Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Senator Bayh
Evan Bayh, one of my Indiana Senators, rose in opposition to Condi Rice today in the Senate debate. Senator Bayh said that the Bush Administration made mistakes that got us into Iraq and no one has been called to pay for those mistakes. I'd like to point out that Senator Bayh supported the war in Kosovo in 1999 based on the intelligence that genocide, ethnic cleansing, was occuring. President Clinton's intelligence sources said, at different times, between 100,000 and 250,000 people, mostly gypsies, had been murdered and placed in mass graves. Estimates today of the ethnic cleansing seem to range between 1,000 and 2,500 people might have been killed -- hardly genocide, hardly on the scope of the millions killed in the genocide after the USA left Vietnam.
Who has Senator Bayh called to pay for this false intelligence that got us into the war in Kosovo? I expect that Condi Rice has huge favorable ratings in Indiana and I'm rather surprised that Senator Bayh would take a position so far outside this state's desires. I am disappointed less by his standing in opposition than by the partisan nature of his opposition: he would not have risen in opposition to Madeleine Albright after her mistakes in Kosovo and North Korea. I do not believe he would have stood in opposition to Joe Biden, either, had John Kerry chosen him as his Secretary of State.
Bayh joins the other Democrats who both demand the Administration admit mistakes and then bash them in any way possible for doing so. Bayh votes against Rice for not preventing the war in Iraq which he himself voted for on the evidence. Bayh votes against Rice for being not knowing that Saddam was a toothless tiger while at the same time Bayh garners support from hoosiers for his vote for war to keep the tiger out. Come his next bid for re-election, will he not run to pay for his mistake in voting for the war?
Who has Senator Bayh called to pay for this false intelligence that got us into the war in Kosovo? I expect that Condi Rice has huge favorable ratings in Indiana and I'm rather surprised that Senator Bayh would take a position so far outside this state's desires. I am disappointed less by his standing in opposition than by the partisan nature of his opposition: he would not have risen in opposition to Madeleine Albright after her mistakes in Kosovo and North Korea. I do not believe he would have stood in opposition to Joe Biden, either, had John Kerry chosen him as his Secretary of State.
Bayh joins the other Democrats who both demand the Administration admit mistakes and then bash them in any way possible for doing so. Bayh votes against Rice for not preventing the war in Iraq which he himself voted for on the evidence. Bayh votes against Rice for being not knowing that Saddam was a toothless tiger while at the same time Bayh garners support from hoosiers for his vote for war to keep the tiger out. Come his next bid for re-election, will he not run to pay for his mistake in voting for the war?
