It's official. Thune has voted no on cloture... where's the up or down vote he held so dear when he was in the majority, on something so inconsequential as a Federal marriage amendment? Hypocrisy in the highest order. His speech last night was an absolute embarrassment to this state, referencing Fox News propaganda and attacking a fellow Senator for never having traveled to Iraq when that senator's son is serving there. Thune was described as "tall and tan," that's about all they can say about him. I'd add "outrageously out of touch with reality."
We must replace Thune in 2010, soundly.
Update: A rough text transcript was posted on the DailyKos live blog, and here is some video to watch, if you have a strong stomach. Especially see the despicable Thune/Webb exchange at 2:34 into the video. Remember Sen. Webb is a career military guy who has a son serving in Iraq... and Thune DID NOT SERVE.
Posts
Any idea where to get a video or transcript of Thune's speech? I think us progressive bloggers need to put this up everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe text should be in the congressional Record in a day or two. The video may be found (I hope) soon on c-span's website.
ReplyDeleteHere's some Daily Kos live blogging reaction as Thune spoke.
Not a bad summary of the overnight display of Republican Senators on the run from reality and history on MSNBC.
ReplyDeleteThey are so toast in 2008. It's a shame our soldiers and their families need to pay the price for their political gamesmanship.
this appears to be a reasonably complete transcript from KOS
ReplyDelete#
Thune (R-SD) (2+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
d2 at 43rdstateblues, txlosthorn
I want to remind my colleagues what this is about. The defense authorization bill. That's what we are here for. To do something we do every year.
It authorizes a 3 1/2% pay raise for our military. 102 mil for combat training and funding. 4.1 bil for mine resistant vehicles. That s what the underlying bill does. It ought to be about taking care of our men and women in uniform.
What's interesting to me, is I keep hearing this distinction between Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan is a good war and Iraq is a bad war. It's b/c that's where our soldiers are dying. If we move to Afghanistan, then that's where the killing will be.
This is a war between good and evil.
Our young men and women deserve to have this defense bill passed for them to succeed for their mission. Which is to protect us.
NIE assessment, our efforts have been paying off.
I have to reiterate that people continue to make a distinction between the two wars. They are the same enemy. We have to fight AQ everywhere to make sure they don't bring it here to the homeland.
Interim July report says we are making progress. 8 of the 18 benchmarks. We will not see the full effect until the Sept Petraeus report. And yet here we are, debating a withdrawl before we've given the surge a chance to work.
My support is not open ended, but we have to give this a chance. I can not support L/R. Congress can not legislate the war strategy. Generals in Iraq should decide how to fight wars. What we are doing is try to get in the middle of the chain of command.
Vote to confirm Petraeus. To trust him with this difficult task. No one said progress would take place quickly.
This debate should not be about how quickly we can withdraw but how quickly we can succeed.
I don't condemn my colleagues for legit Iraq positions, but this is not the time for that. This is a bill designed to increase the size of the Army/Marine corp, pay raise. We should not endanger this bill when we can have a full debate on Iraq in Sept.
I'm committed to seeing this bill pass.
Congress must not get into the habit of interjecting itself into military command.
by kml on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 10:41:43 PM PDT
#
thune is such a stepford son