Hastert & McCain -- Hatfield & McCoy?

[Regnad Kcin]

Seems the House Speaker and the honorable senator from Arizona have a difference of opinion when it comes to tax cuts.

WASHINGTON (May 19) - Growing tensions between House and Senate Republicans over the war in Iraq, abuse of Iraqi prisoners, tax cuts and budget deficits erupted Wednesday with House Speaker Dennis Hastert lecturing former POW and Arizona Sen. John McCain about sacrifice and war.

McCain, who spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison, excoriated fellow Republicans on Tuesday for pushing more tax cuts while U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Throughout our history, wartime has been a time of sacrifice... What have we sacrificed?" McCain said. "As mind-boggling as expanding Medicare has been, nothing tops my confusion for cutting taxes during wartime. I don't remember ever in the history of warfare when we cut taxes."

Asked Wednesday about McCain's remarks, Hastert, who was rejected for military service because of a bad shoulder, first joked: "Who? Where's he from? A Republican?"

Then, more seriously, he said: "If you want to see sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda (two Washington area military hospitals). There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure that they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong not only militarily but economically. We want to be able to have the flexibility to do it. That's my reply to John McCain."

By MARY DALRYMPLE, AP

 

[corplinx]

I like how the article unnecessarily points out their military service.

I watched some of this spat on the news. From what I have seen of Hastert, he is usually more agreeable and less prone to bicker. My guess is he was having a bad day or something. Delay is the guy who usually picks fights.

 

[crimresearch]

It partisan politics turned incestuous...just like a WWF script.


Having seen Daniel Inouye's patriotism questioned, Bob Dole's 'gimp' and civil rights voting record ridiculed, and Ted Kennedy allowed to lecture anyone on anything, how could we place any credence on more of the same?

It is the contemporary Circus Maximus, successfully distracting the masses...

 

[hgc]

Hastert is Delay's genial figure-head. Looks like he forgot his place and decided to get all testy.

McCain has more in common with his Dem colleagues than with his own party, and he is severely opposed to much of the Bush agenda. He's even pro-choice on abortion.* When, o when, will he pull a Zell Miller and buck his party for real?



* During the 2000 campaign, McCain answered a question about what would happen if his daughter had an unwanted pregnancy (perhaps as a result of a hypothetical rape, I can't remember), and he said it would be a family decision about the abortion. That's a pro-choice position, regardless of what he says his position is.

 

[Michael Redman]

Hastert's implication that lowering taxes was necessary to keep our troops properly supplied was masterpiece of political misdirection.

McCain isn't bucking his party, the Republicans are bucking him. He's right; Republicans used to stand for fiscal responsibility.

 

[subgenius]

How obtuse to suggest that pointing out their military service, or in Hastert's case, the lack of it was unnecessary.

Hastert lectured McCain on military service. That opened the door for the media to report it, and McCain, to his credit, stayed on topic.

Hastert had no right to suggest that McCain didn't know what service to his country is.

They are eating their own.

McCain is absolutely correct in his point. Plus he is the most respected politician in the country, and his party turns on him. Can't get any dumber.

The Republican Party has been hijacked.

 

[subgenius]

McCain, a man of class and principle:

"The speaker is correct in that nothing we are called upon to do comes close to matching the heroism of our troops," he said. "All we're called upon to do is not spend our nation into bankruptcy while our soldiers risk their lives. I fondly remember a time when real Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_go_co/hastert_mccain_2&printer=1

And I'm so old I remember when they stood for something at all.

McCain never mentioned his service. I'm glad the media pointed out the distinction.

 

[Sundog]

The Republican Party has been hijacked.

This news flash is about a quarter-century late.

Republicans really shouldn't try to think on their feet. To the question "where's the sacrifice" Hastert suggested McCain go take a look at a military hospital. Revel in the glorious, two-level stupidity of this: McCain knows far more about soldier sacrifice than Hastert... and, Hastert has just admitted in so many words that only the soldiers are sacrificing anything in this catastrophe.

Gloriously stupid; Bush couldn't have done better.

Where ARE the old-style Conservatives that one could disagree with, but still respect? Are they really gone forever?

 

[subgenius]

This news flash is about a quarter-century late.

Republicans really shouldn't try to think on their feet. To the question "where's the sacrifice" Hastert suggested McCain go take a look at a military hospital. Revel in the glorious, two-level stupidity of this: McCain knows far more about soldier sacrifice than Hastert... and, Hastert has just admitted in so many words that only the soldiers are sacrificing anything in this catastrophe.

Gloriously stupid; Bush couldn't have done better.

Where ARE the old-style Conservatives that one could disagree with, but still respect? Are they really gone forever?

Leaving a sinking ship:

Bush's shaky base
Robert Novak
May 20, 2004

WASHINGTON -- During George W. Bush's keynote address to the 40th anniversary black-tie banquet of the American Conservative Union (ACU) last week, diners rose repeatedly to applaud the president's remarks. But one man kept his seat through the 40-minute oration. It was no liberal interloper but conservative stalwart Donald Devine.

As ACU vice chairman, Devine was privileged to be part of a pre-dinner head-table reception with President Bush. However, Devine chose not to shake hands with the president. Furthermore, he is one of about 20 percent of Republicans that polls classify as not committed to voting for Bush's re-election.

The conventional wisdom portrays the latest Zogby Poll's 81 percent of Republican voters committed to Bush as reflecting extraordinary loyalty to the president by the GOP base. Actually, when nearly one out of five Republicans cannot flatly say they support Bush, that could spell defeat in a closely contested election. When Don Devine is among those one out of five, it signifies that the president's record does not please all conservatives.
....
To begin with, he shares concern with many Republicans about what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and where it is going. Businessmen I have talked to recently exercise limited patience in how long they will tolerate the bloodshed and confusion.

What most bothers Devine and other conservatives is steady growth of government under this Republican president. If Devine's purpose in devoting his life to politics was to limit government's reach, he feels betrayed that Bush has outstripped his liberal predecessors in domestic spending. A study by Brian Riedl for the conservative Heritage Foundation last December showed government spending had exceeded $20,000 per household for the first time since World War II. Riedl called it a "colossal expansion of the federal government since 1998."
....
Bush's saving grace for the 2004 election may be John Kerry. In the end, I am sure Don Devine will cast his ballot for George W. Bush, if only because the alternative is noxious. How many of the rest of that 19 percent of non-Bush voting Republicans in the Zogby Poll will fall in line may determine the outcome Nov. 2. That is the importance of Devine's little sit-down strike.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/...n20040520.shtml