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Democrats try to pull a Kerry on Boehner
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ShareNovember 01, 2006 7:24 PM
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports from Capitol Hill: As the Kerry foot-in-mouth imbroglio, and Republican exploitation thereof, dies down, Democrats are trying to enact what, to their minds, would be a touch of poetic justice. It's not the Democrat Kerry who insulted the troops, they say, but the Republican House Majority Leader, John Boehner, who appeared today on on CNN's "Situation Room" program.
In the interview with Wolf Blitzer, Boehner defends Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Rumsfeld and appears to say Americans should not blame Rumsfeld for failures in Iraq because actually the generals on the ground in Iraq who are in charge and thus deserve some of the blame.
Here is a transcript:
Boehner -- I THINK RUMSFELD IS THE RIGHT GUY FOR THE JOB. AND I KNOW THE PRESIDENT SUPPORTS THEM AND I'M GLAD HE DID.
Blitzer -- LET ME READ WHAT A FEW FELLOW REPUBLICANS HAVE SAID IN THE LAST FEW DAYS. (reads quotes from embattled Connecticut Republican Rep. Chris Shays and others saying Rumsfeld should resign).
Boehner -- WOLF, I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT LET'S NOT BLAME WHAT'S HAPPENING IN IRAQ ON RUMSFELD.
Blitzer -- BUT HE'S IN CHARGE OF THE MILITARY.
Boehner -- BUT THE FACT IS THE GENERALS ON THE GROUND ARE IN CHARGE AND HE WORKS CLOSELY WITH THEM AND THE PRESIDENT. WE'VE SEEN THIS RUN UP IN VIOLENCE AS WE GET CLOVERS TO THE COLLECTION AND RAMADAN.
Invoking Republican attacks on Kerry over the past two days, and just a little over an hour after Boehner was in the Situation Room, this statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plopped into the email boxes of journalists:
“John Boehner ought to be ashamed. He’s blaming our troops for failures in Iraq. If he wants to cast blame, he can start by looking in the mirror because he and his Congressional Republican colleagues have rubberstamped the Bush Administration's failed policy for nearly four years. Our troops in Iraq have performed bravely. It’s political leaders like Congressman Boehner and Donald Rumsfeld, who have failed. I expect President Bush and Congressional Republicans, who demanded John Kerry apologize, hold their own party’s majority leader to a much higher standard. There’s no spinning his disparaging comments. He made them. He needs to apologize.”
It is unclear if the Boehner quote will become as a big a deal as the Kerry quote did. Firt off, it presupposes that Generals on the ground are interchangeable with the troops -- a supposition both Generals and troops might take issue with. But it also lacks the 2004 Presidential campaign redux appeal of the Bush / Kerry showdown.
Reid, meanwhile, disagrees with Boehner not only about Rumsfeld and Kerry, but also about the very next assertion Boehner makes to Blitzer.
By that point, Kerry had just issued a paper statement that in no uncertain terms apologized to troops if they mistook his statement as disparaging to them.
"I think he has apologized, It sounds good enough. But when you led into this, Wolf, you said the Republicans were attacking John Kerry for his remarks. Nobody attacked John Kerry," Boehner told Blitzer. "We asked him to apologize to the troops we believe he offended and I believe he has."
"So this story is over with as far as you're concerned?" Blitzer Asked.
"It is," Boehner said.
November 1, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (25)
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America is seeing the light shinning upon Gods great earth and the light shall reveal the darkness and darkness shall give way to the truth and the truth will set us free of these Bushmen and their minions. The Bushmen can no more stop it than they can block out the sun. Next Tuesday the Bushmen must begin to answer to Americans and the rest of the world for all the unnecessary death and destruction they have caused. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray Amen!
Posted by: T. HINES | Nov 2, 2006 10:25:06 PM
With no Drudge Report or conservative radio talkes leading the coporate media on this story, it doesn't have any legs. Halperin, and people like him, only seem to want to cover what Drudge tells them to cover.
Posted by: Dan Andrews | Nov 3, 2006 7:33:13 AM
Where on this earth do you people come from? Nothing will change, taxes will go up, politicians are politicians. Do you honestly think they care about you? A politicians job is to lie to you and make you believe their story. Wake Up!!!!
Posted by: sport | Nov 3, 2006 1:50:29 PM
Gotta go with Sport on this one.
If voting had any possibility of changing the status quo, the very people to be immediately and adversely affected by that change (the politicians) would have made it illegal a long time ago.
Of course, if our not voting could possibly change the status quo for the two party, pimps of promise, then that would by now have been made illegal, as well.
Kerry made a faux pas which injured no one and the flak goes on for days, 24/7 media saturation.
Bush's regime deliberately creates a policy founded on lies that causes the death of nearly 3000 American troops and (based on a 30% margin of error) 600,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians over 3 years and both the press and the public think Kerry's situation deserves more continued scrutiny and reproach.
When will we ever learn?
Posted by: zach | Nov 4, 2006 5:50:22 PM
Didn't the dems vote for the war in Iraq? Why are they somehow not responsible? I find their comments very hypocritical. What is their plan? I've asked several people to explain to me the democrats plan to win the war in Iraq. You know what...no one knows what their plan is. Do they think that once they are elected that all the terrorists and problems in the middle east will go away? That somehow the terrorists will have a change of heart and not want to kill us? I know that the terrorists hate America not just the GOP. When are we gonna wake up as a nation and see what is happening around the world. If we don't act now how much bigger will the enemy get? It seems to me that 5 yrs ago Americans understood this, but we have somehow lost our perspective. I don't care which party is running the country, but someone better start to think of solutions, and stop pointing fingers. Great leaders have great ideas. They arent finger pointers and blame givers. One day the dems will be elected and maybe then we can find out something about their plan to win the war. Funny, usually thats what elections are about...ideas...when did that change? So when you vote for change, what change are you voting for? Does anyone know? Is it for the better or for the worse?
Posted by: Jon | Nov 6, 2006 6:55:31 PM
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