Posted on 07/15/2005 7:57:12 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Young liberals this week flocked to the nation's capital to hear, among other things, liberal television pundit and Democrat political strategist Paul Begala accuse Republicans of wanting to kill him and his children to preserve tax cuts for the rich.
Begala was featured at the first-ever Campus Progress National Student Conference, which was designed to provide campus liberals with the tools necessary to fight the conservative movement. The event also drew former President Bill Clinton, for whom Begala once worked as an advisor.
A panel discussion entitled "Winning the War of Ideas" centered on topics discussed in the book "What's the Matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank and detailed the challenges that Democrats face in persuading voters in the American heartland and elsewhere to embrace their agenda and support their candidates.
Begala's presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had "done a p***-poor job of defending" the U.S.
Republicans, he said, "want to kill us.
"I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit" on Sept. 11, 2001. "I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me," Begala said.
"They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."
The Clinton administration's national security efforts involved the right blend of "experience" and "strength," Begala said, an assertion with which the 9/11 Commission apparently disagreed.
In its report, the bipartisan commission stated that "each president considered or authorized covert actions, a process that consumed considerable time -- especially in the Clinton administration -- and achieved little success beyond the collection of intelligence."
Begala also included Republican domestic policies in his sweeping criticism. The GOP, he said, "ain't had a new idea since they opposed Social Security, and guess what, they still do. ... They are beginning to figure out that there is no Soviet Union, but they still want Star Wars to stop it," Begala said.
"Okay, they are utterly and completely brain-dead," echoing comments earlier this year by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who accused Republicans of being "brain dead."
Frank insisted that Republicans are not quite as tough on national security as many Americans think.
"Franklin Roosevelt got us in World War II. They dragged the Republicans kicking and screaming. They didn't want to get in that war. They didn't have any problem with Hitler. I won't go so far as to say they thought Hitler rocked. But there were people in America who did, and they didn't want us to get in that war. Democrats have always been just as tough as Republicans once they're in office," Frank said.
Frank did not mention one of the most vocal opponents of U.S. intervention in World War II: Democrat Joseph P. Kennedy, who was one of Roosevelt's top fundraisers, the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain and father of John F. Kennedy, who would later become America's 35th president.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the eldest of the ambassador's sons, wrote his father with his own observations of the global conflict. Hitler's "dislike of the Jews ... was well-founded," the younger Kennedy explained in his letter.
"In every revolution, you have to expect some bloodshed. Hitler is building a spirit in his men that could be envied in this country," wrote Kennedy, Jr., expressing an opinion his father shared.
"I was very pleased and gratified at your observations of the German situation, and I think your conclusions are very sound," the elder Kennedy replied to his son.
Frank defended his point, however, claiming that Republicans didn't see Hitler as a threat to America until Pearl Harbor.
He repeated the Democratic criticism of America's invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein "was a horrible (sic), a dictator, a butcher, a tyrant, a mass murderer -- as evil as they come," Frank said, but he added: "I don't think he was a threat to the U.S. at the time."
Former Clinton administration Chief of Staff John Podesta told the students that "you can fight hard for what you believe without breaking the law, without cheating and certainly without checking your morals at the door."
This guy is nuts. Typical lib.
WHO said that????
Well, I guess billyblytheclinton&hillary didn't check their morals at the door--since they obviously didn't HAVE any when they entered.
As or breaking the law and cheating...BBBWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
Why would anyone want to kill an irrelevant nonentity?
I guess you'd have to understand "Dimocrat logic."
We don't need to kill leftists. They are killing their own in droves in abortion mills every day.
This guy is nuts. Typical lib.
-----
They are just having a real hard time dealing with the REALITY that they are irrelevant and useless to America. This loon just proves it even more...
Delusions of grandeur.
He really thinks he's that important.
Why would Republicans want to kill something that is already dead?
Nice to see that behind the vast expanse of Begala's forehead lies a very, very, very small widdle brain.
}:-)4
Don't ya actually have to HAVE an idea before ya win?
Drunk, stupid, and self important is no way to go through life.
They eat their young.
The Democrats are pathetic. The only thing they have going for them is that universities will pay them to brainwash our kids.
Delusions of grandeur adequacy.
There, that's better. :=)
MIDI - I LOVE YOU MORE TODAY THAN YESTERDAY
Hey, Paul Begala, you Clymer toad
Hey, Paul Begala, you’re some pantload
You still defend Bill with all your RAT buddies
You have such an ugly grin
DNA’s dripping from your chin
Everyday’s a new day…the excuses flow
Your pal’s a rapist…you have got to know
But you still defend him just like all your RAT buddies
You have such an ugly grin
DNA’s dripping from your chin
Your forehead’s much bigger than yesterday
It will be bigger tomorrow
Your forehead’s much bigger than yesterday
And Giapetto should have warned you…it will grow tomorrow
You are even lower than a slug’s rear end
Bill is a criminal…please don’t pretend
But you still defend him just like all your RAT buddies
You have such an ugly grin
DNA’s dripping from your chin
Your forehead’s much bigger than yesterday
It will be bigger tomorrow
Your forehead’s much bigger than yesterday
And Giapetto should have warned you…it will grow tomorrow
Bump
Amazingly stupid. This guy really does not seem to know that:
Moron...
Keep these idiots talking! They do more damage to themselves everyday!
He says Iraq wasnt a threat? now. Where was he then.....
A few snippets I collected recently........
The Clinton Justice Department's allegation in a 1998 indictment (two months before the embassy bombings) against bin Laden, to wit: In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.
Top Clinton administration counterterrorism official Richard Clarke’s assertions, based on intelligence reports in 1999, that Saddam had offered bin Laden asylum after the embassy bombings, and Clarke’s memo to then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, advising him not to fly U-2 missions against bin Laden in Afghanistan because he might be tipped off by Pakistani Intelligence, and “[a]rmed with that knowledge, old wily Usama will likely boogie to Baghdad”? (See 9/11 Commission Final Report, p. 134 & n.135.)
The continued insistence of high-ranking Clinton administration officials to the 9/11 Commission that the 1998 retaliatory strikes (after the embassy bombings) against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory were justified because the factory was a chemical weapons hub tied to Iraq and bin Laden.
The continued insistence of high-ranking Clinton administration officials to the 9/11 Commission that the 1998 retaliatory strikes (after the embassy bombings) against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory were justified because the factory was a chemical weapons hub tied to Iraq and bin Laden.
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
-- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
-- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002
".....Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Chris Dodd,
John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Jay Rockefeller voted
for the October 11, 2002 congressional joint resolution
authorizing the president, on his discretion, to go to war.
Here, in part, is what the resolution said:
"Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing
responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens
and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September
11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq:
"Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international
terroist organizations, including organizations that threaten
the lives and safety of United States citizens;
"Whereas the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001,
underscored the gravity of the threat posed by the acquisition
of weapons of mass destruction by international terrorist
organizations ...
Can you imagine if Ann Coulter made a hateful and ludicrous statement like this? She'd be banned from TV.
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