An article at Slate. (Will, slap me down if you do not want me to post the text of your articles). Sunshine Patriot Tom DeLay and the party of appeasement. By William Saletan Posted Wednesday, February 26, 2003, at 2:22 PM PT On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Democratic opponents of war in Iraq "reckless." DeLay assailed last weekend's "outrageous" speech by former Gov. Howard Dean, D-Vt., to the Democratic National Committee. The applause that greeted Dean's speech "proves who the Democrat Party is," DeLay told reporters. "They are fast becoming the appeasement party." It's easy to see why DeLay is angry. In his speech, Dean called the war a "quagmire" and compared it to Vietnam. He said it would "drag on," costing billions of dollars. He accused the president of failing to specify how long our troops would have to stay, and he urged the administration to withdraw them "before the body bags start coming home." Maybe if Dean had stopped there, his remarks could have been shrugged off. But he went further. He accused the president of double standards and twisted priorities, implying ulterior motives. "North Korea continues to flaunt international law by speeding ahead with their nuclear program with no consequences whatsoever," Dean charged. And despite the bombing of Afghanistan, he observed, "Osama Bin Laden still represents a threat to thousands of American lives." That was bad enough, but Dean wasn't finished. He suggested that the United States should curb its warlike impulses to avoid offending other countries. "The White House has bombed its way around the globe," he sneered. "International respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly." As for the current war plan, Dean complained that "no one wants us to be there" and that the president's crusade "has made the Russians jittery and has harmed [our] standing in the world." Then there was the creepy way Dean kept referring to the president. He called the showdown "Bush's undeclared war" and "Bush's bombing campaign." He described it as something "the president has put us into" and warned his audience, "We should think very, very seriously whether we are going to take ownership of the bombing"—as though the president weren't the nation's commander in chief. He urged Congress to de-fund the war and "pull out the forces we now have in the region." Dean essentially called the United States the war's villain. Once a U.S.-led coalition "starts meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, where does it stop?" he asked. He charged that we were "starting to resemble a power-hungry imperialist army" and portrayed our mission as an "occupation by foreigners." Dean even defended the enemy's defiance of the international community. It was unfair and unrealistic of the United States, he suggested, to demand that a dictator "agree to allow foreign troops … to have free rein over the entire country." This was like asking him to "slit his throat with his own people," said Dean. "No wonder" the dictator refused. Maybe DeLay is right. Maybe any politician who said these things is, in DeLay's words, unfit for national leadership. If so, DeLay has the power to remove that politician from office today. These things were never said about Bush's war in Iraq. They were said on the House floor four years ago—on March 11, April 28, and May 6, 1999—about President Clinton's war in Kosovo. And they were said not by Howard Dean, but by Tom DeLay.
Good article; Dean's just as wrong now as Delay was then. They're both ideologues of the same vein, just at opposite ends of the spectrum.
He called the showdown "Bush's undeclared war" and "Bush's bombing campaign." They were said on the House floor four years ago—on March 11, April 28, and May 6, 1999—about President Clinton's war in Kosovo. So DeLay referred to the war in Kosovo as 'Bush's war'? Huh? This article may be too smart for me.
Terrible article; the Kosovo Conflict, the Serbian threat to the U.S., and Clinton's foreign policy are nothing like the present day situation.
You couldn't be sassier to a more deserving guy, Will. Tom Delay is a postcard of the worst variety of Republican. I respect Republicans like Jeff Wentworth and Susan Coombs here in Texas. John McCain and Colin Powell come to mind. But DeLay being in a leadership position in the House is all you need to know about which group has control of the Republican Party. It will come back to bite them eventually.
You just realized that?? And yet you never said anything about me, a professional baseball player, posting on this site?? What the hell??!!
Not to mention a professional superhero, which I'm pretty sure trumps all. I've been reading this board since 98, mostly lurking and almost entirely ignoring the Hangout forum before I started posting in earnest pretty recently, but I had no idea that was the same Will. That is ever so cool. If you're reading Will, great article. DeLay's a zero and, though he's been able to rise to power, he won't ever get any further. He's an embarassment to the party. We have them on the left side too. Most annoying recently, though, is how he happily granted funds to Dallas for their rail line while blocking funds to his home city for the same project. I mean, if you're gonna pork barrel (if that's what he thinks rail is), at least do it for the home team.
Dean's speech. Just found it. Haven't listened to it yet. Listen to Governor Dean's speech to the DNC Winter Meeting on C-Span.com at http://www.cspan.org/videoarchives.asp?Cat=&Code=. Click on "Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting General Session - Day 1." This will launch your media player. Governor Dean begins his speech at the two-hour mark of the tape, to which you can fast forward.
