Posted on 11/10/2005 7:04:42 AM PST by conservativecorner
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) took to the Senate floor Monday to dispel allegations made by Senate Democrats and film maker Michael Moore that the White House "manufactured and manipulated evidence in order to sell the war in Iraq."
In the process, Cornyn exposed inconsistent and suddenly inconvenient statements by Democrats regarding the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the necessity of removing Saddam from power.
"Do the critics need to be reminded," Cornyn asked his colleagues, "that it was a few years ago when Democrats joined Republicans in a bipartisan acknowledgement that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the world?"
He cited the Web site of Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), architect of last week's political stunt to hold a closed session of the Senate to discuss alleged manipulation of intelligence.
"What is my position on Iraq?" Reid asks on his own Web site.
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"Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator," he answers, "who presents a serious threat to international peace and security. Under Saddam's rule, Iraq has engaged in far-reaching human rights abuses, been a state sponsor of terrorism, and has long sought to obtain and develop weapons of mass destruction."
Cornyn noted the statement was still up on Reid's Web site as of Monday, November 7.
Cornyn agrees with Reid's statement, but laments that Reid has changed his tune.
"Today," Cornyn pointed out, "we are told by the same Democratic leader that somehow this administration was responsible for manipulating intelligence to authorize the war in Iraq when, in fact, he took the same position at the time that force was used."
Cornyn also cited President Clinton.
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"The hard fact," Clinton warned in 1998, "is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of the region, the security of the world. The best way to end that threat once and for all is with the new Iraqi government, a government ready to live at peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people."
If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond," Clinton continued, "we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors; he will make war against his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them."
Cornyn defends those statements.
"No one," Cornyn said, "attempted to manipulate intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq – not President Clinton, not Members of the Senate, not his administration, all of whom, based upon the same intelligence, concluded that Saddam represented an imminent threat to the national security of the United States. Instead, we found that while some of our intelligence was wrong on Hussein, it was obvious, and is obvious today, that he was a threat to the civilized world."
"Giving Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt would have been a crazy and irresponsible thing to do. Of course, the 78 Senators who voted for the use of force against Saddam in October 2002 weren't buying that Saddam was some harmless individual then. So why now?"
Perhaps Cornyn answered his own question earlier in his speech, when he alleged, "The latest accusation ... is nothing more than an effort to use the war in Iraq for political gain."
Sen. Reid's office has yet to respond to Newsmax inquiries regarding this article.
"Senators do not get elected President. However, it is nice to see that he has a backbone."
True enough,it is rare. I like him though. He is very intelligent and an extremely well spoken advocate for our cause.
John Cornyn is great. He has backbone. He will be doing much good in the future.
The only thing I think Cornyn got wrong was the bit about the Clinton Adminisration 'Not fixing' intelligence. Able Danger and the whole Sandy Berger mess tells us they did! He was probably just being diplomatic for the time being. GO CORNYN!!
"Politicians are the lowest form of life on the earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politician." General George S. Patton
This will get zero play on the networks or anything else. It will only matter when the White House comes out and holds a press conference without Scott McDonalds Drive-Thru worker at the microphone.
The White House needs to send out everyone..Card,Rove,Condi,Rummy,Bush,Cheney,Frist...everyone with the ability to hold a press conference and go at it on each of the Dem's words from the past and then give them a gigantic cup of "shut the f-ck up".
Probably not. One, maybe 2. Other than that the 'pubs are pretty much cavers.
Every time the subject comes up, just read the Jay Rockefeller memo.
any phone numbers to the senators office?? We should all call him th thank him....
Somebody needs to establish a "Missing GOP Gonad Alert" ping list
FYI
Who said Saddam never had WMDs? The question was whether or not he had them in 2003, not in 1998. UN inspectors were sent back into Iraq to find out if he had WMDs currently. Saddam could only use weapons currently in his possession, not weapons he once had that no longer existed.
Cornyn is a very impressive guy. The more I see, the more I like.
Ditto that. I wish he were mine...I'm stuck with Boxer and DiFi....ARRRRRGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Here is a link to the info from the ProjectVoteSmart on FR's hompage.
http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=BTX59882
I have friends and family that would never vote for a republican and the only reason is they are not democrats. Or if you ask them why they hate Bush they say I don't like him and when asked they say he's got that sneer and I just don't like him. But here lately they have at least said because of the war in Iraqi. Even though the democrats voted for the war it doesn't make any difference to them. It just drives me crazy. I asked a friend of mine if Jesus was a republican would you vote for him. She said that I was just being silly. But in all honest I wonder if she would.
BTW, I'm sure the recent bombings in Jordan were totally unrelated to the chemical weapons components intercepted in the Jordanian desert a while back...
Jordan says major al Qaeda plot disrupted
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/26/jordan.terror/
Jordan WMD Plotter Confesses to Iraqi Involvement
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/27/164917.shtml
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