Santorum Critical Of Bush, War In Iraq

CBS 3 ^

[Sub-Driver]

Santorum Critical Of Bush, War In Iraq

(AP) PHILADELPHIA Sen. Rick Santorum took a rare swing at President Bush, saying the war in Iraq has been less than optimal and that some blame for that lies with the White House.

Santorum, a conservative Republican and usually a strong Bush ally, said the unpopularity of the war should be shared between the White House and the media.

“Certainly, mistakes were made,” Santorum said of the war’s conduct. “But that’s a criticism you can make of every conflict.”

The comments, made after a Veterans Day speech at the Union League in Philadelphia on Friday, came at the same time the Pennsylvania senator stressed he wasn’t trying to distance himself from the president, who spoke moments earlier about 80 miles away at the Tobyhanna Army Depot.

Bush’s poll numbers are the lowest of any time during his presidency, in part due to the climbing death toll in Iraq. He is also blamed by some for the loss of the Virginia governor’s race, in which he appeared with Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore the day before the election. Kilgore lost.

[Republican Wildcat]

This looks to be a perfectly reasonable comment that is being misrepresented by the AP for the sake of manufacturing friction, something that is a favorite pastime of theirs.

You see, you actually read the article. Some people around here can't be bothered by that - getting angry for no reason and bashing somebody is more important, regardless of the facts.

[Republican Wildcat]

Specter fought hard to get Santorum into the Senate. Santorum returned the favor. Criticizing him for this is assinine. It is even more assinine to think that a Senator would come out and oppose the appointment of the senior Senator from his own state to chair a powerful committee. Have you no sense at all?

[Republican Wildcat]

Thank you. The headline does not even come close to representing what was actually said. People need to get a grip.

Indeed - the only harsh words were for the media's representation of the war, which doesn't show up in the headline. No wonder the liberal press is having such an impact on the opinion of this country when even FReepers fall for their propaganda time and time again.

[daybreakcoming]

Please see my Post 116

[Antoninus]

Uh, the text of this article doesn't match the headline. This is a pure propaganda piece designed to hurt the President and Santorum.

To h#ll with the liberal media!




Read Rick's book. This man is a treasure in the Senate.

[Antoninus]

I am going to like seeing him go down.

Hey moron, did you even read the article? It's MSM propaganda distortion.

Glad I don't have to share a foxhole with you. You'd be listening to Axis Sally and surrendering after 2 minutes.

[pollyannaish]

I bet that is a statement you would hear out of the President himself.

I'm not sure how that qualifies as "bashing" or "taking a swing at " or even "critical of Bush."

[pollyannaish]

There are days, Dane, when I think that FR is populated by liberals pretending to be conservatives, and DU is populated by conservatives pretending to be liberals.

Here, the thing that makes me the most suspicious is a knee-jerk reaction based on someone else's (often the headline writer) spin on what has been said, or has happened, rather than a rational reading of the actual comments.

[pollyannaish]

I'm curious, have you ever run for a political office that involved an entire state? Do you know anyone who has? Do you attend party functions or local precinct meetings? Do you vote in all party primaries?

I'm asking in all seriousness.

[WOSG]

By the way, this is the media Modus Operandi to defeat Republicans:

- create enough negative spin over a person and event or issue
- force the Republicans to respond to their questions/claims

Either the Republican is shown to be a 'mindless robot' for defending something the media attacks, *or* their quote is used as grist for the usual...
"even Republicans are now questioning (item XYZ) ..."

The latest example is the media firestorm over the pre-war intelligence, an issue that have been digested and re-digested ad infinitum. The media latest trick is to take biased polls to concocte the 'Bush is unpopular' story, then feed that into a spin cycle to get Republicans to peel off their support.

The best defense to this is a good offense.
Somehow, the Democrats are defining the debate. We are talking about a pointless 3-year-old argument about the pre-war intelligence rather than the more important question "What do we do now in Iraq?"

We need to be shaping the questions and the debate.

[WOSG]

"Specter fought hard to get Santorum into the Senate. Santorum returned the favor. Criticizing him for this is assinine. It is even more assinine to think that a Senator would come out and oppose the appointment of the senior Senator from his own state to chair a powerful committee. Have you no sense at all?"

Er, no they don't. Good points you make.

[ontos-on]

Yeah, I got sense. Who do you think you are talking to? ..and where do you think you are? You should be house broken before they let you in here again.

Does Specter play by your so-called rules? No, he doessn't. If he did then he would have gotten the Alito hearings to start sooner and he would not be so obstructionist.....to Repulican goals. Your so- called "rules" only go for us. Give it a rest with this pose of being an understanding realist.

[Tribune7]

That is a twisted headline. A reporter apparently asked him a question. He apparently answered “Certainly, mistakes were made,” Santorum said of the war’s conduct. “But that’s a criticism you can make of every conflict.”.

He then went on to questioned how the public would have felt about World War II if the media had reported only the body count and not news of cities liberated by the Allies.

Which gives us an LSM headline: Santorum Critical Of Bush, War In Iraq.

Do you really think that fits what he said?

[Tribune7]

Senator Santorum is at the receiving end of a massive media propaganda campaign to remove him from the Senate.

BINGO

[Tribune7]

Don't bail yet. The headline is a lie.

[Tribune7]

Headline is a lie.

[Fruitbat]

I know this is going to be a wee bit unpopular around here, but I'm starting to wonder about Santorum. He certainly does not appear to be the hardcore conservative that we thought he would be.

[ontos-on]

I will repost something from patriciaruth for you all to think about before you are so willing to allow these apostates liked Specter to run the show and then to go off the reservation on so many things, eg. the detainee vote the other day, and who knows what he has planned to "allow" his Dem friends to get away with on "his" committee on Alito, and then you want to have Santorum be blessed for "returning the favor" to Specter:

Did anyone read the news that George Soros is funding the races of middle of the road Republicans through the Mainstreet Republicans, a PAC of small business Republicans?

Wake up, guys.

[Tribune7]

The headline is a lie.

[Fruitbat]

It seems as if Santorum has had his brain removed and replaced with oatmeal lately.

What do you mean lately? Ever since he's been in Congress I've been unimpressed.