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.
Yeah, especially when the donks tend to be strangers to the truth anyway.
Shoot Spitballs ?
Well, they could always use the same tactics Clinton used against Osama, et al, "Don't do that again, or I'll... I'll... I'll tell you not to do it again... again."
I'm in the same boat, being from MA. I get to vote against both Teddy the Swimmer and John Effin Kerry.
You cry baby Dems need to get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.
This is beyond believability the way this bunch of slobbering whiners are puking out their unhappiness.
Will someone like the biggest whiner of all, Dean, change their collective diaper they really are getting chapped?
This party of the Kennedy's is imploding rapidly with apparently no kind of relief until at least 2008!
Hey dude?
What the heck?
Get lost.
Sound bite time...lots of sound bite - shoot, there's his "I'm a son of a miner speech" right after the SOTU Bush gave that speaks for itself. Bush doesn't have to criticize Reid and his demo buddies - they're screwing themselves and they can't STOP!
And nowhere in what Chuckie says or in the reporting is there one scintilla of material that would explain what constitutes the "attack."
What can we expect from demonrats and their fellow travelers?
We're waiting.........
Only in the sense that it is worse than before.
This sounds like boxers "defense" when she grilled Condi. Whine about being "attacked" after firing the first round.
The Who said it best...
Nobody will care. The Democratic Party is a joke. It's akin to watching someone with massive bleeding trying to use aspirin to cure the problem.
They are so bound by their ideology that even in the face of being crushed in the 2004 election, they seek other prescriptions for what ails them.
No folks, you didn't lose because Bush is a trickster who fooled people, it's not because you haven't put out your message, it's not because there is a massive right-wing conspiracy against you.
It's because you are a group of low-life, amoralistic, America hating commie losers.
..and put a muzzle on their pet Boxer!
Actually, all I have ever heard Bush say about Democrat leaders, such as EMK, is how much he "likes" them.
typical cowardly Democrat
No, they were not cowardly during the Cold War in showing their sympathy for the enemy.
Thank you and God Bless you.
Nah, give themjk kool aide.
I wonder if the DNC's new chairman, none other than the original "Angry White Male": Howard Dean, will now come to Sen. Reid's rescue?
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