IPW Daily Report – Thursday, February 19, 2004
"I think it's a political, you know, witch hunt,
actually, on the part of Democrats,"
the first lady
said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"I've seen how steady he is, how he's steadied our
country and how he's steeled our country for the
fight against terror. ... I'm really proud of him.
I love to have the opportunity to go around the
country and talk about him."
– First Lady
Laura Bush speaks about Dubya.
"Liberals are not angry because I "lied"; they're
angry because I told the truth."
-- Ann
Coulter
The Dean Movement
Laura Bush criticizes Dems for AWOL claims
MoveOn.org censure gaining
The Dean Movement
by Roger Wm.
Hughes
Chairman, www.IowaPresidentialWatch.com
Howard Dean may be the most significant footnote
in American Politics since Pat Robertson and the
Christian Right movement. One political
commentator dubbed Dean’s movement the Secular
Left.
It was said of Martin Luther and his Reformation
that never before had a movement been spread so
wide and so fast. The key to the movement’s
meteoric rise was the invention of the printing
press and the reprinting of Luther’s 95 Thesis.
So, it can be said of Dean’s movement that its
meteoric rise was due to the Internet blogs,
meetups and online contributions. It was not
possible except for the creation and maintenance
of unique software that made it all possible. Like
all enduring political movements, this movement
enfranchised the un-enfranchised and gave them a
voice and power.
It has also been said of the Dean campaign that it
has given the Democrat Party its soul back. Dean’s
campaign raised $41 million -- mostly online in
small contributions by loyal supporters responding
to swinging the bat at reforming not only the
Democrat Party but America in general.
It is proposed that this will once again enable
the Democrat Party to forego the selling of the
Lincoln Bedroom in the White House by President
Clinton and thus enable the Democrat Party to cut
their tie to special interest -- a tie that is in
strong evidence with the current Democratic
front-runner, John Kerry.
It is unlikely that the Dean movement will have
that effect. The reason being that the Secular
Left movement of Dean, like most political
movements, is one part of the whole of the
American political demographics. What Dean’s
campaign has proven is that this slice of the
whole can be coalesced into a political force.
However, the campaign also proved that even the
Democrat Party is afraid of letting this new
coalition have sway over their party. The Dean
campaign’s fervor and high-pitched attack was more
than Dean’s Iowa concession speech. Its
high-pitched attack was present on their blogs and
in their meetups. The campaign became intoxicated
on the creation of their own power, and its
candidate’s mantra was that they had the power to
take back their country.
They did not. Our founding fathers created the
genius of the Electoral College. This great
institution helps to buffer the nation from
radical movements. The balance of power in the
U.S. Constitution makes political parties
necessary as the founders of America’s first two
political parties Alexander Hamilton and Thomas
Jefferson discovered. It is in the Constitutions’
Bill of Rights that the minority is protected from
the democratic majority. The Dean movement had the
power to affect the process, but no movement has
the power to destroy the rights of either the
majority or the minority.
The genius of the American system is in the forced
compromise of various interests and demographics.
The question is whether this movement will be
sustained and coalesced into a force at the table
that governs our nation.
Dean has suggested in his swan song that they
will.
"I will support the nominee of our party," Dean
said. "I will do everything I can to beat George
W. Bush. I urge you to do the same. But we will
not be above in this organization of letting our
nominee know that we expect them to adhere to the
standards that this organization has set for
decency, honest, integrity and standing up for
ordinary American working people."
Only time and events will tell.
Laura Bush criticizes Dems for AWOL claims
First Lady Laura Bush has been campaigning in
California, Nevada and Arkansas and in an
interview with the Associated Press, expressed
criticism of the Democrats’ claims of her husband
being AWOL:
"I think it's a political, you know, witch hunt,
actually, on the part of Democrats," the first
lady said in an interview with The Associated
Press.
The president served in the Texas Air National
Guard during the Vietnam War and did report for
duty in Alabama where he was briefly assigned,
Mrs. Bush said.
"He knows that he served honorably," she said. "He
knows that he showed up the whole time."
The First Lady said she was glad to visit around
the country and tell Americans what the President
is like. The word she uses to describe him is,
steady:
"I've seen how steady he is, how he's steadied our
country and how he's steeled our country for the
fight against terror. ... I'm really proud of him.
I love to have the opportunity to go around the
country and talk about him."
And from ABC’s The Note comes this Laura gem of an
interview:
Yesterday's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings
featured an exclusive interview with the
president's secret weapon: First Lady Laura Bush.
ABC News White House Correspondent Terry Moran
traveled with Mrs. Bush as she raises money for
her husband's re-election.
On this trip, for the first time, Mrs. Bush spoke
out on the controversy surrounding the president's
service in the National Guard decades ago--before
she met him.
Moran: "But you knew or you say you know that he
was pulling guard duty in Alabama?"
Mrs. Bush: "Absolutely."
Moran: "How?"
Mrs. Bush: "Of course. Well, because he told me he
was. And the records had been shown. He wouldn't
have gotten an honorable discharge if he hadn't
pulled his duty."
And she had harsh words for Democratic Party
Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who has leveled the
charge that her husband was AWOL at that time.
Mrs. Bush: "I don't think it's fair to really lie
about allegations about someone like the
Democratic National Chairman did."
Moran:: "He lied?"
Mrs. Bush: "(Laughs) Well, he made it up. guess I
should say."
MoveOn.org censure gaining
MoveOn.org believes that their movement to censure
the President is gaining and they cite the
following as reasons:
“Our Censure campaign has picked up incredible
momentum. Already, more than half a million MoveOn
members have signed onto our petition calling on
Congress to censure President Bush for misleading
us into war.
We're advertising in the Washington Post and on
radio stations around the country, and we've
written letters to our newspaper editors. Now it's
time to call.
Americans are outraged. A new poll says "a
majority of Americans believe President Bush
either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence
that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in
order to justify war." [1] A recent Newsweek cover
asks "Will Anyone Pay?" [2]
Even Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is now admitting that
Bush misled us, saying, "I was wrong. I am not
pleased about it at all and I think all Americans
should be concerned about this." [3]
The fact is, President Bush was planning for war
with Iraq from his first days in office. [4]
Having made that decision, he ran a campaign of
misinformation, hype and hysteria that led us into
war.
Before the war, Bush was repeatedly told there was
no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons
of mass destruction. [5] He knew Iraq was not a
nuclear threat. [6] He knew there was no Iraq
connection to 9/11. [7] Iraq posed no imminent
danger to the United States. There was no case for
a pre-emptive war.
Yet Bush relentlessly led us into a war that has
cost 500 American lives, left 3,000 seriously
injured, and wasted tens of billions of dollars.
Thousands of Iraqis have been killed as well.
President Bush has betrayed our trust, and there
must be consequences.
Please call your Senators and Representative now.”
homepage
