Clark: Bush puts Nixon Administration to shame....

[Dookus]

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , DALLAS
Wednesday, Jan 14, 2004,Page 6

Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark talks with reporters as a group of school children look on at the Museum of New Hampshire History on Monday in Concord, New Hampshire.
PHOTO: AFP
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/01/14/2003087572/print

General Wesley Clark unleashed his most blistering attack yet on the Bush administration in the president's home state Monday, vowing to win Texas in November if he is the Democratic nominee.

"I think we're at risk with our democracy," Clark told an audience of about 500 people at a fund-raiser at the Westin Galleria hotel. "I think we're dealing with the most closed, imperialistic, nastiest administration in living memory. They even put Richard Nixon to shame. They are a threat to what this nation stands for, and we need to get him out of the White House. And we're going to do it."

When a supporter yelled out, "Give it to him!" Clark responded: "We're going to give it to him, and you're going to have to take him back, right here in Texas. Let him chop cedar." The reference was to one of President George W. Bush's favorite leisure activities on his ranch in Crawford, about 190km southwest of Dallas.

[Gloria]

1. "Let him chop cedar"---what a GREAT line!!!

It conjures up images of Bush in a b & w striped uniform, bashing rocks with a hammer...sort of like on a chain gang.

[Dookus]

2. Clark's a fighter...

and he's gonna take the fight right to Bush.

[sfecap]

3. Yep...

Of course he would have been fighting for * if they'd only let him...

"I would have been a rebublican if they had returned my calls..."

Poor Wes...dissed by the neocons he so admires...

[Lindsey]

4. Hey sfecap

where do you get your information? Clark was turned off by them long ago when they wanted him to lie about wmd's. I think if you start making accusations, you might want to back them up. Personally, I lean toward Dean, however, ANYONE BUT BUSH and I'm sick of us fighting with each other.

[Democrats unite]

7. Don't worry about sfecap...

I was rasied, that some people think If you say it enough times it must be true. Also Don't we also say that about someone else we know?

[sfecap]

9. Wesley was singing their praises not too long ago...

And doing it at rethug fundraisers...

"The putative new Great White (Male) Hope of the Democratic Party, General Wesley Clark, came of age politically when he was seduced by Richard Nixon, for whom he cast his first presidential vote. He later voted for Ronald Reagan (twice), and for Bush père. As recently as two years ago, Clark was appearing at Republican fund-raisers. In Arkansas, at the Pulaski County Republican Committee dinner on May 12, 2001, Clark said “that American involvement abroad helps prevent war and spreads the ideals of the United States.”

Just two weeks later, U.S. News and World Report said, “Insiders say Clark, who is a consultant for Stephens Group in Little Rock, is preparing a political run as a Republican. Less clear: what office he’d campaign for. At a recent Republican fund-raiser, he heralded Ronald Reagan’s Cold War actions and George Bush’s foreign policy. He also talked glowingly of current President Bush’s national security team. Absent from the praise list — his former boss, ex–Commander in Chief Bill Clinton.”


http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/45/news-ireland.php

Meet the Press, 11/16/03:

(snip)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. General Clark, one of your opponents in the Democratic primary, Howard Dean, said your biggest problem may be convincing Democratic voters that you’re truly a Democrat. And what they refer to is now a famous speech you gave at a Republican county dinner on May 11, 2001. Let’s listen to a portion of that:

(Videotape, May 11, 2001):

GEN. CLARK: If you look around the world, there’s a lot of work to be done. And I’m very glad we’ve got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O’Neill—people I know very well—our President George W. Bush. We need them there, because we’ve got some tough challenges ahead.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: “A great team. We need them there.” And then on January 22, 2002, at Harding University in Arkansas, again, you added to that. Let’s watch.

(Videotape, January 22, 2002):

GEN. CLARK: I didn’t say this earlier, and I should have. I tremendously admire, and I think we all should, the great work done by our commander in chief, our president, George Bush...

(End of videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: That sounds like a ringing endorsement of the president.




From Salon, "Gen. Wesley Clark, unplugged":

(snip)

Q: Of the people who are running this war, from Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and Powell on down, in terms of the political appointees, are there are any who you particularly like who you would work with again, hypothetically, in some ...

