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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46275)	5/15/2004 11:27:18 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Rumsfeld signals uncertainty on the outcome New York Daily News WASHINGTON - For the first time in public, a somber Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility Wednesday that the U.S. mission in Iraq could fail. Rumsfeld said the prison abuse scandal had delivered a "body blow" to the nation-building effort in Iraq that has cost the lives of more than 770 U.S. troops. "Will it happen right on time? I think so. I hope so. Will it be perfect? No … Is it possible it won't work? Yes," Rumsfeld said. In the overall war on terror, Rumsfeld said the U.S. was making progress in Afghanistan, but "I look at Iraq and all I can say is, I hope it comes out well, and I believe it will. And we're going to keep at it." Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said they would go ahead with the June 30 transfer of limited authority in Iraq and review the situation in the fall to decide whether U.S. troops could begin withdrawing. "That's the next time we would have a lens on what the requirement would be" and whether some of the 135,000 U.S. troops could be sent home, Myers said. The normally unflappable Rumsfeld at times appeared defensive and emotional at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Pentagon's request for an additional $25 billion to fund the Iraq war - a figure he conceded was only a partial payment on what the war will cost next year. Rumsfeld glumly listened as senators read despairing e-mails from U.S. troops in Iraq and he requested extra time at the end of the hearing to deliver a rambling statement ripping media coverage of the prison abuse scandal. "I've kind of stopped reading the press, frankly," Rumsfeld said, his voice quavering at times. Instead, Rumsfeld said he was reading a book on Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's bloody drive on Richmond in the last year of the Civil War. Earlier in the hearing, Republicans joined Democrats in questioning whether Rumsfeld had a viable plan to transfer authority to a viable Iraqi government. "We are only 42 days away from turning over this country to the Iraqi leadership, whatever that is," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.. "I can envision that this situation will not work." billingsgazette.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46275)	5/15/2004 11:27:50 AM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Keep spreading the word Rat, <g> Now find the health benefits for good coffee, good bread, beans, rice carrots, and cauliflower. Occasional bbqed chicken, pork and good ice cream. Now "Hush those muskies" :) c

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46275)	5/15/2004 11:28:01 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Spam..by any other name would smell..like...What..? pink pig stuff spamhaiku.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46275)	5/15/2004 1:30:00 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

So why not California grape growers too, John? In Arkansas, Kerry assails Bush on health care Clark's help is viewed as hint at a ticket By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff \| May 14, 2004 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Senator John F. Kerry joined yesterday with doctors and veterans in accusing President Bush of shortchanging the nation's medical care system, as the presumptive Democratic nominee campaigned in Arkansas, a Southern state that Bush won four years ago. Kerry also set off a burst of chatter in the state's capital that he may look to the South for a running mate by campaigning yesterday and Wednesday evening alongside native son Wesley K. Clark, who is now being considered by the Kerry camp for a possible spot on the ticket. The retired four-star general huddled with Kerry and campaign chairwoman Jeanne Shaheen for an hour yesterday. In remarks at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, part of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the presumptive Democratic nominee made an appeal to Southerners that Republican priorities in Washington were not improving medical care or the economic lot of average Americans and military families. ''We have the greatest health care in the world, the best, but we also have a system in crisis," Kerry told 150 medical professionals and veterans. ''It's an incredible contradiction. We deserve leadership that doesn't just kind of stiff-arm it, pretend it's not there, and shove it off to the side. We deserve leadership that wants to sit with doctors, to sit with healthcare delivery businesses, and bring people to the table and say, ''How do we do this smart?"' Hershel Gober, a former secretary for veterans' affairs in the Clinton administration, expressed bitterness about the Bush presidency and also the plight of those elderly and veterans who have had trouble getting medical care. ''I can't even walk by the White House now -- I turn my head the other way -- because Al Gore should be there. We're not going to let them steal this one, John," Gober said, a reference to the bitterly contested 2000 election. Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, charged in response that Kerry and his allies were playing politics with veterans' benefits. He asserted that federal funding for veterans programs had increased by 40 percent under Bush. Clark served as the warm-up act for Kerry at a rally, a town hall forum, and a $500,000 fund-raiser, ridiculing President Bush as a laconic good-old-boy, while praising Kerry's two tours of duty in Vietnam and 25 years of public service. It was the first extended, up-close look Kerry has had of the way Clark carries himself on the stump, and Kerry laughed and clapped during Clark's introductory remarks. ''He could have chosen an easy life -- some people who went to Yale did," Clark said of Kerry and of Yale graduate Bush at the fund-raiser in Little Rock Wednesday night, a jab he repeated at the two other events. ''He could have pulled on those cowboy boots and put his feet up on the desk. But John Kerry didn't do that. John Kerry made decisions in his life that reflect who he is, and that shaped him and his values." Continued... 1 2 Next boston.com