Posted on 09/25/2002 10:34:56 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Daschle blasts Bush on war President denies political motive in comment on security
09/26/2002
By G. ROBERT HILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, exposing the simmering partisan tensions around the debate over a war with Iraq, accused President Bush on Wednesday of playing politics with the issue and demanded an apology.
"This has got to end," the South Dakota Democrat thundered on the Senate floor, calling the president "wrong."
His voice cracking with anger, Mr. Daschle said it was "outrageous" that the president had asserted Monday in New Jersey that the Senate, controlled by the Democrats by a single vote, was "not interested in the security of the American people."
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle demanded an apology Wednesday from President Bush for comments the president made about the Senate's commitment to domestic security. (AP) At the White House, Mr. Bush denied any political motives as he tries to build the case at home and abroad to move against Iraq.
And his press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said the president was not backing off his remarks about the Senate when he prodded it to approve his proposal for a new Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.
"Now is the time for everybody concerned to take a deep breath," Mr. Fleischer said.
Mr. Daschle's extraordinary demand for a presidential apology, six weeks before voters will decide control of Congress, reflects Democrats' frustration that the talk of war by the Republican president and his top aides is drowning out any discussion of pressing domestic issues, particularly the sagging economy.
"They've been on the defensive on the war and painted as the anti-war party, and they want to try to put the onus on Bush," said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of a Washington political newsletter.
"There are a lot of Democrats who simply feel that all the talk of war and all the Republican posturing is campaign related."
In a separate floor speech after Mr. Daschle's, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., waved a copy of the Constitution to make his point.
"The blood of our sons and daughters – our soldiers, sailors and airmen – has far more value than a few votes in the ballot box," he said. "There is nothing more sobering than the decision to go to war. But the administration has turned the decision into a bumper-sticker election theme."
'Who is the enemy?'
In a day of often-sharp, back-and-forth partisan rhetoric over Mr. Bush's decision to move against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., asked pointedly: "Who is the enemy here, the president of the United States or Saddam Hussein?
"We would be better served if we would be debating Saddam Hussein and the threat he poses to the world," he added.
The debate over Iraq has become increasingly harsh in recent days as Mr. Bush has used his daily speeches to deal more with the prospects of another U.S.-led war with Iraq and less with the nation's festering economic problems and other domestic issues.
In New Jersey on Monday, the president urged the Senate to act on his Department Homeland Security proposal, which had been stalled there for weeks over labor issues.
The president wants broad authority over personnel matters, which the Republican-controlled House has approved, but Democrats who control the Senate have balked because, they say, the administration would use the authority to thwart organized labor.
"The House responded, but the Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people," Mr. Bush said.
For Mr. Daschle, that assertion was the final straw in what had been largely a simmering back-room debate among Democrats about how to deal with Mr. Bush and the war issue.
"Not interested in the security of the American people?" the senator shouted. "You tell Senator Inouye he's not interested in the security of the American people. You tell those who fought in Vietnam and in World War II they're not interested in the security of the American people!
"That is outrageous! That is outrageous!"
Later, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who lost his right arm as an Army officer in World War II, said simply he was disappointed that the president would "divide our people."
Democrats have tried to tag a political motive to Mr. Bush since his political adviser, Karl Rove, suggested in January that Republicans could do a better job than Democrats in the war against terrorism. But the issue took on dramatic new dimensions Wednesday on the Senate floor.
"It's clear now," Mr. Byrd said. "It's out in the open. There it is."
"I'm disgusted by the tenor of the war debate that has seemingly overtaken this capital city," he said. "It is despicable that any president would attempt to use the serious matter of war as a tool in a campaign year."
Washington political analyst Charles Cook, who monitors both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, said there was little doubt that the talk of war has distracted Democrats, who are locked in fierce battles across the county to hold the Senate and regain control of the House.
"If this election is about the economy, the White House is in trouble," Mr. Cook said. "And if it's solely about Iraq, then Democrats may well be in trouble.
"Right now, it's a tug of war," he said. "There's politics on both sides of this."
Bush remarks offended
Also, there were reports that many Democrats and some Republicans were offended by the president's remarks the day after he urged the United Nations to move against Iraq. "If I were running for office, I'm not sure how I'd explain to the American people – say, 'Vote for me, and, oh, by the way, on a matter of national security, I think I'm going to wait for somebody else to act,' " Mr. Bush had said, referring the Nov. 5 elections. "I don't imagine Saddam Hussein sitting around, saying, 'Gosh, I think I'm going to wait for some resolution.' "
A week ago, Mr. Bush asked Congress for sweeping authorization, including the use of military force and all other means, to move against Mr. Hussein because of his determination to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. And congressional leaders of both parties have been negotiating with the White House for final wording of a resolution that would be considered before the Nov. 5 elections.
"The American people ought to understand that life has changed here in this country," Mr. Bush told reporters Wednesday when asked whether he were politicizing the war.
"My job is to protect the American people ... regardless of the season."
E-mail bhillman@dallasnews.com
From what I've read the evening nightly news reports had similar spins and ommissions on this story.
Perhaps the more e-mails this reporter gets outlining what actually happened and the misrepresentations Daschle made, the more he will understand the actual story.
If you won't fight the RATS, just get the hell out of the way...loser!
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