Posted on 07/27/2003 10:35:22 AM PDT by kattracks
Presidential candidate Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said Sunday that President Bush won't be impeached as long as Republicans control Congress, but added, "The good news is that in November of 2004 the American people will have a chance to both impeach and remove George W. Bush in one step."
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Graham reiterated his believe that the president had committed an impeachable offense by leading the U.S. into war under what he suggested were false pretenses, going so far as to accuse Bush of "dereliction of duty."
"Clearly, if the standard is what the House of Representatives did in the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the actions of this president are much more serious in terms of dereliction of duty for the president of the United States."
Graham insisted somewhat bizarrely that Bush's 16-word State of the Union address reference to Iraq seeking uranium from Niger was critical to the administration's case for making war on Iraq.
"It was central because the rationale of going to war was that the United States' people were under an imminent threat," he told Fox News.
When "FNS" host Brit Hume reminded the Florida Democrat that Bush had specifically warned that the U.S. couldn't afford to wait until the threat from Saddam was imminent, Graham retreated into semantics.
"This was described as not a preventive war, but a pre-emptive war," he explained. "The difference between preventive and pre-emptive is, how imminent is the threat. If this was a pre-emptive war, then the administration must have had some reason, or at least stated it had a reason, for that imminence. And the most significant threat was nuclear."
"We've known that they've had biological and chemical for a long time," Graham continued unconvincingly. "But the fact that they might be on the verge of having nuclear capabilities is what made it so imminent and therefore justified the pre-emptive war."
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2004 Elections
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I seriously think Graham is descending into madness.
His rants are becoming so outlandish that they are hardly worth responding to.
When President Bill Clinton used the military in Kosovo, his primary justification added up to one thing -- humanitarian reasons. His supporters cheered him on, despite this illegitimate, though humane, use of our military.
The case against Iraq, however, turns on the Iraqi dictator's possession of and willingness to use biological, chemical and possibly nuclear weapons against American allies, American interests and America itself. President Bush does, indeed, underscore the horror inflicted upon the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein. But those who applauded Clinton's Kosovo mission seem, in the case of Iraq, indifferent as to the "humanitarian angle."
Actor/activist Mike Farrell, for example, says about Iraq, "It is inappropriate for the administration to trump up a case in which we are ballyhooed into war." But back in 1999, about Kosovo, Farrell said, "I think it's appropriate for the international community in situations like this to intervene. I am in favor of an intervention."
Let's go to the videotape:
Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Now (Serbian troops have) started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets. Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not a war in the traditional sense; it is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless people whose leaders already have agreed to peace. Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative."
Bush (Jan. 28, 2003): "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq, electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."
Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose, so that the Serbian leaders understand the imperative of reversing course, to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo, and if necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war."
Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkemens and others -- again, as required by Security Council resolutions. . . . The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause and a great strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve it. The security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest. And open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq."
Clinton (March 24, 1999): "I am convinced that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting, dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. If we and our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as a license to kill. There would be many more massacres, tens of thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge. Right now, our firmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have, to be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their own lives."
Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "We can harbor no illusions, and that's important today to remember. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel. His regime once ordered the killing of every person between the ages of 15 and 70 in certain Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. He has gassed many Iranians and 40 Iraqi villages."
Not that his supporters care, but Clinton apparently exaggerated the suffering in Kosovo. In November 1999, the Christian Science Monitor wrote, "U.S. and NATO officials at times implied that as many as 100,000 ethnic Albanians may have been killed, and they used words like 'genocide' to describe the Serbian policy. They later lowered the estimate to 10,000. But preliminary findings from war-crimes investigators indicate that the number of ethnic Albanians killed by Serbian forces during the air strikes was probably closer to 5,000."
But when and if forces enter Iraq, expect the humanitarian charges lodged against Saddam Hussein to prove not only accurate, but understated.
What a difference an administration makes.
I don't think that's the story here. I think what it says is that his internals of Howard Dean's indicate that Dean is doing well. Bob Graham is quite clearly running for veep and this indicates that he's running for Dean's veep.
Please tell me WHAT is misleading about Bush's statement. (Clue...NOTHING AT ALL).
Hopefully, constitutional scholars will ring in here, but I don't think that the Constitution permits Senators or Representatives to be recalled.
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