Posted on 11/21/2005 2:28:30 PM PST by conservative_2001
Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday accused critics of "corrupt and shameless" revisionism in suggesting the White House misled the nation in a rush to war, the latest salvo in an increasingly acrimonious debate over prewar intelligence.
Cheney also denounced proposals for a quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "a dangerous illusion" and shrugged off the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. "We never had the burden of proof," he said, adding that it had been up to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to prove to the world that he didn't have such weapons.
Following President Bush's lead, Cheney praised the character of Rep. John Murtha even as he voiced strong disagreement with the Pennsylvania Democrat's proposal last week to pull out all U.S. troops.
"He's a good man, a Marine, a patriot — and he's taking a clear stand in an entirely legitimate discussion," Cheney told the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Cheney, who represented Wyoming in the House of Representatives in the 1980s, called Murtha "my friend and former colleague."
A key Democrat on military issues with close ties to the Pentagon, Murtha set off a firestorm last week when he proposed all of the some 160,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq be pulled out over the next six months.
Congressional Republicans denounced him and White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with the president in Asia, branded him as an ultraliberal comparable to activist filmmaker Michael Moore.
Later, Bush and other administration officials toned down their criticism, fearful of a backlash in support of Murtha. Bush on Sunday called Murtha "a fine man" and longtime supporter of the military.
Murtha was "taking a clear stand in an entirely legitimate discussion," Cheney said.
However, Cheney said, "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."
"Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions," Cheney said, such as whether the United States would be "better off or worse off" with terror leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control of Iraq.
Murtha, from his hometown of Johnstown, Pa., defended his call for a pullout on Monday, saying he was only following shifting American sentiment as reflected in polls and phone calls and e-mails to his office.
"The public turned against this war before I said it," Murtha told reporters after a speech at a civic center. Murtha, 73, is a decorated Vietnam veteran, has served in Congress for three decades and is the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called Cheney's speech "yet another missed opportunity by the vice president to come clean with the American people and lay out a strategy for success in Iraq."
If Cheney was muted in his words on Murtha, he held no punches in criticizing the administration's political opponents, particularly Senate Democrats who voted in support of the October 2002 resolution authorizing Bush to use force against Saddam — and who are now among the most vocal war critics.
"What is not legitimate — and I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible — is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said.
As to suggestions that Bush, Cheney and others in the administration manipulated intelligence to make a stronger case for invading Iraq, "this is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety," Cheney said.
"The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight. But any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney added.
In response to Cheney's speech, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said, "They've misled America and they're still misleading Americans."
During a news conference Monday in Boston, Kerry rebutted claims that Congress had the same prewar intelligence as the administration. "They're now trying to rewrite the rationale for the administration going into Iraq," Kerry said. "Instead, they really ought to be trying to fix the problems that they've created with their incompetence over the last few years."
Insisting that the "burden of proof" was on Saddam to prove he did not have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Cheney said, "We operated on the best available intelligence, gathered over a period of years from within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police."
Cheney was one of the administration's most outspoken advocates for overthrowing Saddam in the runup to the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
not = now
Actually Ms Schmidt was being too easy on this creep.
http://www.livejournal.com/~mparent7777/103785.html
the classless Jean SchmidtClassless? Because she quoted a commander in the field?
...Murtha says this with all the conviction of a coward
Finally the GOP is fighting,and Bush reigns it in.This is a really dumb move.
KSA and Murtha---down and dirty corruption in the Murtha family
http://euphoria.jarkolicious.com/journal/2005/11/18/1313/
If a US congressman had stated similar defeatist nonesense in 1944, what would have been the reaction of virtually everyone? You guessed it, there would have been near unanimous call for his resignation and his name would have been dirt from then on.
You have a lot of gall to call Schmidt classless, and your fellow freepers too, for telling it like it truly is.
Murtha is a traitor to call for the US to surrender to the terrorists. Cheney was too nice.
Jean Schmidt was in no way "classless" nor was the Marine whose comment she relayed. Both were DEAD ON.
Murtha has shown himself to be clueless and you cannot sugar coat that.
Not only is it B.S. but it will be used against the GOP. For once the GOP stands and fights back only to sound the Retreat once again.
A point that must be made often.
No, it's not ok for Michael Moore to do the things he does. In case you forgot, Team Bush did an excellent job tying John Kerry and other Democrats to Michael Moore, Howard Dean, MoveOn.hitler, and the unpatriotic DailyKos. Their use of cheap personal attacks in lieu of substantive debate backfired. It hurt Kerry, not helped him.
We might want to learn that lesson instead of repeating their mistakes. By attacking a 37 year Marine's courage, instead of his reckless proposal, we are turning ourselves into the Republican Howard Deaniacs. It will help us just as much as it helped President John Kerry.
"Murtha, from his hometown of Johnstown, Pa., defended his call for a pullout on Monday, saying he was only following shifting American sentiment as reflected in polls and phone calls and e-mails to his office."
The bum doesn't have an e-mail link on his website unless you are from his zipcode. I'm sure the polls and phone calls were as reflective as his spurrious e-mails.
This is a friggin SLAM DUNK if I've ever seen one!!! This was a UN resolution, so the MSM/dems can just go and pound sand!
She was quoting State Representative Danny Bubp, who is currently "serving" in Columbus, Ohio in the State Legislature, not a commander in any field of battle.
It would be classless either way. If an actual Marine in the field called President Bush a murderer and deserter, and Hillary Clinton relayed that message from the Senate floor, we'd spend the next month nailing her for it. Elected officials are responsible for everything they say on the floor. Personal responsibility.
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