get donkey!

Settle in and read some of the republican responses to the news that Bush may have known something about possible attacks prior to 9/11.

Ari F.:
Some key Democrats were also aware of the possibility of a terrorist attack, Fleischer said. He pointed to remarks by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein last July in which she said she had been told “there is a major probability of a terrorist incident within the next three months.”

He said Bush “hopes there won’t be any Democrats in the Congress who play politics with this issue.”

Dick Cheney:
“They need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions that were made by some today that the White House had advance information that would have prevented the tragic attacks of 9/11,” Cheney said. “Such commentary is thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war.”

President Bush:
Bush, clearly, was upset by the insinuations. “Unfortunately, in Washington second-guessing has become second nature,” he said.

Trent Lott:
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., was outraged by the attacks on Bush, calling them reprehensible.

“For us to be talking like our enemy, George W. Bush instead of Osama bin Laden, that’s not right,” Lott said.

Sen Kit Bond (R-Missouri):
“Looks like November must be coming up,” Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Missouri, told CNN. “The president is popular, and I’m really very saddened to know that out Democratic colleagues are trying to use this as a shot at the president.”

Dick Armey:
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Flower Mound, called Democrats’ questions and comments about the intelligence reports “deplorable.” He said, “What the Democrats are trying to do is make this a political issue.”

And my favorite from Rep. Porter Goss (R-Florida) chairman of the House Intelligence Committee:
“There is no smoking gun that says with any specificity at all about time, date, place, or method that is known,” said Goss, a Republican from Florida. “If there is such a smoking gun, we will find it and share it with the American people. There is no such now, and the White House does not have one.”

Goss suggested the controversy is hurting U.S. security. “The only thing that this uproar does is give aid and comfort to the enemy and I don’t think there’s anybody who wants to give aid and comfort to the terrorists,” he said.

Now compare that with the quote from John Kerry below.

and this one from Gephardt:
“Every part of our government needs to find out what happened and how we can do better,” said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, adding that intelligence gathering “obviously failed” last fall. “Three thousand Americans were killed. We do not want this to happen again. … We have to get the facts out in front of the American people, so we can all do better.”

and Evan Bayh:
“We did not know until just this week or last week about the Phoenix document. We did not know about, at that time, the report from Minneapolis. What this shows is that there was a lot of information out there that simply was not coordinated in one single place so that our intelligence officials could make a complete assessment and relay that to the president of the United States.”

Tom Daschle:
“Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information?” Daschle asked, adding later, “I’m concerned about whether or not the public was adequately protected.”

Bob Graham (D-Florida):
“No one should expect the president of the United States nor members of Congress to put on their James Bond uniforms and start becoming CIA case officers. That’s not our training. That’s not our job,” Graham said.

John Edwards:
“[it is]an issue of national security to the country, not a political question.”

Rep. Ken Bentsen (D-Texas):
“On its face, it comes across as startling. But when you step back, you have to give the administration some benefit of the doubt.”

Now tell me, when you contrast the Republican and Democratic responses, which ones actually look more like political sniping? Which side casts dispersions on the other? The ones accusing people asking questions of “playing politics” and “giving comfort to terrorists”, or the ones simply asking for an inquiry into what happened?

Let me just say this… I am so fucking tired of the Republican tactic of evading any questioning of anything they do by bitching and moaning about “personal attacks” and “partisanship” and “aiding the terrorists”. It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach that these asses with their 4-year-old mentalities are allowed to assume positions of responsibility in our government. It is despicable that they refer to themselves as leaders. It is their infantile behavior that is “irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders.” They deserve personal attacks. They deserve partisan questioning. They do not, nor will they ever deserve my respect.

Quotes culled from cnn.com, msnbc.com, the houston chronicle, and yahoo! news.

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