06-03-2004 

QUOTABLES:

"When you think of statesmen, you think of people who seized historic opportunities to change the world for the better, people like Roosevelt, people like Churchill, and people like Truman, who understood the challenges of communism. And this president has been an agent of change for the better -- historic change for the better." – Condoleezza Rice, commenting on President Bush.

"Some say that by fighting the terrorists abroad since September the 11th, we only stir up a hornet's nest," President Bush said. "But the terrorists who struck that day were stirred up already.”

"If America were not fighting terrorists in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and elsewhere, what would these thousands of killers do — suddenly begin leading productive lives of service and charity?" Bush said. "Would the terrorists who beheaded an American on camera just be quiet, peaceful citizens if America had not liberated Iraq?”

"We are dealing here with killers who have made the death of Americans the calling of their lives. And America has made a decision about these terrorists: Instead of waiting for them to strike again in our midst, we will take this fight to the enemy," Bush concluded.

"Slogans and rhetoric are comforting to some, but I believe we need a plan," said Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, in a telephone press conference with reporters yesterday to criticize President Bush's speech.

BUSH BEAT

Condi praises Bush’s statesmanship

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice says criticism of President Bush is the price for leadership amid turmoil and that the outcome will justify the difficulty and sacrifice of the mission. Here are some exerpts:

·        "Statesmanship has to be judged first and foremost by whether you recognize historic opportunities and seize them,"

·        "When you think of statesmen, you think of people who seized historic opportunities to change the world for the better, people like Roosevelt, people like Churchill, and people like Truman, who understood the challenges of communism. And this president has been an agent of change for the better -- historic change for the better."

·        It was Bush who first recognized "that it was time to stop mumbling about the need for a Palestinian state" and spoke out in favor of a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

·        [in Iraq now] "women are being schooled, not beaten, where people are planting their crops and building their stores and building their homes without fear of being whipped in a public stadium."

·        "The Iraqi people now have a chance to build a free and democratic Iraq, which will make a huge difference in creating a different kind of Middle East," said Rice. "And, unless you create a different kind of Middle East, unless you deal with the circumstances that produced the ideologies of hatred that led people to fly airplanes into buildings in New York and Washington on September the 11th, we are never going to be able to fully deal with the terrorist threat."

·        "We can let history judge what tactical things might have been done differently here or there, what decisions might have been taken that were different here or there... But historic times tend to be pretty turbulent, and what you have to do is to get the direction right, the strategic direction right...What history will judge is that the strategic decision here was the right decision."

Bush heads to Europe

President Bush heads to Europe today to meet with leaders there over the next few days. The trip is part of Bush’s diplomatic efforts to secure international support for stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq and its new democratic future as elections take shape for January.

Bush’s itinerary includes:

·        Rome (Thursday/Friday), where Bush will meet with Pope John Paul II and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

·        Paris (Saturday), where Bush will be hosted by President Jacques Chirac, an opponent of the Iraq war

·        Normandy (Sunday), where Bush will mark the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that opened U.S. and Allied efforts to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation.

·        Sea Island, Georgia (Monday), where Bush will host the annual summit of leaders from the so-called Group of Eight industrialized democracies: the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

Just POlitics

CIA Director Tenet resigns

President Bush said Thursday that CIA director George Tenet has resigned "for personal reasons" and that his deputy will temporarily lead America's premier spy agency until a successor is found.

"He's been a strong and able leader at the agency, and I will miss him," said Bush as he was getting ready to board Marine One for a trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and on to Europe.

A report critical of George Tenet is due out of the Congressional Intelligence Committee on June 17.

Kerry a hawk?

Sen. John Kerry is scheduled to deliver a speech on reforming America’s military. Previews of the speech indicate that Kerry is not going to look anything like the Kerry, who is immortalized as one of the great reasons that the North Vietnamese were able to defeat America in that country’s war museum [news article link]. Kerry will try to portray himself as even more hawkish than President Bush.

The interesting thing is that Kerry sounds like President Bush when discussing his strategy for the war on terrorism and a military of the future.

Richard Holbrooke, who has advised Democrat Presidents for decades and currently advises Kerry, tried to bolster Kerry’s foreign policy credentials on the Charlie Rose Show. Holbrooke argued for the delay aspect that no action should take place without multilateral support (the very action that took place in Bosnia which resulted in hundreds of thousands of ethnic cleansing deaths before the incompetent "Old" Europeans finally showed up to join in the absurd Gen. Wesley Clarke executed War in Bosnia). Holbrooke even tried to suggest that not since George W’s father, George H. W. Bush, has a candidate been as qualified in foreign affairs as Sen. John Kerry.

All of this is the object of the week, to make Kerry look like he is a hawk.

