Frist "Retreats" On Perjury Allegations

[Justice]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

In his Senate floor speech, Frist directly accused Clarke of perjury:

"Mr. Clarke has told two entirely different stories under oath."

But then....
"Frist later retreated from directly accusing Clarke of perjury, telling reporters that he personally had no knowledge that there were any discrepancies between Clarke’s two appearances."

Amazing. This guys are completely desperate. They claim perjury when they don't even know what Clarke said in 2002.

[kentuck]

1. "Somebody" had a little talk with Mr Frist ??

And told him that Mr Clarke may have a lot of stuff to say that they don't want him to say. Don't piss him off too much. Got it , Doctor?

[Disturbed]

2. Arrogant people

They think everyone else is stupid and they are bright.

Now he has made himself the fool.

Somebody smarter than he must have told him to back down some because if the Republicans demanded Clarke's testimony to be declassified the Dems would demand that any Republicans testimony also needs to be opened up. This would make any of those secret meetings not so secret.
People would be real cuatious what they said in secret, eh?

[matcom]

3. Grandstanding

say one thing....

whip up the base....

retract...

retreat...

:puke:

[bklyncowgirl]

7. Kerry said if Clarke's lying charge him with perjury

Big John kicked the ball right back in their faces. No way they want this guy on public trial with all their people testifying under oath. Good.

[NontoxicAvenger]

8. It's already out there

The rightwing nuts will be spewing about it forever. It wouldn't surprise me if it ended up on one of those urban legneds websites along w/Sudan offering to turn OBL over to Clinton on 3 separate occasions and he turned them down.

For those of us in the know, Sudan offered to turn over OBL to the bushie's buddies Saudi, but THEY turned them down. Of course if you point this out to neocons, they call you names.

[stopbush]

26. Agreed. I wrote the same yesterday.

They have no evidence. The whole purpose was to get Clarke labeled as a perjurer so the ditto heads and radio jocks would have a fresh piece of meat to beat until November. The *official* repigs will now drop the issue entirely while their minions scream the charge as if it's a documented truth.

No apologies will be offered. The closest they'll come is to say "the jury is still out on Clarke."

They are slime.

[Vickers]

4. So, since Frist lied on the Senate floor, what's the charge?

Or is that so commonplace now as to be considered OK to do?

[NontoxicAvenger]

10. You're right!

Can't HE be charged w/perjury, or at least slander and defamation of character?

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

16. You'd have to lock up all the wingnuts then

we don't have enough prison space

[smaug]

19. Unfortunately, no

Congress persons are constitutionally immune to lawsuits based on what they have said on the floor of the chamber. This has been used as a tool to smear and slime ever since Rethugikans have had demagoguery as their main emphasis, rather than actual legislative deliberation. Barney Frank has said that since the 1994 coup in the House, Congress has lost its legislative deliberative nature, and become a pulpit for the extreme right.

On a further note, our democracy is really in tatters due to the wingnuts and their blatant disregard for democracy and justice. When the president of Russia can shut up American critiques of their recent elections by pointing to the fact the second place finisher in the 2000 election is in the White House due to Antonin "Quack Quack" Scalia, who is poised to rule that a commission chaired by his hunting buddy and paid for with public money doesn't have to account to that public for its actions. We are no longer the shining city on the hill, but deep within the death throes of our Republic. Think Rome in the first century BCE.

:-(

[JohnOneillsMemory]

21. Rome. Good history lesson. ouch. Bring back 'I Claudius' to refresh. n/t

[mrdmk]

5. Somebody did not get the talking points memo out in time

Tisk, tisk Frist. (Ha, ha).

[dbt]

6. Pugs are counting on their Lapdog Media

They know that ABCCBSCNNNBCFOX will run with the first story ("Frist calls Clarke perjurer") and bury the followup story ("Frist looks down barrel of smoking gun, backs off"). This manner of doing business has been working quite well since the summer of 2000, but lately...

:evilgrin:
dbt

[fknobbit]

9. PR practitioners say

it's easy for politicians to have their way. Peter Teeley, Bush the First's press secretary when he was vice president, explained it this way: "You can say anything you want during a debate, and 80 million people hear it." If it happens to be untrue, "so what. Maybe 200 people read or 2,000 or 20,000."

