Posted on 11/10/2005 7:04:42 AM PST by conservativecorner
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) took to the Senate floor Monday to dispel allegations made by Senate Democrats and film maker Michael Moore that the White House "manufactured and manipulated evidence in order to sell the war in Iraq."
In the process, Cornyn exposed inconsistent and suddenly inconvenient statements by Democrats regarding the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the necessity of removing Saddam from power.
"Do the critics need to be reminded," Cornyn asked his colleagues, "that it was a few years ago when Democrats joined Republicans in a bipartisan acknowledgement that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the world?"
He cited the Web site of Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), architect of last week's political stunt to hold a closed session of the Senate to discuss alleged manipulation of intelligence.
"What is my position on Iraq?" Reid asks on his own Web site.
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"Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator," he answers, "who presents a serious threat to international peace and security. Under Saddam's rule, Iraq has engaged in far-reaching human rights abuses, been a state sponsor of terrorism, and has long sought to obtain and develop weapons of mass destruction."
Cornyn noted the statement was still up on Reid's Web site as of Monday, November 7.
Cornyn agrees with Reid's statement, but laments that Reid has changed his tune.
"Today," Cornyn pointed out, "we are told by the same Democratic leader that somehow this administration was responsible for manipulating intelligence to authorize the war in Iraq when, in fact, he took the same position at the time that force was used."
Cornyn also cited President Clinton.
Democrats Plotting Alito Filibuster? Can Pheromones Fix Your Relationship? Men: Attract Women Now Knock His Head Right Off
"The hard fact," Clinton warned in 1998, "is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of the region, the security of the world. The best way to end that threat once and for all is with the new Iraqi government, a government ready to live at peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people."
If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond," Clinton continued, "we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors; he will make war against his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them."
Cornyn defends those statements.
"No one," Cornyn said, "attempted to manipulate intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq – not President Clinton, not Members of the Senate, not his administration, all of whom, based upon the same intelligence, concluded that Saddam represented an imminent threat to the national security of the United States. Instead, we found that while some of our intelligence was wrong on Hussein, it was obvious, and is obvious today, that he was a threat to the civilized world."
"Giving Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt would have been a crazy and irresponsible thing to do. Of course, the 78 Senators who voted for the use of force against Saddam in October 2002 weren't buying that Saddam was some harmless individual then. So why now?"
Perhaps Cornyn answered his own question earlier in his speech, when he alleged, "The latest accusation ... is nothing more than an effort to use the war in Iraq for political gain."
Sen. Reid's office has yet to respond to Newsmax inquiries regarding this article.
Republican testicles? Nahhh, couldn't be.
Unbelievable isn't it BUMP!
Well that makes one. Kudos to Senator Cornyn. Now will any other republicans join the fight?
dosn't matter. the dems will kepp doing the same thing because it puts money in their campaign coffers. This isn't about truth, it's about cash.
What democrat Senator THIS WEEK said that no one questions that Saddam had NUCLEAR WEAPONS and that yes, Saddam had them?
John Cornyn is one of the few that seem to have any testes left at this point. I think he would make a great candidate for Prez in 2008.
Nice.
Finally, we got someone with the guts to stand up and tell it like it is.
Bring it on!
I think some Republican leaders, or their office staff, have been reading some of the posts in FR and taking them to heart.
If so: welcome aboard.
" Democrats Plotting Alito Filibuster? Can Pheromones Fix Your Relationship? Men: Attract Women Now Knock His Head Right Off"
you should really delete the "ads" first.
it makes for a nice humor break when reading the article... but it had just mentioned clintion right before so i had to go back and reread it a couple times to verify that it wasn't part of the article.
Sounds like Senator Cornyn found FR.
Levin said it.
Ouch.
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