Seems like the Republicans are a bit touchy. Senator John Kerry in a speech yesterday called for “regime change” in the United States – something I wholeheartedly agree with. But the Republicans popped a vein over this:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) led the chorus of GOP critics who attacked Kerry for challenging Bush during wartime. “Senator Kerry’s remark, equating regime change in Iraq with regime change in the United States, is not what we need at this time,” Hastert said. “What we need is for this nation to pull together, to support our troops and to support our commander in chief.”
Democrats pointed out that during the Kosovo air campaign, both Hastert and DeLay criticized President Bill Clinton. DeLay was quoted in an interview with The Washington Post as saying, “We have a president I don’t trust, who has proven my reason for not trusting him: He had no plan. We have a civil war that was falsely described as a huge humanitarian problem, when in comparison to other places, it was nothing.”
Kerry spokesman Robert Gibbs responded to GOP criticism by saying: “Clearly, Senator Kerry intended no disrespect or lack of support for our commander in chief during wartime, but the point of this campaign is, obviously, to change the administration of this government. And unlike many of his Republican critics, Senator Kerry has worn the uniform, served his country, seen combat, so he’d just as soon skip their lectures about supporting our troops.”
I think I like Kerry’s spokesman. All this would be much better, though, if Kerry hadn’t voted for the dubious resolution that gave ultimate power to Bush to wage war, an unconstitutional idea if ever I heard one.
[From The Washington Post]
