Democrats Demand Republicans Shut Up

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode XII

An Associated Press article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

Democrats insist Republicans pull Bush ad

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is demanding that Republicans stop showing their first television ad of the 2004 presidential race, which he called "repulsive and outrageous."

The 30-second ad, which aired in Iowa over the weekend, features clips of Bush during his State of the Union address last January. It portrays Bush as a fighter of terrorism and says his opponents "are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists."

"It's wrong. It's erroneous, and I think that they ought to pull the ad," Daschle told NBC's "Meet the Press" program on Sunday.

"We all want to defeat terrorism," the South Dakota senator said. But "to chastise and to question the patriotism of those who are in opposition to some of the president's plans I think is wrong."

The Republican National Committee has no plans to honor Daschle's wishes.

"We have no doubt that Sen. Daschle and others in his party who oppose the president's policy of pre-emptive self-defense believe that their national security approach is in the best interests of the country," RNC spokeswoman Christine Iverson said. "But we also have no doubt that they are wrong about that, and we will continue to highlight this critical policy difference as well as others."

Other Democrats on the Sunday talk shows joined Daschle in his criticism.

Presidential candidate Wesley Clark said the ad is wrong and ought to be pulled. It violates "the pledge the president made to not exploit 9-11 for political purposes," Clark said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy called it an "attempt to stifle dissent." On ABC's "This Week," Kennedy said "dissent is a basic part of what our whole society is about."

Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," presidential candidate and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said the ad was misleading, nothing more than an attempt "to get the public's mind off the joblessness in America, the bad prescription Medicare drug bill ... the energy bill, which sells out to lobbyists."

Republicans countered that there was nothing wrong with the ad, which was airing Sunday in Iowa, the day before the Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines.

"It's portraying the president's leadership that he's displayed since Sept. 11, which I support," Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said on ABC. "I think it's a very legitimate statement to be made in the coming presidential election."

The ad will air through Tuesday in Iowa, and then may run again in New Hampshire during the next Democratic debate in December, said the RNC's Iverson. She said the party plans to run ads in conjunction with the Democratic debates, but the decision hasn't been made whether to simply run the current ad or new ones supporting the president.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Did you catch that? The venerable and most wise senior senator from The Peoples' Republic of Taxachusetts the Commonwealth of Massachusetts says that Republican ads — TV commercials! — are an "attempt to stifle dissent", while his Democratic colleagues are demanding that the TV commercials be pulled off the air.

I guess you have to be a filthy rich Democrat to think that makes any sense.

But... please... don't shut up, Teddy. Don't ever, ever shut up. :-)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 11/23/03 07:59:48 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Political.

Three from Morrison

Poems from Masterpieces of Religious Verse.

Thanksgiving

Be our daily bread withheld, be it given,
   Thanks for the bread from heaven;
Though on sense disease and pain come stealing,
   Thanks for the spirit's healing;
Thanks, when the springs of impulse are defiled,
   For the renewing candor of the child;
Thanks, when the years sully the face of truth,
   For the resurgent heart of youth.

Thanks, though we be cast off, unknown, alone,
   Thanks that we are well known,
And though our outward man and lot decay,
   The spirit kindles day by day;
Thanks that our sorrow by thine alchemy
   Turns out to be the very fuel of glee,
That from our utter penury, we bless,
   And having nothing, all things still possess.

Thanks for the faith that sees beyond these snows
   The clemencies of God, the lily and the rose,
Beyond these graves, these ruins and this waste,
   A garden of men, an empire undisgraced;
Thanks that each loss we own, each death we die,
   Calls out of heaven amazing ministry,
Thanks, thanks that the costly travail wrought in dearth
   Shatters old worlds and brings new worlds to birth.

Amos Niven Wilder (b. 1895)

Gifts Without Season

Lord, I would thank You for these things:
   Not sunlight only, but sullen rain;
Not only laughter with lifted wings,
   But the heavy muted hands of pain.

Lord, I would thank You for so much:
   The toil no less than the well-earned ease;
The glory always beyond our touch
   That bows the head and bends the knees.

Lord, there are gifts of brighter gold
   Than the deepest mine or mint can yield:
Friendship and love and a dream to hold,
   The look that heartened, the word that healed.

Lord, I would thank You for eyes to see
   Miracles in our everyday earth:
The colors that crowd monotony,
   The flame of the humblest flower's birth.

Lord, I would thank You for gifts without season:
   The flash of a thought like a banner unfurled,
The splendor of faith and the sparkle of reason,
   The tolerant mind in a turbulent world!

Joseph Auslander (b. 1897)

The Undiscovered Country

Lord, for the erring thought
Not unto evil wrought:
Lord, for the wicked will
Betrayed and baffled still:
For the heart from itself kept,
Our thanksgiving accept.
For ignorant hopes that were
Broken to our blind prayer:
For pain, death, sorrow sent
Unto our chastisement:
For all loss of seeming good,
Quicken our gratitude.

William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

Masterpieces of Religious Verse (1948), ed. James Dalton Morrison, ## 368, 373, 377.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 11/23/03 01:26:59 PM
Categorized as Sunday Poetry Series.