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.
The adult version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey...
Pin the Title on the Jackass
Remind me to send South Dakota a nice fruit basket for Christmas.
Throw those f'n cry babies a towel!
LOL!! I had to look at the 'byline' on this one cause I thought it was Scrappleface again! Just goes to show you that truth is stanger than fiction. What a twit UpChuck Schumer is.
If the DemonRATs think that's bad, just wait until Frist grows enough of a spine to start nuking the filibuster (then again, we're talking about Frist here, who's taken all his "leadership" skills from Lott).
I don't think Frist is ever gonna grow enough of a spine---
I was watching him on the Senate floor the other day, and he was talking sooooooo slow and deliberating every single word he was saying, that I wonder how in the world he can do heart surgery---I have been around a lot of surgeons and they are quick and to the point and very self assured---they have to be in order to so the work they do--
Frist just doesn't project that kind of personality---he's more like a pediatrician or psychiatrist---really laid back, slow and soft spoken.
ERGO, I don't think ANYTHING will get done in the Senate that requires confrontation and direct, decisive authority.
Nicely done...
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is a moron...and I'm from Illinois.
Don't bother tryin ta change that danged diaper, neither! It'll take away the little prick's victimhood!!! (plus that's why he's known in these parts as "Filthy Harry!"
That's the memo the Democrats are complaining about, ace.
Read much?
Ohmigod, you're breaking my heart, make the bad men stop.
Sure...stop lying and we'll oblige.
Translation of the DemoRats chief complaint:
"We are deeply, deeply concerned that our opposition would resort to such a deeply, deeply, biased, bigoted, divisive and inflammatory tactic as presenting the facts about our positions.
As the ruling minority power, we expect you to listen to us and understand what we feel about an issue - not what we actually do about it. Above all, it is deeply, deeply, unfair, and discriminatory for you to recall our words and our votes and quote them to us later.
This represents a deeply, deeply, disturbing trend, which, if not reversed, threatens the spirit of bipartisanship which is incumbent upon you to achieve by agreeing with all our proposals, regardless of how they misrepresent the American people.
I am Charles F. Schumer, and I approved this message - before I disapproved it."
"Don't expect many other people here to get it."
Hey dude, you're talking to a crowd much smarter than you apparently. Care to explain your lousy comment?
After all the rhetorical "stuff" that Kennedy et al. have dumped over Bush's head, they have the nerve to complain. If Kennedy, Durbins et al. won't apologize for what he has said, then Bush is under no obligation to apologize for what others have said.
No WMD's my butt!!!!!!!!!!
There are thousands of Whiney Mad Demonic rats!!!!
"This is a new Democratic party," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said
No it's not... looks and sounds like the same old same old to me... it's so much fun listening to these guys whine about being the minority party.
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