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You are here: Home / Rumsfeld Redux

Rumsfeld Redux

by John Cole|  May 7, 20043:56 pm| 21 Comments

This post is in: General Stupidity

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When every Democrat, in a coordinated movement, attempts to have Don Rumsfeld forced out of office in election year hijinks designed solely to get to at Bush, it is idiotic to point to concerns leveled by Republicans about Rumsfeld’s performance and state- “See, this isn’t partisan.”

In fact, it takes a level of shamelessness and audacity that surprises even me, and I have a PhD. in cynicism.

While the ever-widening scope of the abuse cases at Abu Gharib is deeply upsetting to me, trying to state that this is all Rumsfeld’s fault, or a direct result of our Gitmo policy, or anything in that vein, is disgusting. All you have to do is trace Kerry’s statements to see the motivation for this putsch against Rumsfeld- watch as they started out benign, then, when the Democrats thought they had something they could use against Bush and the Pelosi’s and the Rangel’s started in with their fiery rhetoric, Kerry’s statements started to become more heated and fiery.

Could you guys try to be less transparent?

*** Update ***

On the positive side of things, I guess I won’t be hearing about the successes of “Clinton’s Army” again any time soon.

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Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    Rick

    May 7, 2004 at 4:18 pm

    “Clinton’s Army”

    Good one!

    Cordially…

  2. 2.

    shark

    May 7, 2004 at 4:35 pm

    They tried the same thing with Ashcroft over the Patriot Act.

    It failed then and it will fail now.

  3. 3.

    Terry

    May 7, 2004 at 4:37 pm

    This ABC/Post poll hot off their websites suggests that the Dems may have trouble sticking this to Rumsfeld, among other prominent leaders:

    “Three-quarters of the public are closely following the story, a level of attention reserved for some of the most gripping news events. Two-thirds favor criminal charges against the soldiers involved; fewer

  4. 4.

    JKC

    May 7, 2004 at 5:53 pm

    I just watched John McCain rip Rumsfeld a new one. He must be another Democratic Party hack.

  5. 5.

    Dean

    May 7, 2004 at 5:56 pm

    Well, quite a few Dems seem to think he’ll be Kerry’s Veep candidate….

  6. 6.

    Kimmitt

    May 7, 2004 at 7:12 pm

    It’s been three years, more than enough time for the Bush Administration’s culture of impunity to take root.

  7. 7.

    Chris P

    May 7, 2004 at 10:58 pm

    I would be shocked, dismayed, and…frankly…heartbroken, if McCain accepted a VP position under Kerry. I’m not too worried though. As I recall, quite a few Dems thought Howard Dean would be the presumptive nominee instead of Kerry.

  8. 8.

    Oliver

    May 8, 2004 at 12:09 am

    Man, you must have had your full complement of crap pills today. Am I to take your statement to mean that this is part of the entire army? You couldn’t be that silly. This isn’t all Rumsfeld’s fault, but he’s still been ducking and jiving on when he knew, what he knew, and why he didn’t tell what he knew to the President and congress. Either he’s hiding something or he’s incompetent.

  9. 9.

    Gary Farber

    May 8, 2004 at 12:25 am

    “When every Democrat, in a coordinated movement….”

    Damn. I keep missing the memos. I don’t know how that happens.

  10. 10.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    May 8, 2004 at 12:55 am

    I don’t own a TV, but Lindsey Graham (R) and Heather Wilson (R) are also rumored to have questioned Rumsfeld aggressively. They haven’t gotten the memo: Save the Party at all costs! (Maybe they are so truly honorable, they ripped it up.)

  11. 11.

    CadillaqJaq

    May 8, 2004 at 11:17 am

    JKC, I watched the “reruns” late last night on C-span and gave up the ghost at about 1:30AM after Joe Lieberman made his statement… did McCain get a second go-round with Rumsfeld?

    The one I viewed was nasty but Rumsfeld fielded MCain’s questions as best anyone could. IMO, McCain always asks questions that he says are simple, but require a convoluted answer. When Rumsfeld tried to answer, McCain interrupted, scowling, looking horribly red in the face while doing it. (Posturing, awaiting a call from Don Imus to appear on his Monday show?)

    I suppose it’s all in the perception of the viewer but McCain didn’t impress me.

    Joe Lieberman did.

  12. 12.

    The Mighty Reason MAn

    May 8, 2004 at 11:52 am

    Right, because the ramping up of outrage couldn’t possibly be because every day for the past week has brought worse news.

    You know, when we found out that prisoners were stripped naked and humiliated, and then we found out that they had been beaten, and then we found out that some of them were murdered, and then we found out that females may have been raped, and then we find out that military intelligence and the CIA may be involved, and then we find out that civilian contracters may be involved, and then we found out that videotapes may exist of little boys being raped.

    Yeah, you know us partisan Democrats.

    Fuck you. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself Cole.

  13. 13.

    The Mighty Reason MAn

    May 8, 2004 at 12:16 pm

    CadillaqJaq-

    Yes, McCain was probably posturing for the cameras.

    Say, do you remember why his arms are shorter than they should be?

  14. 14.

    Dean

    May 8, 2004 at 12:32 pm

    Because of his treatment by the right side in a long-ago war, the side that John Kerry supported after serving honorably there?

    Just a guess….

  15. 15.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    May 8, 2004 at 4:27 pm

    Dean, do you REALLY not understand a difference between conceding defeat in the Vietnam War and believing the other side is the right side? Or are you just increasingly desperate, waiting for shoe after shoe to drop?

  16. 16.

    Gary Lewis

    May 9, 2004 at 6:56 am

    Hot Air and Ill Informed Banter.. Couldn’t have titled a right wing neocon page any better myself..

  17. 17.

    Big Al

    May 9, 2004 at 7:07 am

    got this from another Blog.. interesting..
    Gosh, that didn’t take long
    The next phase for the pro-war rightwingers, that being disseminate all real issues about the torture scandal by complaining about the partisanship of the matter, has officially begun. Let’s reflect on what shouldn’t be addressed as a fault of the Bush administration because gosh, that might be mean or some shit like that:
    But Rumsfeld warned the committee that the worst was yet to come. He said he had looked at the full array of unedited photographs of the situation at Abu Ghraib for the first time Thursday night and found them

  18. 18.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    May 9, 2004 at 1:06 pm

    Clinton didn’t turn over military interrogation to rogue agents. And he gave us an army for military operations. Bush needs an army of colonial occupation. That’s a harder task; it’s lucky we’ve found white South African mercenaries to help.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. North Georgia Dogma says:
    May 7, 2004 at 5:29 pm

    Talking points you probably won’t see much of in the future

    "Jobless economy" "Corporate censorship" (told ya, Ezra  :>) "Clinton’s military" But worst of all: "Winning their hearts and minds"…

  2. Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid says:
    May 8, 2004 at 12:09 am

    Barbarians In Our Midst

    I don’t know what the appropriate reaction is to this Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex…

  3. QandO says:
    May 8, 2004 at 2:28 pm

    Quick Hits

    *** Did Clinton ever apologize for Waco? When 12 Aberdeen drill instructors faced court martial for sexual misconduct, including one convicted of 18 counts of rape….did Clinton issue an apology? Should he have? I’m just asking. *** John Cole points…

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