PRESIDENT BUSH: "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."
Posted on 09/19/2006 10:37:40 AM PDT by freespirited
In the early 1960's, Johnny Carson hosted an afternoon TV show called "Who Do You Trust?'' The title was grammatically incorrect, but I will use it anyway to pose a question regarding the current fuss over the Geneva Conventions: When it comes to George Bush and John McCain, who -- or whom -- do you trust?
This is about as dumb a question as the Groucho Marx standard from "You Bet Your Life," yet another old TV show: Who's buried in Grant's Tomb? The contest, after all, is between a president who has repeatedly broken faith with the American people over the war in Iraq -- everything from weapons of mass destruction to disingenuous assurances that torture has not been used in the interrogation of suspects -- and a former Vietnam War prisoner who was tortured by his jailers because, among other things, he refused an offer of early release. There is nothing in George Bush's life that even approaches what McCain has done.
Of course, McCain does not stand alone against Bush. He was joined on the Armed Services Committee by three other Republicans: Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and, importantly, the chairman, John W. Warner. They were in turn joined by the Democrats who, for once, have wisely stepped out of the way to allow the Republicans to duke it out among themselves. But it is McCain who gets the lion's share of attention and it was McCain who elicited that letter from Colin Powell saying, among other things, that under Bush's proposals to amend the Geneva Conventions, the world would "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." The lion had finally roared.
In New Hampshire, the state's largest newspaper, the reactionary Manchester Union Leader, opened up on McCain for opposing the president. But McCain has carried New Hampshire before, over the protestations of the Union Leader, and could do so again. Still, the all-but-declared presidential candidate -- McCain now has a staff about as big as FEMA's -- has plenty of opposition within his own party. Between his temper and his iconoclastic positions -- campaign finance, for instance -- he has made loads of enemies.
For the moment, the spotlight is on McCain and Bush -- a delightful GOP squabble. But it is the Democrats who ought to be paying close attention. For while the Democrats are awash in potential presidential candidates, they have nobody who even remotely approaches McCain's stature. I say this not because I agree with McCain across the board -- not on abortion, for sure, and not on Iraq, and not with his bellicose statements regarding North Korea -- but because he embodies a quality for which the country yearns: integrity. He is a man of his word.
The conventional wisdom is that the Senate is the graveyard of presidential ambitions. In recent times, only John F. Kennedy has gone directly from there to the White House while countless others have gone grimly back to Capitol Hill -- John Kerry being just the latest example. McCain, though, has so far figured out how to leverage his Senate seat without falling prey to the sort of institutional problems that have bedeviled others -- a clotted verbosity, for instance. McCain somehow still speaks English.
The prime issue facing this country is not the war in Iraq. It is the people's loss of faith in their own government. In that, Iraq has played an important part, but so, too, has campaign spending and fiscal idiocy of the sort represented by Sen. Ted Stevens' notorious bridge to nowhere. Those of us who have been with McCain when he speaks of restoring faith in government know the effect on his audience. The man and his message are one and the same.
To restore trust, many Democrats and independents might be willing to overlook disagreements with McCain on issues of lesser importance -- including, maybe, even his rah-rah support for the war in Iraq (after all, how different is he from Hillary Clinton in this regard?) and his disquieting move to make nice with his former enemies on the religious right. But if that is to be the case, McCain must remain true to the principles he has enunciated in his disagreement with Bush over the Geneva Conventions and similar matters. Compromise is not a dirty word, but abandonment of principle is a different matter entirely.
The United States cannot conduct itself as its enemies have. We do not torture. We do not have kangaroo courts. We are John McCain, not his North Vietnamese jailers. As he did back in the Hanoi Hilton, this is McCain's moment to once again make that clear.
GEORGE BUSH.
I say this not because I agree with McCain across the board -- not on abortion, for sure, and not on Iraq, and not with his bellicose statements regarding North Korea -- but because he embodies a quality for which the country yearns: integrity. He is a man of his word.
He is a back-stabbing megalomaniac.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO"
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO" Part II
U.S. Sen. John McCain is no War Hero
John McCain: The Manchurian Candidate
John McCain, you treasonous bastard, I challenge you or any of your traitorous cohorts...
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And exactly what "principles" would those be? That terrorist murderers are entitled to more rights than our own servicemembers?
Now he's off to write that hit song, "Alone in my principles"
PRESIDENT BUSH: "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."
