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.
I know what you mean we have the same kind of people in our family..They know nothing just listen to what they hear from the MSM and democrats..Never look for any answers themselves and never check a candidate out before voting for them..Be it democrat or republican I do a search to find out what I want to know on that person..The war in Iraq has little to do with why the democrats hate Bush..More to do with he beat their butts in the first and last election..and thank God we have a majority to vote for good people instead of traitors and commies.
Cornyn also cited President Clinton.
Coincidence?
Reid is not from Utah. He's from Nevada.
It will not break them, but they will miss all the quarters!!!!!!
BS. Cornyn has sounded like this since the day he got to the Senate. He has not changed one bit since he was in Texas.
Me too. They have an unbroken record (as far as I know) of supporting only true conservative candidates.
I agree 100% BUMP!
No, they just didn't go "poof". Many were removed or destroyed by the weapons inspectors, some were destroyed by our bombing runs. Nobody knew how many WMDs Saddam had left or if he had any at all that's why the pressure to allow inspectors back into Iraq.
What 53 instances of banned weapons? The ones they thought they found before discovering they weren't weapons at all? They weapons that were under lock and seal, and guard until our troops moved through noting that they were still there and then left them unguarded to be looted by insurgents?
The fact is that weapons inspectors were allowed back into Iraq and they were doing their job; we did not need to take Saddam's word for anything.
I wish my two crappy Florida senators would find FReepers. Hopefully Nelson-rat will be defeated by Katherine Harris next year, and Mel Martinez-R appears to be in hiding since he opened his piehole against Bush several months ago, regarding oil drilling in FL. And Martinez was Bush's hand-picked man! Martinez appears to be mute on most issues.
Unfortunately, few senators ever respond to emails or phone calls but I did get the pleasure of a nice reply once from Sen Imhofe-R regarding troop support and morale. Sen Cornyn sounds like a decent man. I hope he stays that way.
I've been hearing/reading this more lately but where is the evidence? How much more control over facts will we allow the media to have? The media is driving me crazy! Tonight on "hardboiled" lil chrissie was screaming and spitting about some WSJ poll that showed "78% of Americans believe Libby wasn't the only person behind the leak". It's already been said that he wasn't the leaker. They are manufacturing BS at a hideous rate and so WHEN OH WHEN will the GOP take control back?
It's sheer agony lately.
Do that here.
***I wish my two crappy Florida senators would find FReepers.***
http://www.vote-smart.org/
P.S. I emailed both of my Senators the link to FR. I think Sen. Cornyn got the message. Don't know about Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Thanks Arrowhead! I am sure Nelson will avoid it like the rat he is...Martinez needs a good headthumping so he remembers who voted him in last year.
Thanks for posting that link Arrowhead1952.
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