5 buks sez Babs Boxer is Ted Kennedy in DRAG <G>

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:ohiru0h3tusufb70grpsjggj5gufdt3llt@4ax.com...

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200501%5CPOL20050118b.html

Boxer Questions Rice's 'Respect for the Truth' on Iraq

By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Deputy Managing Editor

January 18, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) accused National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice in a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee of lying to the American people over the urgency
of the nuclear threat Saddam Hussein posed before the Iraq war.

Boxer characterized the Bush administration's push for the war in Iraq
as the same way a company pushes a new product.

"The war was sold to the American people as chief of staff to
President Bush, Andy Card said 'like a new product' - those were his
words. Remember he said, 'you don't roll out a new product in the
summer,' she said.

Boxer said Rice "rolled out the idea" and then "had to convince the
people" that the war was necessary.

"And I personally believe - this is my personal view - that your
loyalty to the mission you were given to sell this war overwhelmed
your respect for the truth ..."

After Boxer's opening statement, Rice shot back, saying "I have to say
that I have never ever lost respect for the truth in the service of
anything. It is not my nature.

"It is not my character, and I would hope that we can have this
conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before
and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity,"
Rice added.

Boxer accused Rice of scaring the nation with the image of Saddam
Hussein attacking the U.S. with nuclear weapons and claimed she
contradicted herself and the president on the question of whether
Saddam could launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. within a year.

"Perhaps the most well-known statement you've made was the one about
Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the image of
...'a mushroom cloud.' That image had to frighten every American into
believing that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of annihilating them if
he was not stopped," Boxer told Rice.

Boxer pointed to a July 30, 2003 interview Rice had with PBS
"NewsHour" anchor Gwen Ifill, in which Rice was asked if she still
stands by claims she made about Saddam's nuclear program in the
immediate lead-up to the war.

"In what appears to be an effort to downplay the nuclear weapons scare
tactics you used before the war, your answer was ... 'it was a case
that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire
nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next
year.' So that's what you said to the American people on television,"
Boxer said.

Boxer then pointed to President Bush's comments in a speech at the
Cincinnati Museum Center nine months later.

"If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of
highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball it
could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year," Bush said in his
speech.

"So the president tells the people there could be a weapon. Nine
months later, you said, 'No one ever said he could have a weapon in a
year, when in fact the president said it," Boxer told Rice.

Rice had not only contradicted the president about the urgency of the
Saddam Hussein nuclear weapons threat, she contradicted herself a year
later, Boxer said.

Boxer pointed out that on Oct. 10, 2004, when Rice was asked by Fox
News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace about CIA Director George Tenet's
remark "that prior to the war he had 'made it clear to the White House
that he thought the nuclear weapons program was much weaker than the
program to develop other WMDs.'

"Your response was this: 'the intelligence assessment was that he was
reconstituting his nuclear programs, that left unchecked he would have
a nuclear weapon by the end of the year.' So here you are ...first
contradicting the president and then contradicting yourself," Boxer
told Rice.

"If you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would
care about what we said, but this product is a war, and people are
dead and dying, and people are now saying they're not gonna go back
cause of what they experienced there," Boxer said, adding that the
administration has not laid out an exit strategy or set up a timetable
for pulling troops out of Iraq.

_______________________________________________________

Harry

Harry the absolute Hopeless wrote:

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200501%5CPOL20050118b.html

Boxer Questions Rice's 'Respect for the Truth' on Iraq

By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Deputy Managing Editor

January 18, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) accused National Security
Adviser
Condoleezza Rice in a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee of lying to the American people over the urgency
of the nuclear threat Saddam Hussein posed before the Iraq war.

Boxer characterized the Bush administration's push for the war in Iraq
as the same way a company pushes a new product. "The war was sold to the
American people as chief of staff to
President Bush, Andy Card said 'like a new product' - those were his
words. Remember he said, 'you don't roll out a new product in the
summer,' she said.

Boxer said Rice "rolled out the idea" and then "had to convince the
people" that the war was necessary. "And I personally believe - this is
my personal view - that your
loyalty to the mission you were given to sell this war overwhelmed
your respect for the truth ..."

After Boxer's opening statement, Rice shot back, saying "I have to say
that I have never ever lost respect for the truth in the service of
anything. It is not my nature. "It is not my character, and I would hope
that we can have this
conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before
and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity,"
Rice added.

Boxer accused Rice of scaring the nation with the image of Saddam
Hussein attacking the U.S. with nuclear weapons and claimed she
contradicted herself and the president on the question of whether
Saddam could launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. within a year. "Perhaps
the most well-known statement you've made was the one about
Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the image of
...'a mushroom cloud.' That image had to frighten every American into
believing that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of annihilating them if
he was not stopped," Boxer told Rice.

Boxer pointed to a July 30, 2003 interview Rice had with PBS
"NewsHour" anchor Gwen Ifill, in which Rice was asked if she still
stands by claims she made about Saddam's nuclear program in the
immediate lead-up to the war.

"In what appears to be an effort to downplay the nuclear weapons scare
tactics you used before the war, your answer was ... 'it was a case
that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire
nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next
year.' So that's what you said to the American people on television,"
Boxer said. Boxer then pointed to President Bush's comments in a speech
at the
Cincinnati Museum Center nine months later. "If the Iraqi regime is able
to produce, buy or steal an amount of
highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball it
could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year," Bush said in his
speech.

"So the president tells the people there could be a weapon. Nine
months later, you said, 'No one ever said he could have a weapon in a
year, when in fact the president said it," Boxer told Rice.

Rice had not only contradicted the president about the urgency of the
Saddam Hussein nuclear weapons threat, she contradicted herself a year
later, Boxer said.

Boxer pointed out that on Oct. 10, 2004, when Rice was asked by Fox
News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace about CIA Director George Tenet's
remark "that prior to the war he had 'made it clear to the White House
that he thought the nuclear weapons program was much weaker than the
program to develop other WMDs.'

"Your response was this: 'the intelligence assessment was that he was
reconstituting his nuclear programs, that left unchecked he would have
a nuclear weapon by the end of the year.' So here you are ...first
contradicting the president and then contradicting yourself," Boxer
told Rice.

"If you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would
care about what we said, but this product is a war, and people are
dead and dying, and people are now saying they're not gonna go back
cause of what they experienced there," Boxer said, adding that the
administration has not laid out an exit strategy or set up a timetable
for pulling troops out of Iraq.

Yet in 1998 in support of Clinton's four day air strike on Iraq's *WMD*
sites she said:
"The president had no choice but to act today," she said in a statement
ussued by her office. "Anyone who questions the timing of his decision
ignores the fact that we committed a month ago to act if [chief U.N.
weapons
inspector] Richard Butler reported that Saddam was not cooperating."

Kinda like John Fraud Kerry, it was to political advantage to support
bombing Iraq under Clinton so speak in favor of it then, but not to her
political favor to support the current war in Iraq so speak against it
now so attack it. Just like Kerry, go with which ever way the political
wind would gain her favor. Typical of the simple minded dummycrat
liberals.

1998 ainlt 2003. What Clinton destroyed was no longer a threat.