Posted on 11/16/2005 9:02:34 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
The President and Joe Liberman rebuke the Democrat leadership
By CHARLES REICHLEY Columnist
Potomac News Wednesday, November 16, 2005
When I wrote last week about Democrats living in the past, I did not know the President would raise the same issue in his Veterans Day speech. I'm glad he did. It is long past time to stop re-hashing the vote for war, and it's about time the President answered the false charge that he lied to get us into the war.
In his speech, Bush said: "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them."
Both sides of the aisle should agree with that. But the Democrat leaders keep repeating the false charges that the administration fudged the intelligence, and tricked them into voting for the war. They just don't get it.
As the President said, "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." That is precisely what the Democrat leadership is doing. But Democrat Sen. Joseph Lieberman seems to have had enough. Speaking this week in support of his vote for the war, he said "I have no regrets about having sponsored and supported that resolution," refuting the charge that Bush lied by adding "The international intelligence community believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller tried to defend his party on the Sunday talk show circuit, but failed. Confronted about the National Intelligence Estimate (that included dissenting information) he saw before the war vote, he claimed he didn't have time to read it. Asked "aren't you responsible for your vote?" he said, "No." Forced to admit he WAS responsible, he then claimed Bush had decided to go to war two days after 9/11. But Bob Woodward refuted that claim in his two books on the Bush administration. And Rockefeller couldn't explain why he claimed that "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons."
If Rockefeller, believing Bush was rushing to war, and reading dissenting intelligence, was certain about Saddam's nuclear weapons program, how can he now claim Bush made it up? It is a false and harmful argument, and shows the Democrats are misleading the nation on this issue.
On Monday, the Democrats introduced an amendment to the Defense Bill to force a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. This is a remarkably bad idea. Lieberman, the Democrat's vice presidential candidate in 2000, called it a mistake, saying it sent a message that "will discourage our troops because it seems to be heading for the door. It will encourage the terrorists, and it will confuse the Iraqi people and affect their judgments as they go forward."
When a prominent Democrat publicly says his party's approach encourages terrorists, confuses our allies and discourages our troops, something is very wrong. Dissent of the war is patriotic, but the Democrat's war politics are harmful to this country, to our troops, and to the fight against terrorism that we must win.
The Democrat leadership ignored Lieberman, as 40 Democrats voted for the measure, including many who previously voted to send our troops to war. They simply cannot be trusted to keep faith with the troops when the going gets tough. They are too interested in winning back control of the Senate to see the harm they do to the nation's interests.
Bush said, "Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough." Instead the Democrat leadership is pulling the rug out from under our efforts. They are actively trying to discourage the American people and undercut support for Iraq. They hope to turn disenchantment, and the failure that will accompany it, into Democrat victories in 2006.
Bush's and Lieberman's speeches draw a remarkable contrast. Bush said "the elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong and steadfast." Lieberman praised the progress of the Iraqi leaders, who "have done something remarkable" by performing "like real political leaders in a democracy."
Meanwhile, our Democrat leadership is trying to disavow their support of the war, claiming they were too ignorant to understand the intelligence, that they were suckered into support, and that they didn't know what they were doing. In response to this admission of ineptness and failure, they expect us to put them in charge. I don't think so.
Copyright © 2005
If you like what I read, please click on the link. And/or write the the PN and say you like stuff like this.
Whenever we read columns that speak the truth about what the Democrats are doing, we should write to the editors to praise the column -- this encourages the newspaper to keep those columnists, and to hire more columnists of the same political persuasion.
I don't really care about MY column, I just do it for fun, so this is more of a general request.
Admin Moderator, if I've done this wrong, please correct. I think it was supposed to be put in some blogger/something group, but I didn't see exactly how to make that happen.
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Good article! I wish Joe would come out of the closet and stop pretending to be a DemocRAT.
Thanks. My editor certainly treats me like a news person, requiring me to send my sources, and checking over my facts. And I try very hard to source everything, and to stick to facts and my opinions about those facts.
IN fact, the hardest thing sometimes is to provide all the facts that the paper has failed to report, just so I can comment on them.
Anyway, I'll learn how to get into the blogger section before the next time.
Thanks, enjoyed your article.
Lieberman is a strong hawk on foreign policy, and always has been. But he's still a liberal on many other issues. I like him where he's at. He's an ally when we need him.
Can you name the only Rat Senator that is an adult? Bet Joe gets the most votes.
Rockefeller actually tried to say that he wasn't responsible for his vote, eh?
Wow, that's.... gutsy.
Childish and transparent, but gutsy.
Thank you for posting your column. I think it is terrific and I agree with it..wholeheartedly!
And I wish Zell continued as a senator. As a military guy I always respected Sen Sam Nunn too and of course Newt. Mmmm Georgia, my type of guys, except for one former peanut farmer.
Before you choose post. Go to the Blogger/personal section. Then when you click on post to start the process, you should see at the top of the screen where you enter all the front end info...........Post to Bloggers/Personal. That should do it.
Getting late your eyeballs are weary, mine are. Thank the poster CharlesWayneCT.
"Thanks, enjoyed your article.".
You could include that the weakling Republican Senators that voted for the resolution that passed, caved to the Democrats. (Including both my lilly-livered Republican Senators.)
I have called both and said that it is a cowardly action. When the Democrats spew, it gets broadcast on AlJeriza and the morter attacks increase.
My Son is in Iraq on his second tour. He earlier spent another tour in Kwait.
I want my Son to come home when his tour is finnished, but not in a coffin.
I always kind of liked Sen. Lieberman even though I disagree with him on 70% of the stuff he supports overall.
If only he hadn't sold his soul to run with AlGore in 2000 I'd have a lot of respect for him still.
The Democrats in the Senate (except Lieberman) are beginning to look like the Village Idiots' Convention in the Woody Allen movie "Love and Death."
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