Posted on 02/10/2005 2:38:00 PM PST by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats demanded Thursday that President Bush order a halt to personal attacks on the party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid, and expressed regret they had failed to mount a stronger defense for his defeated predecessor. "This is a new Democratic party," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a news conference called to release a letter telling Bush to muzzle his "political operatives."
"...It says to the president, 'you will not intimidate us'," added Schumer, who likened the attacks on Reid to political knee-cappings.
The letter itself was written in milder terms. "We urge you to keep your word about being a uniter and publicly halt these counter-productive attacks so that we are able to work together in a bipartisan manner and debate issues on the merits," it says.
Bush and the White House have denied responsibility for the attacks.
But Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, ridiculed that assertion, as Reid did earlier in the week.
"This is the Abu Ghraib defense, that a few renegade soldiers are responsible for their own behavior and the commanders are not accountable," said Durbin, second in the leadership behind Reid. His remarks were a reference to claims by military officials that a few low-ranking enlisted personnel were responsible for the shocking conditions at a U.S.-run prison in Iraq.
The letter to Bush was signed by all the Senate's Democrats except Reid, as well as Sen. James Jeffords, an independent from Vermont.
Reid was named to succeed the defeated Tom Daschle as party leader in December and quickly was attacked as an obstructionist by both the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The RNC distributed a 13-page compilation of criticisms, dissecting Reid's voting record and accusing him of obstructing Bush's agenda over the years. One portion of the document notes that the Nevada lawmaker lives in a costly condominium when he is in Washington - a point that Democrats said has no bearing on policy disputes with the White House.
The attacks are reminiscent of the treatment Daschle received for many months while he was Senate Democratic leader. He lost a re-election campaign in South Dakota last fall, and although Durbin said he and others had defended Daschle from GOP criticism, "we should have done more."
Reid, who did not attend the news conference, said twice this week that Bush could not credibly claim he wasn't behind attacks that were circulated by a party apparatus under his control.
Ironically, Reid and his wife were dinner guests at the White House on Monday night. The senator said Bush had told him he was not behind the attacks.
In addition to sending the letter to Bush, Democrats sought to use the issue as a party-building tool for the 2006 elections.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Schumer, sought signatures for an online petition asking Bush to renounce the attacks.
bump
Tell ugly hateful harry to have some Camembert with his whine.
LOL, I have to remember that one.
Dear God,
They're acting like a bunch of whiny babies. These pansies need to get out of politics.
Well, as long as we're making demands, I demand that whining democRATs and Muslims sit down and STFU!
Thin skinned bastard Democrats. It is astonishing they kick up this gorilla dust after all of the ugliness they directed at President Bush. Called him liar, killer,idiot, and just about everything else under the sun.
Whiners!
I used to think people who claimed there is no bias at NPR were simply liberals who didn't see it, but it's so blatant now that the next of my lib friends who asserts that gets called a big ol' LIAR by the DW377!
I think he was tryin ta say he left his Audi in the city, er sumthin like dat...
Anaways... Yer rite! These dumbocraps have started mixing highgrade hypocrisy with treble audacity, compounded with hyperbole!!!
[censored] you, Chuckie!
we will not stop attacking until y'all stop bein' worthless bags of wormy turd!
Sheesh! What losers.
Hooray for the pubbies. KEEP IT UP AND DO MORE!! WE'RE DRAWING SOME BLOOD!
Uh, Harry Racist (D-NV) brought this on himself. He's the one attacking Clarence Thomas, not those mean repubs.
Not sure why you posted this to me, but, ok!
like someone told me here today......
he needs to GROW a pair.
geez, what a bunch of crybabies.
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