The Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate here in Tennessee have continued their silence on the issue of whether Donald Rumsfeld should resign for his continued failures in Iraq.This comes even after Congressman Ford urged all the Republican candidates to join him in a bi-partisan fashion in calling on President Bush to accept Rumsfeld's resignation and replace him with Colin Powell.
Ed Bryant, Van Hilleary, and Bob Corker may say they are running for the U.S. Senate here in Tennessee, but they aren't acting like it.
Tennesseans want a leader who is ready to tackle tough issues and someone who is not afraid to speak up when things are going wrong.
Bryant, Hilleary, and Corker should tell Tennesseans if they support the job that Secretary Rumsfeld is doing. If they think he is doing a 'heck of a job', then tell us.
Their silence suggests they do indeed support Rumsfeld and the job he is doing.
Tennesseans deserve to know how they feel on this all important issue.
I hope you will join me in calling for the Republican candidates to declare whether they support Congressman Ford's push for Rumsfeld to resign and be replaced by Powell.
Our country's standing and our troops safety are in the balance.
More: Jay Bush is trying to defend Ed Bryant failure to address the issue by saying, "And that's really what these calls for Rumsfeld's resignation are all about. Democrats know that if President Bush sought Rumsfeld's resignation it would be a defacto admission that the war in Iraq is a failure. Ford either doesn't understand or doesn't care what a disaster Rumsfeld's departure would be to our mission. By advocating for his removal, Ford is essentially throwing his hands up and declaring defeat in Iraq."
Jay couldn't be more wrong. Even conservative columnist agrees with Congressman Ford that Rumsfeld should go and that doing so would not be admission of failure; it would be doing the right thing: (Via this past Sunday's This Week)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) They're saying he did. And I guess, George, the political calculation here is the President, to replace Rumsfeld now would be to admit failure on Iraq. The counterargument would be, it is the only way to signal that you're going to go in a different direction.
GEORGE WILL (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) I agree with that. It's not admitting failure. It's admitting that it's not going well, which doesn't take a genius to see.
JOE KLEIN ("TIME" MAGAZINE)
Then you have to come up with a different direction which is really the tough part.
GEORGE WILL (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Really difficult. Yes, but this - the President's principal problem right now is not in Baghdad, it's in the United States. It is the fact that the bottom has fallen out of public support for this. And the public needs a signal that the President is thinking, rethinking and that would be what a change would do.
Finally, Jay is wrong for suggesting that Congressman Ford is advocating declaring defeat in Iraq.
The fact is the Congressman has went on record as saying he thinks we need to stay in Iraq until success is met.
"We cannot leave Iraq and Afghanistan until they have adequate systems in place to govern and defend themselves. There is conflicting rhetoric coming out of the administration on this front. One day we hear that a pullout or drawdown of U.S. troops is imminent. The next we hear the opposite. I want the troops home as much as anyone, but having to send another generation to that region to fight 10 or more years from now because we left too early would be a worse outcome than the situation we now face. We need to do this right the first time."
-- Washington Post Op-Ed by Harold Ford Jr, 01/21/06
Jay and his fellow Republicans are disgraceful. They will lie, defame our nation's generals, and do whatever else they think it will take to try to cover up their candidate's ineptness.
I also find it very disturbing that Jay would go out of his way to defend a failure like Donald Rumsfeld.
The well being of our nation and the safety of our troops are at risk here. Yet, that doesn't bother them. They stick to their partisan guns.
Granted, this is an online unscientific poll, but over 7,000 people have voiced their opinion, so I doubt this poll is very skewed in either favor.
105 Days
Days of Congressional Inaction on Ethics
Above is the number of days that have passed since Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to bribing Congressman.
It is also the number of days in which Congress has failed to pass an ethics reform bill that would limit private travel, ski and golf junkets, and would call for a full disclosure of expenses by lobbyists on members of Congress.
It is time for Congress to step up and pass an ethics reform bill that would do all of the above. In addition, it is time to end the pork barrel spending system as we know it and establish an independent ethics commission that would review ethics complaints against members of Congress.
I am proud Congressman Harold Ford Jr. is fighting for that reform!
Read Congressman Ford's call for reform of the House rules here!