Clark: I like all the people who are there. I've worked with them before. I was a White House Fellow in the Ford administration when Secretary Rumsfeld was White House chief of staff and later Secretary of Defense, and Dick Cheney was the deputy chief of staff at the White House and later the chief.

Paul Wolfowitz I've known for many, many years. Steve Hadley at the White House is an old friend. Doug Feith I worked with very intensively during the time we negotiated the Dayton Peace Agreement; he was representing the Bosnian Muslims then, along with Richard Perle. So I like these people a lot. They're not strangers. They're old colleagues.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/24/clark/index2.html


"During extended remarks delivered at the Pulaski County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 11, 2001, General Clark declared: 'And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice... people I know very well - our president George W. Bush. We need them there.'"

Clark praises United States President George Bush with these words:

"President George Bush had the courage and the vision... and we will always be grateful to President George Bush for that tremendous leadership and statesmanship."

http://bigjweb.com/artman/publish/article_1153.shtml


"After Al Qaeda attacked America, retired Gen. Wes Clark thought the Bush administration would invite him to join its team. After all, he'd been NATO commander, he knew how to build military coalitions and the investment firm he now worked for had strong Bush ties. But when GOP friends inquired, they were told: forget it.

Word was that Karl Rove, the president's political mastermind, had blocked the idea. Clark was furious. Last January, at a conference in Switzerland, he happened to chat with two prominent Republicans, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Marc Holtzman, now president of the University of Denver. "I would have been a Republican," Clark told them, "if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." Soon thereafter, in fact, Clark quit his day job and began seriously planning to enter the presidential race--as a Democrat."


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3760994/


What we don't need...is more "Democrats" like Clark.

At least Joe Lieberman has been consistent.

[Crunchy Frog]

21. Thank you Lindsey

for trying to help keep this place a little saner. :toast:

[Dookus]

5. ah, if only it were true....

it seems no amount of information would cause you to reconsider your prejudice.

He's not a republican. He's not a neocon. Listen to what he says, and you'll learn that.

NO candidate is going directly after Bush and Rove with the vehemence Clark is. All Democrats should be happy about that.

[Lindsey]

6. I agree

He's got guts and isn't backing down. I'd be thrilled to have Clark as our candidate.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dookus]

11. his record?

let's see... one of academic excellence. Heroism in battle. A leading force for integration in the military. A leading force for women in the military. Testified in favor of gays in the military before Congress.

Led NATO and emphasized quality of life issues and education for soldiers and their families. Fought and won a war against a genocidal dictator without losing a life.

yes, his record is quite good.

Us Clark supporters are often accused of being blinded by his stars. I never knew who he was as a general. I knew him as a civilian. It's his knee-jerk detractors who are blinded by the stars.

[sfecap]

12. Ooohhhh...a General!

And he's soooooo dreamy in that uniform! (Or speedo)

Falsified bombing data...used cluster bombs...bombed civilian targets...thinks depleted uranium is just dandy...ran SOA, (hey terrorism is OK as long as their OUR terrorists...)

Yes, a fine man.

Testified for gays in the military? Please. His policy is "don't misbehave". He did NOTHING for gays in the military.

But...hey...he's a General! (But at least he writes books on war. A common topic for Progressive Democrats...)

So what has he done as a civilia? Gee...lobbied for Axciom...worked for Stephens...got paid to speak at rethug fundraisers...(or was that pro bono)...pimped the war for CNN...

Golly, what a guy.

We don't need Democrats like Wes. We already have Zell.

[Democrats unite]

14. Please remember that Dean asked Clark to support this

I hope your memory isn't failing you?

[Dookus]

18. and yet...

nothing you've provided shows that Clark is anything less than a liberal.

You assume that Clark CREATED policy in the Balkans. But you know as well as I do that he didn't - he implemented it.

I don't know who your preferred candidate is, but I can guarantee you that he or she is less educated, less talented, less accomplished, and less intelligent than Wesley Clark.

[Dookus]

20. and yet...

you have offered nothing to prove that Clark is not a liberal.
He is a liberal. He's infinitely more liberal than Howard Dean. Clark has a history of fighting for minorities and women in the military. Dean has a history of appointing white people.

Clark is a liberal. Dean is a centrist. I'm a liberal-Democrat. I'm voting for Clark. Because I'm a liberal.

[Dookus]

27. and your facile response shows

that you never even read my post, or gave it any consideration.

