The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank covers Rep. John Conyers’s Downing Street Memo PR stunt yesterday in, Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War:
In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.
They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.
Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him “Mr. Chairman.” He liked that so much that he started calling himself “the chairman” and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as “unanimous consent” and “without objection so ordered.” The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.Predictably it degenerated into a forum for moonbattery.
The hearing was only nominally about the Downing Street Memo and its assertion that in the summer of 2002 Bush was already determined to go to war and was making the intelligence fit his case. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador whose wife was outed as a CIA operative, barely mentioned the memo in his opening statement. Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq, said the memo “only confirms what I already suspected.”
…The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration “neocons” so “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.At which point America’s worst Congressman (Rep. Jim Moran) and others probably cheered. A handful of hardcore lefties braved the conspiratorial media blackout to watch the show.
At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations — that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an “insider trading scam” on 9/11 — that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.
The event organizer, Democrats.com, distributed stickers saying “Bush lied/100,000 people died.” One man’s T-shirt proclaimed, “Whether you like Bush or not, he’s still an incompetent liar,” while a large poster of Uncle Sam announced: “Got kids? I want yours for cannon fodder.”
Conyers’s firm hand on the gavel could not prevent something of a free-for-all; at one point, a former State Department worker rose from the audience to propose criminal charges against Bush officials. Early in the hearing, somebody accidentally turned off the lights; later, a witness knocked down a flag. Matters were even worse at Democratic headquarters, where the C-SPAN feed ended after just an hour, causing the activists to groan and one to shout “Conspiracy!”Why they didn’t invite former Department of Labor chief economist, Morgan Reynolds P.H.D, to explain what really happened on 9/11 is mystifying. The true believers (or more accurately “non-believers”) were already in attendance. Think of the fun they could have had…
In their moment in the spotlight the liberal blogosphere’s Congressional water carriers managed to act like complete buffoons, which should surprise no one.
Previous Wizbang Downing Street Memo coverage.
Rep. Jim Moran – can you spot the typo in his name?
Haha – you’re an idiot
Where was Bagdhad Bob? Certainly he would have given a much-needed sense of credibility to the hearing.
On your article:
“Why they didn’t invite former Department of Labor chief economist, Department of Labor chief economist, Morgan Reynolds P.H.D”
The hearing is an “open invitation”. Everyone (senate,congress, white house) is welcome to attend. See http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/news.html
Democratic hearing on
Downing Street Memo/Minutes
and Pre-war intelligence
On Thursday June 16, 2005, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Congress Members held a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.
After the hearing, Congressman Conyers delivered his letter to the President with the signatures of over 540,000 Americans and 122 members of Congress. Not content to stop there, Conyers has pledged to keep his campaign going, and to personally see to it that every additional signature is delivered to the White House.
The hearing will be re-broadcast on C-SPAN 2 Friday night (6/17) at 8:00pm EST.
Don’t miss it!
No, Brian, that’s not it.
But thank you for playing!
It’s clear: Bush is a marr murdering liar. All
republicans lie. IMPEACH ALL REPUBLICANS.
I’m sure Michael Moore was running the camera.
I’m sure Michael Moore was running the camera at the, er, conference.
I agree with Brian. You’re an absolute idiot. You can continue to drink from the right wing Kool-Aid fountain of self imposed ignorance but in the end you’ll still not have a clear understanding of the truth.
The beginning of the end of the Republican control of Washington. 😉
This morning I saw a garbage truck. Just an ordinary truck, picking up peoples’ garbage. A truck driven by union garbage guys – one of the strongest unions around here (NW Indiana, close to Chicago). It had two little American flags taped to the mirrors and “support the troops” stickers. I pulled over and asked what they thought of the war in Iraq. They said it didn’t sound too good but that we had to beat the bastards.
The Democratic party leaders seem totally unaware of people like these. They care nothing for them, scorn them; their tried and true constituents. Can 10% of a party really run the whole show?
For how long?
A Republican is a person who will support any war he doesn’t have to invest his children in or can profit from. Clinton lied about a person matter and it doesn’t matter. Bush lies about War and thousand die. Try to remember that if you can get your head out of Bush’s Nazi ass.
Hmmm.
It’s moonbat mating season.
Ahhh spring. When moonbats migrate to their home in Washington D.C. and other urban environs. Watch as they make their nests in awkward unconfortable places, and then spend endless hours justifying such placements. Listen to their mating calls as moonbats seek out one another in a loving embrace of shared values.
Listen? Can you hear the loons?
“Republicans are Evil!”
“Bush HitlerMcChimpy!”
Ahh. The sounds of moonbat love.
Here’s what I want to know. What would the reaction of the Rightie Blogosphere and the press in general have been if Clinton had locked the White House gates against a senior Republican Member of Congress bearing a letter co-signed by 101 of his fellow Members and 560,000 American citizens? Even if the Downing Street Memo and all the documents that support it are suppressed now, can you imagine that they won’t be an important part of the historical record of the Bush/Cheney era?
Please keep commenting on the Moonbattery of the DSM; it may cause a few more people to actually read its short straightforward text.
