March 28, 2004


Buyers Remorse, Part One

Senator Jay Rockefeller

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have voted against it,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Friday. “I have admitted that my vote was wrong.”

The key Senate vote authorizing a war against Iraq came Oct. 11, 2003. It passed 77 to 23. The opponents included Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., an outspoken opponent of President Bush’s war plans. (The House of Representatives voted to pass a similar resolution, 296 to 133.)

“The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.

“You had a president who we now know was determined to go to war. He was going to be a war president,” Rockefeller said during an interview with editors at The Charleston Gazette on Friday.

“We had this feeling we could be welcomed as liberators. Americans don’t know history, geography, ethnicity,” Rockefeller said. “The administration had no idea of what they were getting into in Iraq. We are not internationalists. We border on being isolationists. We don’t know anything about the Middle East.”
...
“They are true believers. It started with [Rep.] Newt Gingrich [R-Ga.] in 1994. Nothing gets in their way. Facts don’t get in their way.

“And three chairmen of major [Senate] committees were told by Dick Cheney not to investigate anything in the administration.”

Told not to investigate anything? Jah, Sieg Heil, Herr Reichsmarshall Crashcart.

If this does not start to make the case for taking back at least one chamber of Congress as well as the White House, I'm not sure what does. After all, both chamber is in the hands of the adults got the exact dimension of the Clenis™, but can't seem to quite get a handle on the cost of the Big-Pharma Medicare bill or the cost of the Mess in Mesopotamia.

posted by Jo Fish on 03.28.04 at 03:11 AM





Comments:

With 20-20 hindsight, Sen. Rockefeller sees the light. He had a lot of company in both houses of Congress. But have our Senators and Representatives really learned a lesson from all this? What we need is Congressmen who have 20-20 foresight. We have a few, like Senator Byrd and Senator Kennedy. W's Administration has been given a free ride since 9/11.

An item in the NYTimes yesterday or the day before pointed out that Halliburton's lobbying expenditures decreased significantly since the Supreme Court appointed W as President. As a university president said of his coeds some years ago, why pay for it when you can get it here for free. It's not what you know that counts but whom you know.

posted by: Shag from Brookline on 03.28.04 at 06:46 AM [permalink]



It has always been dangerous when both houses of Congress and the President are from the same party. When you throw in a partisan Supreme Court you end up with a de facto dictatorship.

If you take an honest look at the people complaining publicly after leaving this administration, they are conservatives.

The US has long had this stupid impulse to rally around the President at times of "national emergency" and to stop looking at actions critically. We elect politicians and few of them ever rise to become statesmen.

posted by: Bryan on 03.28.04 at 01:54 PM [permalink]



As much as I enjoy blogs the majority of its readers are ready made coverts. Before we all rejoice, watch C-Span call-ins. Way too many calls go something like,- Saddam was such a bad man. he was making all them awful weapons of mass destruction. what are these anti-american libuls think'n. we should all support preznut bush." Fifty years from now I'll be long dead and they'll still be calling in. It's like some canned echo that will live forever. Without a Democratic Senate, even if elected Kerry, will be swimming up a waterfall. BushCo has done some terrible stuff, well documented here and elsewhere, but the one thing he's done for me is destroy my faith in my fellow citizens. Over 50 percent still see him as a strong leader. Just when I think I'm too old to be shocked, I read stats like that.

posted by: Hagel on 03.28.04 at 10:16 PM [permalink]



Well, it is nice to know that more and more members of Congress are realizign they were fooled. But all the admissions of error are meaningless without some action to correct the error. Maybe a movement to repeal the authority they granted and to bring the troops home under appropriate circumstances? Maybe at least a censure for Bush and his regime for misleading Congress and the American people? Something with more teeth in it than a bunch of individual legislators saying "Whoops".

posted by: dean on 03.29.04 at 08:02 AM [permalink]



Censure him, so he can't even spout his stupiud mantra...Saddaam Bad, Kerry Tax Man, Tax cut good, outsource great, people who work below minimum wage and speak limited english are model programs...

My brain hurts.

He finally showed proper usage at the NATO meeting (nice of him to take credit for the countries Wes Clark helped bring into the fold). He did not say "FREE_ER" he said "More Free", it only took half a year of the same speech to get it right, or in correct manner.

posted by: Mr.Murder on 03.30.04 at 03:00 PM [permalink]






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All the original material © 2002-2003 Jo Fish
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