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“We ought not to politicize this war. We ought not to politicize the rhetoric about life and death,” Daschle said
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WASHINGTON,
September 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The nation’s top
Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday, September 25, demanded that U.S.
President George W. Bush apologize to the American people for
politicizing a potential war on Iraq for political gain and implying
that Democrats were not interested in the nation’s security.
“That
is outrageous. Outrageous,” Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said
on the Senate floor, barely able to contain his anger, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The
president ought to apologize to Senator Inouye and every veteran who
has fought in every war who is a Democrat in the United States Senate.
He ought to apologize to the American people.”
Senator
Daniel Inouye of
Hawaii
is a World War II veteran who lost his arm in battle. Speaking on the
Senate floor, he said, “It grieves me when my president makes
statements that would divide this nation.”
“We
ought not to politicize this war. We ought not to politicize the
rhetoric about life and death,” Daschle said.
“We’ve
got to do better than this,” Daschle said in a short but impassioned
speech. “Those who died gave their lives for better than what
we’re giving now.”
In
response, Republican Minority Leader Trent Lott said Daschle needed to
“cool the rhetoric.”
“I
think that Sen. Daschle needs to cool the rhetoric,” Lott told
reporters. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, we need to do it in a
bipartisan way. Accusations of that type are not helpful.”
Daschle
was reacting to what he said was a growing, concerted campaign by Bush
administration officials and the president himself to turn the notion
of a war on Iraq into an election issue just weeks before the country
votes for a new Congress.
He
ticked off a list of comments by White House pollsters, Bush’s chief
of staff Andrew Card, Vice President Dick Cheney, and finally Bush
himself, who was quoted in The Washington Post as saying “the
Democratic-controlled Senate is not interested in the security of the
American people.”
“Not
interested in the security of the American people?” Daschle said.
“You tell Sen. Inouye he’s not interested in the security of the
American people. You tell those who fought in
Vietnam
and in World War II they’re not interested in the security of the
American people. That is outrageous. Outrageous. The president ought
to apologize.”
Daschle
also listed Card, who has been quoted as saying “from a marketing
point of view” it made sense to raise the issue of
Iraq
after Labor Day when lawmakers would be back from their August break,
reports CNN.
Cheney
spoke about
Iraq
while campaigning for Republican candidate Adam Taff in
Kansas
Monday. Taff is running against incumbent Democrat Rep. Dennis Moore
in upcoming November elections.
“I
must say that I was very chagrined that the vice president would go to
a congressional district yesterday and make the assertion that
somebody ought to vote for this particular Republican candidate
because he was a war supporter and that he was bringing more support
to the president than his opponent,” he said Tuesday. “If that
doesn’t politicize this war, I don’t know what does.”
CNN
reports that Daschle’s criticism of Cheney echoed complaints from
some Democrats who accuse Republicans of playing up the
Iraq
debate before the election for political gain.
“It
goes to the question of what the goal is here. Is it regime change in
Iraq
or regime change in the Senate?” asked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
The
statements, Daschle said, threw into question the motivation of the
Bush administration in bringing the
Iraq
debate to the fore just weeks before the November 5 congressional
elections, in which the balance of power in the 51-49
Democratically-held Senate is at stake.
Bush
responded to Daschle’s comments while meeting Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe at the White house: “My job is to protect the American
people,” Bush said. “And I will continue to do that regardless of
the season.”
Daschle
also cited a Republican pollster who said that war as an issue that
could benefit Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
“It
sheds great doubt on what their intentions are. It really brings into
question their motivation,” he said.
