Great summary of comments from dem websites and our former allies today from James Taranto... Also, a nice suck up quote from Bandar at the end... ;)
'If That Happens, We Are Completely Sunk'
...We wouldn't be surprised if Saddam's capture causes some members of the Angry Left to choke to death on their own bile.
Buzzflash.com's lead headline this morning was both petulant and plaintive: "Saddam Hussein Captured in Tikrit. This Does Not Absolve George Bush of His Lies!" As we write, the Buzzflashers are waxing conspiratorial: "Saddam Removed From Iraq. Karl Rove Has a Story for Him to Tell, and It's Time to Start Rehearsing."
Unlike the Democratic presidential candidates, some grass-roots Dems are unable to contain their gloom over the wonderful news. Here's a post by someone called ikojo at DemocraticUnderground.com (quoted verbatim):
I had a horrible feeling in my stomach this morning when I saw that Hussein had been capatured.
This is a BIG boost for *. This will be used in campaign literature. It will make Dems and others who opposed the war look bad as well. I don't regret opposing shrub's war of aggression on Iraq but it sure will be hard for the candidates now, unless they press the Where's Osama issue but since a majority of Americans already believe that Hussein was behind 9/11/01 it hardly matters.
All of a sudden I am not confident he will lose in 2004.
Please boost my confidence in shrub's defeat in November 2004.
Look what he has going for him right now:
Dow over 10,000
Hussein captured
The pug CONvention is going to be in NYC around the time of the 9/11 anniversary
A complacent and compliant right-wing corporate controlled media all too willing to act as an arm of the pentagon and white house press room.
His administration did what his daddy did not, supposedly captured Hussein.
The conspiracy theorist in me says that if this is REALLY Hussein then why didn't * and his media minions not wait until Monday to announce his capture?
Needing encouragement that * can be defeated. Now the stuff about Halliburton overcharging the government will be placed on the back burner as the corporate media celebrates the capture of Hussein.
Not feeling hopeful right now. I have a lot of fear of what he could do if given a second term.
Here's a sampling of comments from "Kicking Ass," the official blog of the Democratic National Committee (also quoted verbatim):
Pam Bergren: "I personally don't care too much that Hussein was caught--he never did anything to me."
"marsh": "This is supposed to be a war on terror, not a war on tyranny."
Erik Latranyi: "Well, tha capture of Sadaam takes the 'failure to capture' issue off the table. Now that the economy is picking up (mall was packed yesterday), Iraq is getting better, prescription drugs on the way, education spending at an all-time high, no further terrorist attacks--what is left? Oh, yes, the capture of Bin Laden. If that happens, we are completely sunk."
This raises an interesting question: What will Saddam's capture do to the Democratic presidential race? One theory is that it may derail Howard Dean. Today's New York Times reports that Dean plans to deliver "the first major foreign policy speech of his campaign" tomorrow. The Times quotes from what apparently is the prepared text: "The removal of Saddam Hussein was accomplished in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help and at unbelievable cost." It will be interesting to see if he actually says that tomorrow.
Now, if Democratic voters are rational, one would expect them to turn away from Dean and toward Joe Lieberman or Dick Gephardt, the two candidates who have been more or less consistently anti-Saddam. But that's a big "if."
We argued on March 17 that Dean was the man to watch, because he "seems to have struck a chord with the far-left, Bush-hating wing of his party, which has an outsize influence in the primaries and caucuses." We weren't sure we believed it at the time. After all, the fighting was about to begin in Iraq, and there was little doubt America would win. But sure enough, Dean took off like a rocket, helped along by the defeatist media and their cries of "quagmire." If enough Democratic primary voters hate Bush more than they hate Saddam ("he never did anything to me"), America's success in Iraq may not hurt Dean at all--till November, of course.
If you believe that people vote "strategically," there's another reason to think Saddam's capture could be good for Dean. One of the chief arguments for the non-Dean candidates, especially Wesley Clark, has been that they, unlike Dean, are "electable." But electability matters only if President Bush is beatable. If success in Iraq, combined with good economic news, makes him look like a shoo-in by January, Dems in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere may forget about electability and vote for Dean, figuring if they're going to lose anyway, they may as well go down in a blaze of fury.
Weasel Watch
The European leaders who fought like crazy to keep Saddam Hussein in power are suddenly singing a different tune. Here's a quote from Catherine Colonna, spokeswoman for France's President Jacques Chirac: "The president is delighted at the arrest of Saddam Hussein. This is a major event which should strongly contribute to the democratisation and the stabilisation of Iraq and allow the Iraqis to once more be masters of their destiny in a sovereign Iraq."
And this from Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin: "[I] have learnt with satisfaction of the arrest of Saddam Hussein. The page of the Iraqi dictatorship has been turned. France hopes that this arrest will contribute to stabilising Iraq, to the return of Iraqi sovereignty in the best conditions and the reconciliation of everyone. [France] also hopes this arrest will reinforce the will of the Iraqis in to commit resolutely to the reconstruction process."
Gerhard Schroeder, Germany's chancellor, who narrowly won re-election on an anti-American campaign, "sent a telegram of congratulations to President Bush," Reuters reports. (A telegram? Don't they have fax machines in Germany?) He said: It's with great delight that I learned of Saddam Hussein's capture. I congratulate you on this successful operation. Saddam Hussein caused horrible suffering to his people and the region. I hope the capture will help the international community's effort to rebuild and stabilize Iraq."
An e-mailed press release from the German Embassy in Washington helpfully notes that the German phrase rendered here as "delighted" literally translates to "It was with great joy." The embassy also has a statement from Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer: "The German Government welcomes the capture of Saddam Hussein today and congratulates the Coalition on this crucial success. This is very good news for the Iraqi people and the entire region. Saddam Hussein was a cruel and brutal dictator, under whom his own people suffered most. He must now be given the punishment he deserves."
You know the sun is shining on America when these fair-weather friends start acting like friends. Or maybe they're just nervous over what Saddam may tell America about their collaboration with his regime--or about the prospect of losing those reconstruction contracts.
Speaking of which, the Associated Press has a delightful quote from the Saudi ambassador to Washington:
"It's amazing how people who were doing everything possible to derail the success" of the Iraq war now "feel they have the right" to reconstruction contracts, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan said. "It just takes so much chutzpah."
Did he say "chutzpah"? Who knew Prince Bandar was Jewish?
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