Thursday, February 11, 2010

GOP recruiting class just the same old retreads

It seems as though Republicans are recruiting some candidates for Congress-- many of whom are the same old retreads who were part of the problem before.

Not anything new, but a bunch of former members of Congress who they claim are supposed to be something new. Mostly the same ones who were in Congress during the 1990's and early 2000's and helped put the roots of the present crisis in place.

Epitomatically they are trumpeting former Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, who will challenge his successor, Sen. Evan Bayh. Recall that Senator Coats is the Senator who said the day after Bill Clinton launched missile strikes in an attempt to get Osama bin Laden on August 18, 1998 (eleven days after the African embassy bombings and a day when we had some intelligence about where bin Laden was holding a meeting,)

"I think we fear that we may have a President that is desperately seeking to hold onto his job in the face of a firestorm of criticism and calls for him to step down.”

Senator Dan Coats, R-IN August 19, 1998.


The full context of the statement is that also on August 18, 1998 Monica Lewinsky was giving a deposition in Manhattan and Coats and other Republicans were apparently upset that the all-important Monica scandal didn't get the headline for that day (though taking a headline from the Monica scandal would have been what would happen if Bill Clinton launched the missile strike against bin Laden on pretty much any day during 1998.)

I'm sure that Coats' statement calling on the President to resign for attacking Osama bin Laden must have been received with comfort and great mirth by bin Laden.

I'm sure that there are some opportunities out there for Republicans, especially given Democrats' failure to pass health care legislation and other items on their agenda that have caused a lot of voters to decide that not much has changed. But the idea that running candidates against them who themselves were part of the last crop of failures, even up to and including a candidate who once said the President should resign for attacking Osama bin Laden, is hardly a recruiting class designed to benefit from voter discontent.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

They impeached Clinton for no reason and they will do the same to President Obama if he doesn't stand up to them.

If Democrats lose both Houses in November, all 80% of those Republicans who believe Obama was born in Kenya and is not legally President, will not rest till they put him in his place.

It's not about opposing our agenda or dealing with the problems this country faces any longer with conservatives. It's all about control and humiliation. It has been for some time.

savageette1999 said...

Ah heck, Eli - give Indiana a break - the country elected a retread as President - why not a former member of Congress to Congress.

Obama claims he's "new" - it worked for him.

Xim - Clinton was impeached for Perjury - lying - not only in the Jones case - but also to a Grand Jury - and obstruction of justice - so it was hardly "for no reason".

He forced the Senate to fulfill its constitutional responsibility, and took responsibility for same.