Will this be “the beginning of the end” like Joe Wilson’s memo was? Or maybe that was the CBS “draft” memo that was the end. No wait, Nov. 2 was the end, right? I’ve gotten so confused I can’t tell which “end” is up. Or maybe this DSM is the end-all, be-all end? Ugh.
All I know is that this issue is going to end up in a dead end, like it should. And all this liberal posturing and all these liberal pronouncements is just so much hot air coming from, well, their back ends.
Can 10% of a party really run the whole show?
Well, they seem to be doing ok with it in the Republican Party.
For how long?
Hopefully, not too much longer.
If we fail to control the spin on this then we will surely be beaten back by the truth, and the entire house of cards will come tumbling down.
I warned you all when this first leaked that the “it’s old news” and “fixed just means repaired” twists were pathetically weak, but no one has come up with anything better.
It’s not too late — we desperately need someone to investigate the fonts and the kerning in this memo.
Will this be “the beginning of the end” like Joe Wilson’s memo was? Or maybe that was the CBS “draft” memo that was the end. No wait, Nov. 2 was the end, right? I’ve gotten so confused I can’t tell which “end” is up. Or maybe this DSM is the end-all, be-all end?
Hopefully it will. To put it in terms you can understand, think of it like all those corners we keep turning in Iraq.
Hmmm.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m feeling a little evil right now.
I’m off to torture a delicious hamburger. I’m going to interrogate it severely with crisp lettuce, lightly salted tomato slices and slices of sharp white onion. Then I’ll make it beg for mercy as I lay on the ketchup and fresh mayo.
Oh the horror. The horror.
Pray for me. My descent into madness of Republican ChimpyMcEvil begins.
In case anybody cares, Rick Moron, excuse me, Moran is the host of an appropriately named site called Right Wing Nuthouse. A place where Rick posts such idiocy as the above daily, then spends his entire day deleting the posts of anyone who dares disagree with him. Apparently the poor fellow has no job or life, preferring instead to spend his time as a full time apologist for CIA torturers and the incomparably incompetent president George “Deficit” Bush.
It will all come out in the wash.
Can’t wait! It’s fantastic to see the vice squeezing the ugly American bastards.
John H.
Please less cryptic you speak of corners, no?. No English understand. Sense make no. Vague much too. Again try.
(Speaking like Yoda helps me relate to the space cadet liberals! 😉
On and on it goes. ‘Moonbats’ asking for a hearing to find the truth. Right wing nutjobs calling them names and thinking that they and only they are right. Bush has made a mistake, one that has cost thousands of lives, and noone on the far right will admit it. His followers wish he was Reagan, and follow blindly wherecer he (Karl Rove) tells them to go (as long as it does not involve putting their ass on the line). Everyone who loves Bush so much that will not admit the horrible error in judgemnt in the rush to war (and now it looks like a premeditated rush) and refuses to even bother to question the motives and reasoning for this mess should put it on the line and volunteer. I smell a draft coming, Kevin (Moonbat in charge) should go first.
Hmmm.
I guess since GannonGate kinda just fizzled out the Left has been searching for something to finally make the cornerstone of their efforts. Something monumental that they can point to and show how powerful they are, or how relevant.
But no matter how much you flog this horse, it won’t run any faster.
You Israel-firster types crack me up.
Hmmmm.
“rush to war”
ROFLMAO! Ok let’s look at this. The Left is accusing Bush of having planned the invasion since, at least, 9/11 and possibly before. The invasion happened in March of 2003. So if we take the memo at face value then it took 8 months to “rush to war”. If we go with the moonbat theory then it took 18 months to “rush to war”.
That sure is some rushing.
I remember when a two bit burglary at Watergate was no big deal. As America wakes up to the real Bush his ratings in the polls continue to drop and so does his faked war. Ask yourself how many Republicans do you know with offspring in the War. You will find that it is only the men on the garbage truck who have been fool by Bush and have children in the War. I know many Republican who don’t have any one in this fake war. I also know many Democrats who don’t support the War but their kids are in Iraq. I’ve been there. If you support the war. Good. Go out right now and send you kid to Iraq or go yourself. Lets see your real support other than a bumper sticker on you car as it is powered by the blood of American GIs. Put up or shut up. Let’s see Bush sent his kids just like he wants to send you kids to fight in their place. The man has no concept of what war really is. Do you.
Hmmmm.
“I remember when a two bit burglary at Watergate was no big deal.”
I remember when a deliberate deception perpetrated by a sitting President to mire an innocent country in a ever spiraling war.
Oh wait. That was Lyndon Baines Johnson, Democrat.
LOL.
Hmmm.
If I had a quarter for every “vietnam vet” or “green beret” or “seal” I’ve met online, I’d have a boatload of quarters.
So, Ed are you going to send you kid or go your self. Or are you just spouting Right Wing Bullshit as always. Come on Ed. Your a tough guys. When are you going to Iraq, you coward. You can remember how many GIs died for gas for your car.
———————————–
All I know is that this issue is going to end up in a dead end, like it should. And all this [insert party affil here] posturing and all these [insert party affil here] pronouncements is just so much hot air coming from, well, their back ends.
