Not that this will make any difference. But some Democrats are actually demonstrating some atavistic memory of a spine by refusing to confirm Condi Rice as Secretary of State.
"I don't like impugning anyone's integrity," Sen. Mark Dayton said this morning, "but I really don't like being lied to." Dayton said Rice misled him, misled other members of Congress and misled the public both before and after the war began. Among the evidence Dayon cited: Rice's claim in September 2002 that Saddam Hussein was trying to purchase aluminum tubes that were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." Rice coupled her pronouncement on the tubes with the warning that "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." But as the New York Times later reported, Rice was aware at the time she gave her warning that the government's top nuclear experts had concluded that the tubes were most likely not for weapons use at all.
Dayton said he would vote against Rice's confirmation to send a signal that administration officials cannot "get away with lying -- lying to Congress, lying to committees, lying to the American people. It's wrong, it's immoral, it's un-American, and it has to stop."
So far today, Democrats Ted Kennedy, Carl Levin and Evan Bayh have joined Dayton in announcing that they'll vote against Rice's confirmation; Boxer and John Kerry announced their opposition last week.
How quaint! Lies actually matter--now, when it's too late and the damage has already been done--to the Democrats! Someone should tell them that the time to say "no" is before the date rape, not after.Not that this will make any difference--as the story says, the Republicans have the votes, and there are plenty of Democrats willing, as usual, to give the GOP the servicing they want. But hey, symbolism! Worked great for Jeanette Rankin!
Hey, what else are you going to do when you're a dead party that represents no one, and you've failed to keep your country from the wolves?
Labels: politics
¶ January 25, 2005
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