Get over the military thing. Clark is the ONLY liberal candidate woh can win. You oughtta be happy he has 4 stars - it means he can win.

[TLM]

16. All you learn from listening to Clark....

is that he needs mary to help him remember what his position is now that he's pretending to be a democrat.


Oh and he supports the outsourcing of tech jobs to india.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. "Gina has veto power," eom

[Clark4VotingRights]

15. Wes has had some great lines lately.

When a native American coalition in ND was complaining about
Bush's animosity towards them, he said "Wow, he really is a cowboy."
:)

[Hoppin_Mad]

8. Good words from Clark - Thumbs up ! :-) -nt-

[Dookus]

13. Thank you Hoppin...

they ARE good words, aren't they?

I prefer Clark because I think he'll be a great president.

That being a given for me, I look at everything else, and when I see attacks like this coming from him, I know they'll have meaning with a LOT of centrist voters. Clark is NOT recognized as a partisan hater. He'll never be tagged with the "unpatriotic" label.

Clark has the smarts and the ability to talk about fundamental (small-d) democratic values and make them mean something.

I'm 42 years old. I've been involved in every campaign since I was 15. I believe Clark is the best candidate for the presidency in my lifetime.

He's liberal. He's accomplished. He's brilliant. He's articulate. He's diplomatic. In many ways, we don't deserve him. Any nation that thinks Bush is presidential might be lost. But I'm holding out hope that Clark's talents can shine through the mud.

[MrMoJoeRisin]

17. latest internal polling shows Joe nipping at Clark's tail in NH

I'm referring to the tail Clark keeps between his legs… the one that kept him outta the last 3 debates.

4 stars wouldn't be enough to commemorate the courage Joe displayed by taking part even though he's not competing in the caucuses.

[Dookus]

19. do you refer to

the latest ARG poll that has Clark at 20 and Lieberman at 9?

yes... I suppose we should be concerned about that.


OR... just a thought...

perhaps we should be concerned about the organized coordinated attack on this forum by Dean supporters who are having a collective snit because ONE person dared post a thread saying that s/he chose Clark over Dean.

If Dean requires this level of desperation, then I'm proud to oppose him.

I will NEVER vote for Howard Dean.

[MrMoJoeRisin]

22. I'm referring to polls conducted by the Joe campaign

did you know that two hundred and seventy-five New Hampshire independents endorsed Joe yesterday?

the reason you're shaking is cause the Joe train is roaring down the track at you.

choo choo!

[Dookus]

25. am I shaking?

Thank you for pointing that out. I suspect you may be mistaken, though.

The fact is, Dean will win NH. Nobody claims otherwise.

But Dean is dropping in NH and Clark is rising. Clark will beat Kerry.

Once that happens, Clark will have a great chance in SC, AZ and other states. And then it will be an open race.

To be honest, I'm sorta sick of the sense of entitlement that Dean supporters have. Dean hasn't EARNED this anymore than any other candidate. I know ya'll think that's true, but it's not.

[Dookus]

28. oh... and Mr. Mojoe...

Will you identify yourself? I know you're a regular member here. The admins can determine that.

You're a sockpuppet. Which means you're a liar. And that goes together very well with being a Dean supporter. Dean=Cheney=Nixon

[Hoppin_Mad]

23. If you wouldn't vote for Dean as nominee - you're not a real Dem - ABB !

[Dookus]

26. and you're free express anything you want....

but I've dealt with so many Dean supporters who were major dicks that I refuse to support their candidate.

does it matter? probably not: California will vote Democratic whoever the nominee is, unless it's a lost cause. And if the nominee is Dean, then it won't matter at all because he'll be lucky to win Vermont (which he won withg 50.4% of the vote last time)

Dean can barely win his own state. He had no blacks or latinos in his cabinet. He opposed a Martin Luther King state holiday.

If he's the nominee, he'll be lucky to carry Vermont. He MAY be the first candidate to lose all 50 states.

[Printer70]

29. Bush administration (I praised) worse than Nixon (who I voted for)

If you can read between the lines, you observe a poll-tested candidate who can't run from his past. The DLC may have scored big by drafting a candidate who has no political experience (and therefore is saved from attacks). But they can't prove that he wouldn't govern like a Republican, since he's never held office and governed in a way that proves he's left his Republican past behind.