Power Line: A cynical mantra

June 24, 2004

A cynical mantra

Here's the Reuters report on Al Gore's Georgetown University Law Center speech this afternoon: "Gore says Bush lied about Iraq to push for war." Gore thundered:

Beginning very soon after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush made a decision to start mentioning Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the same breath in a cynical mantra designed to fuse them together as one in the public's mind.

I'm not sure we're entitled to claim our place in the ranks of those Gore insanely referred to as part of a "network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops,'" but I would like to think that we are.

The world will little note nor long remember that in the not so distant past:

IN 1992, AL GORE ATTACKED PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH FOR IGNORING IRAQ'S TIES TO TERRORISM. SEN. AL GORE: “[W]hen George Bush took office, he should have reevaluated what our relationship was with Iraq ...” CNN’S LARRY KING: “Well ...” GORE: “Let me finish, just briefly. Instead, he stepped up the foreign aid to Iraq, and he looked the other way when there were repeated incidents of terrorism in which Iraq had a part, terrorists operating openly in Baghdad, and repeated warnings from our national security people telling the Bush administration that Saddam was on a crash program to develop nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction. And he overruled a lot of his advisers and extended another billion dollars of foreign aid, and the U.S. taxpayers are right now having to bail out Saddam Hussein for almost $2 billion. Just like the savings and loan bailout, now it’s the Saddam Hussein bailout, and it shouldn’t have taken place.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 10/5/92)

IN 1992, GORE SAID BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS “CODDLING” SADDAM AND IGNORING HIS PURSUIT OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. “Democratic vice presidential nominee Al Gore Tuesday attacked what the Bush campaign views as its strongest asset, as he charged the president caused the gulf war by ‘coddling’ Saddam Hussein. … He said recent evidence - including published reports and documents from congressional hearings - contradicts Bush’s assertions he did nothing to enhance Saddam’s development of weapons of mass destruction before Saddam invaded Kuwait. Gore said both the Reagan and Bush administrations received regular intelligence ‘warnings’ that Saddam was aiding terrorists and was bent on building such weapons.” (Sam Vincent Meddis, “Gore Assails Bush On Iraq Policy,” USA Today, 9/30/92)

(Courtesy of the Republican National Committee.)

UPDATE: Drudge has posted a link to the text of Gore's rant.

Posted by Scott at 02:48 PM |

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