Criticism of the POTUS: Now and Then

[bluedeminredstate]

With all the fury from the rightwing directed at President Obama, attacks that paint him as somehow unAmerican and not-one-of-us, and the narrative from the teabaggers and their cheerleaders in the republican party that Obama is a tyrant/socialist/communist/Constitution-hater, I decided to go back and see what was said by republicans when Democrats had the temerity to criticize George Bush on the war.
Here is an example of the rightwing screech monkeys freaking out when Tom Daschle defended Robert Byrd for speaking out about the war.



In a press conference Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., defended fellow Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., who criticized the Bush defense budget and conduct of the war on terrorism. Asked whether he thought the success of the war had been overstated, Daschle replied:

"I don't think the success has been overstated. But the continued success I think is still somewhat in doubt. Whether we continue to succeed depends on whether we get the right answers to the questions Senator Byrd was posing yesterday. ... I will say that at this point, given the information we've been provided, I don't think it would do anybody any good to second-guess what has been done to date. I think it has been successful. I've said that on many, many occasions. But I think the jury's still out about future success, as I've said."

He also suggested Thursday that it was necessary for the United States to find Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders for the war on terrorism to be considered a success.

Daschle's comments are noteworthy--Democratic criticism of the conduct of the war has been extremely mild to date. But the points he made are well within the bounds of legitimate debate.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., however, fired back almost immediately by attacking Daschle's right to criticize the Bush administration's prosecution of the war. "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field," Lott stated. "He should not be trying to divide our country while we are united." Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called Daschle's remarks "thoughtless and ill-timed." Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., head of the Republican House Campaign Committee, claimed Daschle's "divisive comments have the effect of giving aid and comfort to our enemies by allowing them to exploit divisions in our country."

Conservative pundits also rallied to the sounds of the battle. Pundit and former Gingrich press secretary Rich Galen claimed that Daschle, Byrd and Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., "have decided to declare war on President George W. Bush's handling of the war against terrorists," while Andrew Sullivan suggested that Daschle's comments marked the start of a campaign "to undermine the war in order to gain some political traction against the president."



Compare this to the horrible stuff being said about President Obama on every cable network with those same networks giving voice to any critic - no matter how outlandish the accusations. It's pretty pathetic that John Stewart is the only serious (fake)-journalist to confront the lies being told about this president.