Posted on 05/09/2003 4:06:47 AM PDT by kattracks
Congressional Democrats must truly be aiming for permanent minority status, so tone deaf are they in their criticism of President Bush.<!ENDSUMM!>
This time the Democrats are working themselves into a frenzy over the president's address last week from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Anyone who watched the president's jet ``catch the wire'' live on TV or later in reruns couldn't help but feel the excitement and the delight for those 5,000 American men and women thrilled to get a visit from their commander in chief.
Now Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has asked the General Accounting Office for ``a full accounting'' of the costs of the trip and the jet landing. Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.), not content to wait for such numbers, insisted that the president's visit delayed the ship's arrival in San Diego by a day and that alone would cost $100,000 in sea duty pay for the crew and $1 million extra in fuel.
The irascible Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) went even more over the top, insisting that the president's appearance was ``an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq'' - just proving there's nothing so irrational and misguided that it can't find its way into Byrd-speak.
Was this a presidential photo-op for the ages? Of course it was. It was also Bush exercising the prerogatives of commander in chief - and one who happens to actually be a jet pilot. And it was an opportunity for his troops and for the American people to hear from the president the closing coda in this phase of the war on terror.
If the Democrats can't understand that and deal with it, they might as well pack up their 2004 ambitions right now.
"it must be horrible to be so obsessed with power, that you can feel nothing but rage at the sight of the president of your own country being greeted joyously by the members of your own country's armed forces..."
Their hate is so powerful that can't see the fact that they are writing their own obituary.
Not the first editorial page that's trying to "write" some sense into them.
They can do nothing else. It's a case of extreme hatred.
Her whole Homeland Security attack is predicated on setting up Bush to look as bad as possible when the next big Terror thing happens here at home.
I do too.
They have been evicted from the moral high ground.
I think what's happened is that the media environment has expanded to include people who are not automatically Cheerleaders Of The Party, and some Democrats still don't understand the implications of that. Time was, a Democrat could say any old thing, no matter how outrageous, and that would instantly become conventional wisdom among reporters and newscasters from sea to shining sea. Byrd says the carrier landing was a disgrace? Well then, that's what everyone thinks, and no one in the public would ever hear otherwise. The carrier landing was a disgrace. Did you know that? No, I didn't, but I guess it's true... everyone says so. I thought it was kind of neat myself, but I must be alone in that. This is how Byrd has spent his entire adult life. The press in the United States -- all of it, in every medium -- has been a cheerleading section for the Democratic Party. He could say anything, and it would be on the news that night; in all the papers tomorrow. He was a Democrat, from the mighty state of West Virginia, and that made him important. You could tell, because everything he said showed up in the New York Times. Did Byrd have to worry about what some Republican might say? Hell no. Nothing a Republican said would get on the news, unless it was a "courageous" Republican who was agreeing with the Democrats. I'm not sure there are any more conservatives out in the public than there ever were. It's just that now, they can't be buffaloed into thinking that Byrd's comments represent anything more than cynical, and quite desperate, hatchetry. Byrd will still see his criticisms prominently displayed in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, just like he always has. So far as he can tell, nothing has changed. Good. |
The irascible Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) went even more over the top, insisting that the president's appearance was ``an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq'' - just proving there's nothing so irrational and misguided that it can't find its way into Byrd-speak.
Yawn. The Prez can send messages to the world as he sees fit, and he owes us just that, and certainly not restraint from that. End of story.
Of course Dems who think they owe us nothing, the dumb poplulace and soldiers, and who think we should owe nothing either the Bush, are incompetent twerps who can only make votes and money by stealing and using every Bush photo op as a trap against the GOP, in their proto-serial-killer like bout of feigning weakness and unjustice in the world to get enough attention from people and enough closeness to be able to squeeze them when the chance will come.
There is not a chance to squeeze someone gratuitously that goes unoticed and unused by Dems. If they could offer human sacrifices of babies in the name of diversity or some other ludicrous pretext, they would do it. This is the level of politics with Dems these days: utterly disgusting and necrophiliac, at par with Castro and mad Kim.
This guy's ignorance astounds me. I seriously doubt that a nuclear-powered aircraft cariier uses a million dollars worth of fuel in a month, never mind a few hours.
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