Posted on 06/17/2005 5:24:13 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Let’s talk about the stupidity of Senators. Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) is our Poster Child. First, there is no known lower limit on the stupidity of an individual Senator.
For gross public dumb, it’s hard to beat a one-term Iowa Senator who went to a local massage parlor to have his ashes hauled. He was dumb enough to pay with a credit card. And dumb to have a staffer who was living in sin with an Iowa reporter. As a result, the credit card slip was published in a paper, and the gentleman’s career ended at six years.
This illustrates two sides of the issue of Senate stupidity. The job of the Senator is to be alive and get reelected. Almost everything else that a Senator does can be done by staff. More than a few Senators have been relatively successful despite being notorious drunks. The Irish tend that way (no cards or letters, I’m part Irish with a right to say that).
In short, it’s the job of staff to be sober and on duty 24/7. They feed information, talking points, entire speeches, to the boss, so the Senator then sounds prepared on the subject with useful ideas to offer. The best of Senators lead their staffs. The worst of Senators are led by their staffs. Think ventriloquist’s dummy; you get the idea.
Now we turn to Dickie Durbin’s comments on the Senate floor. He read what he said was an e-mail from an unknown FBI agent about actions at Gitmo, and then said: “If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings.” Minor point: the FBI is not in Gitmo, so this is obvious hearsay.
Let’s put some facts on the table. Within minutes of Durbin’s comment, folks posted on the Internet comparisons of how bad these various regimes were. In the Nazi death camps about 9 million people were killed. In the Soviet gulags, about 2.7 million people died. And under Pol Pot, about 1.7 million were killed. From my research, those figures are low, but close enough for government work.
In Gitmo, by comparison, there are suggestions of five instances of possible “Koran abuse” by guards. No one has been killed. The one inmate treated worst was the apparent “20th hijacker,” slated to fly a plane full of passengers into the White House.
The blogosphere can get the Soviet, Nazi, and Khmer Rouge information in seconds. Therefore, alert staffers for Dickie Durbin could have gotten the same information before he went on the Senate floor and revealed himself as the south end of a northbound horse.
The fact that Durbin wasn’t warned off means one of two things, both bad. Was the Senator such a geopolitical moron not to see how wrong his comment would be, and said this off the cuff without consulting staff? That means this stupidity is his, alone. Or, did Durbin consult with his staff before this remark? Then, the stupidity here is ubiquitous in his staff.
What has happened since, about Dickie Durbin’s incompetent history lesson? He’s refused to apologize, but has begun to lie and cover up. Days later, he quoted himself in the Senate, “you might conclude that it was done by one of those repressive regimes....” Go back and review. When he shot his mouth off originally, he didn’t say, “might.” That’s a new and false addition.
Now, Dickie Durbin has blamed the “right wing media” for the “Nazi flap.” A UPI article, 17 June, 2005, concluded, “He said abusive treatment of prisoners was something most likely in ‘repressive regimes’ than the United States.” It’s hard to understand why Durbin thinks that calling the United States a “repressive regime” will help end the criticism he is already receiving from many people across the political spectrum.
Apparently, Durbin’s ignorance of history includes ignorance of Presidents in the 20th Century who were Democrats. A turning point in Harry Truman’s 1948 campaign came when a listener called out, “Give ‘em Hell, Harry.” Truman replied, “I don’t have to give ‘em Hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s Hell.”
Well, the same applies to Dickie Durbin today. We only have to tell the truth to cut him down to size. Welcome to Hell, Dickie. You’re so dumb you richly deserve it.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
WOW! Thanks JasonC. Thanks.
"Nothing too extreme can be said about liberals because it's all true." -Ann Coulter
White heat, Jason. You nailed it.
You're on a roll John. Thanks for another great piece.
Yes, it doesn't say much about a lot of our "fellow citizens"....it is what one man-one vote eventually leads to.
It embarasses me that we have to share the same country with that many greedy ignorants.
Coulter immediately came to mind as I read this article, but the style was more reserved and factual.
Durbin is a big fat target, and deservedly so. Together with Dean, the two of 'em are hanging the dims.
***
Durbin needs to GO!
Well, I think it's pretty good. I only wish that Dork Turban defused bombs for a living. As you say, he's stupid.
Excellent - a mere hair breadth's away from my two favorites, P.J. O'Rourke and Mark Steyn.
Jason, your post is outstanding!
Great job!
Thanks.
Not that he has even ASKED to be forgiven for slandering our troops, but it'll be a cold day in Hell before he is forgiven by anyone except whiny Harry Reid. There's a vast silence from his dem colleagues.
"He read what he said was an e-mail from an unknown FBI agent about actions at Gitmo..."
I probably missed it someplace, but where is the authentication of the e-mail from an actual FBI agent? How do we know this is the truth in the first place? Did one of Durbin's staffers come up with it? Is this another Danrather-type stunt?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
A very, very important question.
First, the question of senatorial stupidity. Stabenow, Cantwell, Boxer, Durbin, Dayton, and Voinovich are in a furious race to the bottom. IT'S NOT JUST DURBIN. IQs are dropping all over America.
Second, the quote. Durbin thought it would be good for him to say it. He may not have been (electorally) wrong.
This rhetoric is not fit for politics, it's fit for war. The Dean-Durbin wing of the party are whipping their supporters into a frenzy because they perceive it to be in their interest. They have a fantasy of bringing what the Irish quaintly call the "physical force tradition" into American politics.
I personally believe that civil war is so catastrophic that the first responsibility of any elected American politician is to make damned sure that nothing that he says or does makes it more likely.
Do these people not realize what they are doing? OK, the US interrogators and their bosses are Nazis. What do we do with Nazis? What do we do with their supporters?
That's what the Democrats want to do to us.
Don't they know, on a purely practical level, that we have all the guns?
Good article, CBB. Durbin did NOT apolgize. He blamed the stupid American people for not understanding his hideous rhetoric.
Absolutely fantastic post, JasonC. I would like answers to those questions.
Please send that to the papers, talk radio, to your senators, reps, and lastly, to Durb bin Laden himself.
I would like to know who Durbin believed he was performing for, and playing to.
I doubt it was anyone in the United States.
Who were his remarks meant to incite, anger, inflame?
It has been said that one reason some are there is that their home countries won't take them back.
>>I personally believe that civil war is so catastrophic that the first responsibility of any elected American politician is to make damned sure that nothing that he says or does makes it more likely.<<
Just the thought of taking up arms against our common fellow American neighbors is repulsive.
I think all members of both parties had better stand up, look at our flag and shake the BS out of their eyes and ears because if they keep insisting it is too difficult for them to remove the 11,000,000+ illegal aliens from our country, then we'll focus on the much, much easier task of removing 535 from Congress and 1 from the White House.
Dangerous times are in the wind. When whispers amonmgst the citizenry of group impeachments, trials, convictions for treason and failure to honor their Oath of Office, it is time to listen carefully. Very carefully! America is not yet totally deficient of honorable men and women who place defending their country before submission to our enemies in Washington and the United Nations.
Slandering the soldiers at GITMO by calling them Nazi's only stirs resentment and anger amongst all military men, ex and those currently serving. They are not the people that politicians want to anger!
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it."
- Mark Twain
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