Amy Sullivan is a young woman working on her doctorate in sociology at Princeton University. She has quite a few publications to her credit--apparently she takes an interest in the intersection of religion and the public sphere--and she used to work for Tom Daschle and still likes him. She was quite taken aback, however, by Daschle's decision to announce his complete support for the prosecution of the war in Iraq and his dismissal of intelligence problems. She wonders if Daschle can really be the Democratic Senate leader and take such positions back in South Dakota:
Daschle clearly feels the need to run as a moderate who can make nicey-nice with the president every so often. And if that's what he needs to do to keep his seat, then I won't question his campaign strategy. But Daschle is not just any ol' Democratic senator. You can be sure that any conciliatory comments he makes about Bush's Iraq policy will be used by Rove and Co. against the Democratic nominee (as in: "John Kerry says you should be outraged about the issue of weapons of mass destruction. But even Tom Daschle says that he's not concerned about it.")I greatly respect and admire the man. But as both his Senate race and the presidential contest heat up, Tom Daschle may need to decide whether he can defend his seat and work to defeat Bush at the same time.
She's not alone. People in the Democratic caucus have doubts too. Also, note that Josh Marshall is outraged about Ahmed Chalabi's dismissal of intelligence problems in his statement that "As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important." Marshall calls it a "scandal the scope of which Americans are only now beginning to grasp." Marshall needs to check the Daschle talking points--Daschle says there's no problem!
Much more disconcerting is Ms. Sullivan's comment that Daschle operatives are trying to get her to clam up. Some readers have suggested it was pressure from Daschle people which triggered the rumors that Daschle's primary opponent, the Native American leader Tim Giago, was dropping out of the race (Giago is making clear he's going to stay in, according to Dave Kranz). In keeping with Instapundit's chronicles of the crushing of dissent, see this article about Daschle's "Sopranos-style" tactics back home, including his attempts to stifle the local talk radio host Greg Belfrage:
On his website, Belfrage writes, "Intimidation and embarrassment seem to be SOP (Standing Operating Procedure) for Steve Hildebrand and some others in the Daschle campaign. I'll be counting the days to see how long it takes for Democrats to deliver a copy of this web page to my employer. It's happened before." Hildebrand personally visited the station to make the Daschle campaign's demands clear.
Ms. Sullivan's thoughts come via South Dakota Politics. Fraydog also has comments, as does Bo Cowgill, the Conservative Contrarian, and Betsy's Page. This fellow also has some thoughts on Daschle as a "porker" (the comments section is also brutal: "I can't stand daschle. the guy has no plan. he's always on defense. and have you ever noticed how he's always saying he 'disappointed' by the president, etc. yeesh").
Disclaimer: This is not a practical answer to Iraq, but a frustrated emotional response/comment.
Life's too short,
The world's too small,
If they won't submit,
Just kill them all.
I'm tired of these little Iraqi shits. Kill the clerics - stamp out their fucking religion - that's the problem. Actually, kill them all - that's the way that Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes did it. Their method was very effective and nobody gave them any shit. You expect me to sit by and say "that's ok" when they are killing OUR people? Time to throw out the rules boys and girls - that means sorry, kill them all and let God - or Allah - sort them out.
Of course, I realize we cannot do things this way, but that is how I feel. Good thing we don't just do what we feel, huh? Apparently there are a lot of Iraqis that do - they are the bad guys shooting at the good guys and blowing themselves up to kill the good guys. Everyone has their own opinion who is bad and who is good - of course - just like everyone has their own nose.
Posted by: american male | April 13, 2004 at 05:26 AM
The cost of Iraq is $ 4.7 Billion a month according to the Pentagon.
What could we do with $4.7 Billion per month with Taxpayers money with out this war?
Posted by: hruecker | May 09, 2004 at 06:23 AM