It has been hinted that Kerry’s speech today will try to out-Rumsfeld Don Rumsfeld in its call for lighter, faster and more powerful strategy.

Part of his speech will carry these remarks:

"We went into Iraq with too few troops to prevent looting and crime, and we failed to secure nearly a million tons of conventional weapons now being used against our troops. We failed to build alliances and squandered the opportunity to generate wider support inside Iraq, in the Arab world, and among the major powers. These mistakes have complicated our mission and complicated our objective: a stable Iraq with a representative government secure in its borders."

"The effect is clear: our soldiers are stretched too thin."

"The Administration's answer has been to put band-aids on the problem. They have effectively used a stop loss policy as a back-door draft. They have extended tours of duty, delayed retirements, and prevented enlisted personnel from leaving the service. Just yesterday, the Army announced this would effect even more soldiers whose units are headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. By employing these expedients, they've increased the forces by 30,000 troops."

Kerry’s retired generals who are part of shaping today’s speech on the military are:

·        Admiral William Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

·        Gen. John Shalikashvili, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

·        Gen. Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

·        Gen. Joseph Hoar, former Commander-in-Chief, US Central Command

·        Admiral Stansfield Turner, former director, Central Intelligence Agency

·        Gen. Tony McPeak, former US Air Force Chief of Staff

·        Gen. Johnnie Wilson, former Commander, US Army Material Command

·        LTG Daniel Christman, former superintendent, U.S. Military Academy

·        LTG General Kennedy, former Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence

·        Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, former Inspector General, U.S. Navy

·        Maj. Gen. Harry Jenkins, former Chief Legislative Liaison, U.S. Marine Corps.

Advising Kerry on foreign policy are former Clinton Cabinet members:

·        Defense Secretary William Perry

·        National Security Adviser; Samuel R. Berger

·        Richard Holbrooke

·        Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Mrs. Albright.

Kerry has also benefited from Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an NBC News on-air analyst; and retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni’s criticism of President Bush’s policies.

Despite all of this, the best political position that Kerry can come up with is that he would be a more competent executor of Bush policy than Bush.

This can only be successful, however, if Kerry can implement the belief that the very policies he is advocating are not currently working. It seems that the best Kerry can muster doesn’t go beyond the latest Kerry campaign slogan... "America be America Again."

Biden booed & cheered

[Sen. Joe] Biden, speaking at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, "received applause and loud boos from the stands as he said there is still no evidence Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein was linked to the al Qaeda terror network, nor that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction," according to an article in the News Journal, a Wilmington, Del., newspaper.

"Parents in the stands jeered or cheered while soon-to-be graduates sat quietly, dozed, bounced beach balls or yelled, 'Happy Graduation!' " writes the Washington Times, Inside Politics.

Kerry’s optimism

John Kerry’s new ad "Optimist" is running in targeted states. The Kerry campaign states that the ad highlights John Kerry’s vision for a stronger America that begins at home by creating jobs here, not overseas; lowering health care costs and ensuring our independence from Middle East oil. To make America safer at home and stronger around the world, Kerry will strengthen our military and build strong alliances around the world.

The new ad is being seen by voters in the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

"Optimists" can be viewed online at www.johnkerry.com. Script and back-up can be found below.

Script:

John Kerry: "We’re a country of the future…. we’re a country of optimists, we’re the can-do people."

Narrator: For John Kerry, a stronger America begins at home. Real plans to create jobs here, not overseas; lower health care costs; independence from Middle East oil.

And in the world, a strong military and strong alliances – to defeat terror.

America. Stronger at home. Respected in the world. John Kerry for President.

Kerry: I’m John Kerry and I approve this message.

Kerry: "We’re a country of the future. We’re a country of optimists; we’re the can-do people."

Narrator: "For John Kerry, a stronger America begins at home. Real plans to create jobs here, not overseas; lower health care costs; independence from Middle East oil."

McAuliffe has “seen enough”

Democrat National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe has a new send-in-your-$$$ message to Democrats that rings familiar, "We’ve seen enough." Here’s the message:

We've seen enough:

• Enough of the damage that can be done to democracy's cause around the world.

• Enough of the hardship and pain inflicted on America's families by George W. Bush's gross mismanagement of the economy.

• Enough of the fear and heartache that result when we find our future in the hands of a president who is constantly scheming to undermine Medicare and Social Security.

• Enough of a president who has tried every trick in the book to stack our courts with right-wing judges and put our most fundamental freedoms in jeopardy.

Here's the bottom line. This election is a test of our deepest-held values -- and of our willingness to put it all on the line in defense of those values.

If you're tired of Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, and Rumsfeld being the face of American values, now is the time to act. Please respond right now -- and remember everything we believe in, everything we stand for -- is at stake in this election.

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