ABC News: Democrats Call Rice Liar, Bush Apologist
Senate Democrats Assail Rice for Role in Iraq Policy, Call Her a Liar and Apologist for Bush
[KLP Note: The Democrats who are participating in the name calling, etc should be so proud for representing the hateful and spiteful side of America....They should be ashamed of themselves, and most of us are ashamed for them, and because of them. Horrible people, and that's being kind. Senators Dirksen D-IL and Jackson D-WA and many who were gentlemen must be trying to get out of their heaven now to crack some heads together...]
abcnews.go.com
The Associated Press
Jan. 25, 2005 - One Senate Democrat called Condoleezza Rice a liar Tuesday and others said she was an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq, but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state.
Rice, who has been President Bush's White House national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said. She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
"I don't like impugning anyone's integrity, but I really don't like being lied to," Dayton said. "Repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally."
Rice is expected to win confirmation on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted that Rice would have "an overwhelming majority" of votes.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., cautioned against "inflammatory rhetoric that is designed merely to create partisan advantage or to settle partisan scores."
Rice would succeed Colin Powell, who often found himself on the outside looking in with Bush's close circle of war and national security advisers.
By contrast, Rice is a trusted Bush loyalist. As a principal architect of the Iraq invasion and the administration's war on terrorism, she shares blame for overstating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, Democrats said.
"My vote against this nominee is my statement that this administration's lies must stop now," Dayton said in opposing Rice's nomination on the Senate floor.
Politicians rarely use the word "lie," preferring some of the milder terms other Democrats used Tuesday.
"There was no reason to go to war in Iraq when we did, the way we did and for the false reasons we were given," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Rice is not directly responsible for intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war that overestimated Saddam's nuclear capability, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "But she is responsible for her own distortions and exaggerations of the intelligence which was provided to her," Levin said.
"Dr. Rice is responsible for some of the most overblown rhetoric that the administration used to scare the American people," <b >Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said.
The Senate set aside most of the day Tuesday to debate the Rice nomination after Democrats revolted against a plan to confirm Rice last week, on the same day that Bush took his oath for a second term.
"We should have been done last week," Frist said. "I was disappointed that we are having to march through the debate today. But ultimately the vote will occur."
Republicans who took the floor to endorse Rice included Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who has been a sometime critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policies.
"Dr. Rice has the intelligence, the integrity and the experience for this job. She has the president's confidence," Hagel said.
In his dealings with Rice, "she's always been candid and honest, and she listened," Hagel said.
Rice answered 199 questions during two days of hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Lugar said. She answered almost as many in writing, a record nearly unmatched by other Cabinet nominees through history, Lugar said.
Democrats on the committee and off it, however, said Rice dodged hard questions.
Democrats, in the minority in Congress, often resort to delaying what they cannot defeat.
Byrd, the longest-serving Democratic senator and a student of the Constitution, insisted that his party is merely doing its duty.
"I am particularly dismayed by criticism I have read that Senate Democrats by insisting on having the opportunity to debate this nomination have somehow been engaged in nothing more substantial than petty politics or partisan delaying tactics," Byrd said, his voice rising in anger. |