"Well, Senator, you have a lot of style, and some day we'll find it. But right now, it's time to play 'You Bet Your Life.'"
To do that, he'd have to actually have principles.
How hard can it be? McCain's only principle is: It's all about me!
Hey, he can have his own opinions, stand up for his own principles etc. For God's sake this is America. But it is arrogant and insulting that he keeps trying to run for president in a party that clearly doesn't want what he is selling. Well, I guess we'll just have to continue to show him this in the primaries. It just gets a bit tiring.
Which is EXACTLY the reason he should recuse himself from the debate. He cannot be objective.
McCain, just leave and become the hildebeast's running mate so the voters can throw both of you out on your a**. One less RINO to think about.
Yes, he should.
With these "principles" he may be the first to log negative numbers in the primaries.
That will make him extremely popular in the MSM, because they always heighten liberal losers, but with Mccain clearly being completely insane and aged the losers tacking to his side right now probably will not be all that impressed. they are, after all, far younger than him. And getting tagged as a close companion to someone that gets creamed in the primaries and won't have much longer in the Senate doesn't won't well serve their goals.
I can't stand John McCain.
On problem for a rabid Democrat Activist stoodge like Cohen, there is utterly NO principals involved here.
What I wish ONE time on one of these shows someone would say to one of the 4 Senator Stoodges
Senator.
Why do you want to redefine the Geneva Conventions protections of legal combatants to cover unlawful combatants?
Please define torture as defined by the Geneva Convention?
Please name for me three American foes who have obeyed the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of US Prisoners since we signed the conventions.
Humm, so you base your whole argument on a hypothetical future foe who will magically do what NONE of our previous foes have done and respect the rule of law?
Senator, if our foes respected the rule of law, under want circumstances do you ever image the US would have need to fight them?
Senator, name for me any US foe since the end of WW 1 who obeyed the rule of law in their treatment of US POWS?
This whole exercise was about codifying IN US LAW some strict definitions so the incredibly vague language in the Geneva Convention cannot be twisted by pettifrogning legal minds like the soon to be former Senator from SC can twist to manufacture more reason to try and rebuild the overly legalistic, terribly bureaucratic PC system that so utterly failed in the run up to 09-11-01.
That they would pull this childish grandstanding stunt THIS week of all weeks is positively surreal.
IF this was about principals the 4 Senate stooges could of talked to WH house to work out their concerns. That they did NOT shows this has NOTHING at all to do with principal and EVERYTHING to do with grandstanding for the Cameras.
Just another example of the "My Ego over all Things" mindset of the Old Senators club. What a fool Lindsey is to think he can hook his star to their failed wagon! The old farts in the US Senate simply cannot actually set aside their egos and get something done! Oh no! That would require them to actually stand WITH the President on something. And if they stand WITH President Bush, they alienate the only people who can stand them, the Junk Media elitist. What they do NOT realize is that love ONLY extends to them as long as they are a tool to beat on Conservatives with. The 2nd it is a choice between them and any Democrat, the Junk Media elite will eat this RINO clown posse alive.
So instead we get this pathetically twisted, out right fraudulent rationalization from the 4 Senate Stooges to manufacture some PR campaign paper over their fundamental political cowardice. What they do not realize is they have just destroyed any chance of any higher office ever.
Republicans are not Democrats. The Old Boy's club has drawn all the wrong conclusions from watching Clinton. They think they can do what ever they want and we just have to take it. What they fail to realize is Republicans have no battered party syndrome problem like the Democrats have. They have shown more then once they are perfectly willing and able to tell the party elders to get out of the way.
The Republican bench is so vibrate and vigorous there are plenty of alternatives out here we can pick from in 2008. Contrary to the "conventional wisdom" of the Junk Media there are lots of other choices for Republicans to pick in 2008 All McCain and his posse did this week was write themselves right off the winning team.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661789/posts
They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof. Although one of the Powers in conflict may not be a party to the present Convention, the Powers who are parties thereto shall remain bound by it in their mutual relations. They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof 6) Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.
3 examples of where the Geneva Convention is willingly ignored by the 4 Senator Stoodges with their fauldent PR spin to lie about why they are so desperate to impose their emotional whimsy on the Administration.
That "a former JAG" is this groestquely ignorant of what Common Article 3 ACTUALLY says indicates it is merely another LIE told by the RINO clown posse to come up with YET another excuse to backstab the Administration.
Fire these 4 clowns.
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