———————————–
we said the same thing about Billy and Monica 🙂
Ed sounds like the typical armchair warrior. I’m no seal or green beret, just a ground pounding grunt that was in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991. If you’ll recall, we didnt get Saadam then because there was no clear way out after that. So Ed, go on now, get some of that sand in between your toes. If you think the war is right, go fight it.
Hmmm.
Oh no! A moonbat called me a coward! OMG!
I’m shocked, SHOCKED, at such language.
Please. Keep the drivel coming.
Hmmm.
Oh no! I’ve been insulted and demeaned by a moonbat!
My life is over.
“Oh wait. That was Lyndon Baines Johnson, Democrat.”
And the same people who are now so disgusted with the current President (at least those of us who were alive and politically aware in 1966-1668), were just as disgusted with LBJ’s war policies. He had some domestic policies that were OK, but the war trumped them all. The current Presidency, on the other hand, has no mitigating factors.
Hmmm.
If I had a dime for every “veteran of Gulf I” I met online, I’d have a Death Star full of dimes.
Bill M.:
I think there was a cigar involved, too. That still gives me the heebee jeebies.
But I disgress…
Back to the delusional, conspiratorial and space cadet talk on the memo…
Where was Bagdhad Bob? Certainly he would have given a much-needed sense of credibility to the hearing.
Posted by: Mike at June 17, 2005 02:51 PM
——————————————————————————–
This administation is the only “Bagdhad Bob.”
Every time some event occurs in Iraq, bush, cheney et al talk about the turning point and everything is fine, only to find Iraq continuing to spiral into more death and destruction for all parties involved!
I hate these no good bastards. This is from a father of a 2 tour Marine in Iraq who has survived this disater.
Charles: And I’m sure your son is proud of his father’s attempts to sabotage his mission and his country… in his name.
Hmmm.
1. “And the same people who are now so disgusted with the current President (at least those of us who were alive and politically aware in 1966-1668), were just as disgusted with LBJ’s war policies.”
Really? Prove it. Provide the quotations and the links.
2. “He had some domestic policies that were OK”
You mean like *welfare*? You know the War on Poverty, that actually sucked up trillions of dollars and accomplished nothing but urban blight?
3. “The current Presidency, on the other hand, has no mitigating factors.”
http://www.freespeech.com/archives/000336.html
Can’t argue with that. Chimpy McHitlerBushHalliburtonOil and all that.
“Why they didn’t invite former Department of Labor chief economist, Morgan Reynolds P.H.D, to explain what really happened on 9/11 is mystifying.”
Ha! The “truth about 9/11” crowd was already well represented. It is a shame the Washington Post didn’t pull that string.
Mr. Morgan,
Do you really think you can laugh off a petition of more than half a million? When that many people sign a petition it represents many more. I should think that republicans would want to address the Downing Street Memo so they can try to debunk it – arrogant power in trouble can always be recognized when it pretends it can’t hear an honest question.
Now, now. If somebody on the Left can please make a point (any one would be welcome, actually) on the DSM…oh wait, nevermind, they can’t.
Now, now. If somebody on the Left can please make a point (any one would be welcome, actually) on the DSM…oh wait, nevermind, they can’t.
You know Ed, it is a sick person who make jokes as other people die. You still haven’t said when big brave you are going to Iraq.
I’ve been a registered Republican for 36 years. I was proud of that, but have recently been disgusted, absolutely disgusted about what’s happened to my party.
When did it become a Republican value to mock our constitution? To joke about human suffering? Do any of you young people have any concept of what it really means to be a True Patriot? You stand up for your country ALWAYS, and your government WHEN IT DESERVES IT.
Let me tell you younger Republicans something you may not know: Once upon a time our party used to stand for Independence from government, responsibility for one’s actions, and most importantly, honor to God. Not anymore. Because of the behavior of theses crooks in the whitehouse, our party is being hijacked and turned into another Axis of Evil. How do you defeat evil? You sure as hell don’t copy it.
Well, I quit. As of today, I am no longer a Rupublican. I serve God and I serve my country. I do not bow to this corrupt government or the mainstream media that props them up. Hatemongers, good riddance!
Hmmm.
I must bid you all adieu, I’m off to my lovely weekend of oppressing all the peoples of the world for their oil.
Remember! Have a Chimpy McHitlerBush day!
Hmmmm.
If I had a penny for every “I was a lifelong Republican until this President” I’ve met online, I’d have Ringworld full of pennies.
Oh wow, another “former” Republican. Yes, I believe that. I also believe I have a “secret” memo I can sell you, too. Cheap, I swear. Good stuff, too.
You Lefties are more pathetic now than you were when I was one in the 80s.
Well, I guess the insane never really know they’re insane now do they.
Actually, in the electronic age, a petition with half a million signatures can represent any number of people from one (1) on up.
I’d be more interested in one (1) reasoned opinion than any number of astroturfed mouse clicks.
I agree with Peter – I would love to see a concise, reasoned point about why this memo is definitive, rather than ad hominem and tu quoque outbursts.
I also want a chocolate chip cookie, but that is off topic, I guess…