim Webb and several other newbies could very well be those Statesmen of the future, they just need time on the job to be able to move their views into the action of making it happen.

[eleny]

3. Dems are coming out swinging lately

I see that Sen. Webb is making the morning rounds tomorrow. I'll put off grocery shopping till I catch his drift before I go.

[Muttocracy]

4. Biden will be on George Snuffy too I think.