This is even more true today as the press will Play the "Clark lied" to the hilt while overlooking the fact that there is no real basis for the alligation.

[BlueEyedSon]

11. Large print LIE, small print retraction

like many GOP political pronouncements

[maggrwaggr]

30. exactly

make sure the public hears you screaming "LIAR!" then later quietly say "well I didn't really mean that".

What does the public remember?

[peekaloo]

12. I'm sure he'll send himself some more "paper dust" for sympathy.

John Roberts and CBS put their lies, er contradictions, front and center on last night's broadcast.

[rooboy]

13. Geez. Wouldn't you love to get a diagnosis from this guy???

"You're very ill. Now let's look at your chart..."

[xchrom]

14. why would the media care if he retracts?

they only care if he tells the ''big lie''.
they're all on the same side -- the corporate facist side.

[NewJeffCT]

15. get it out for the Friday evening news

And then retract it later when nobody notices it...

[prolesunited]

18. Exactly!

That's their MO. Everyone reads the headlines; few notice the corrections on page 2. They've done this repeatedly. They have the best propagandists and marketing experts that money can buy.

[gulliver]

20. Yup. The Republican way.

Frist is showing his true stripes.

I would love to see Clarke respond something like: "Well, I think Dr. Frist is simply being deceptive. Frist is the guy who deceived people at animal shelters by pretending to adopt cats that he then killed and dissected."

You know, someone should ask Frist how he killed the cats. He already admitted performing experiments on them. Geez, maybe he didn't kill them before he did the experiments...

[madrchsod]

17. frist got the word out

for the talk shows..frist is probably the worst guy the republicans could have picked for the senate leader. the real strength in the senate is tom delay-he controls both the house and senate

[Cat Atomic]

22. Frist is a child molester.

I don't have any evidence or anything, but I thought I'd accuse him anyway and see if it sticks.

[Bandit]

28. That is Classified Information

:evilgrin:

[Skittles]

35. he is a kitten killer

I don't have any evidence - no, wait, there actually IS evidence. :o

[indie_voter]

23. Did you hear Frist demean Clark's apology? VILE puke.

[Kimber Scott]

24. Yell "Perjury" for the pundits

and then back off. This is exactly how I expected it to be. Especially, after Bob Graham came out and said they needed to "declassify" everything pertaining to the 9/11 investigations, not just the parts favorable to the White House.

Nobody will remember they never declassified anything, only that Frist said there was something in the testimony that proved PERJURY. Perjury. Perjury. Say it over and over and over and over....

[Bandit]

25. I think it is a bit of "Oh Shit" let's let this subject drop

The longer it is in the news the more harm is done to Bush* no matter what they end up doing to Clarke. Someone, I'm not sure who, but someone there has some grey matter that works. They want this off the airwaves as quickly as possible. They plan on getting Clarke in some other manner. They may fix his books and trump up some IRS problem for him or just decide to have him suicided. But they are getting desperate to get all this stuff off the air for now and start attacking Kerry again.

[samsingh]

27. frist perjures himself by lying to Congress

about someone else supposedly perjuring themselves.

the irony is surely lost on the neo-con repug morons.

[DrBB]

29. The stink of a coward: My missive to Mr Frist

Just thought I'd share. Sent this to the good Senator via his website:

I now know what moral cowardice looks like. It looks like a Senator denouncing a man as a perjurer from the floor of the Senate, where said senator enjoys immunity from prosecution for libel, and then scampering off and admitting to the press that he has no idea whether the man he accused--in no uncertain terms, with no equivocations--was a perjurer at all.

As in "{Frist]} said he personally didn’t know whether there were any discrepancies between Clarke’s two appearances," and "Frist made clear Friday that he isn't accusing Clarke of perjury."

In a former age, when honor was a matter of high seriousness, to call a man a liar was among the most deadly insults--one that the accuser knew he'd better be prepared to back up with dueling pistols.

To do so like this, in a public venue where one enjoys immunity, then retract it outside that venue is purely and simply a craven act. A craven act.

I suspect you have done more to harm your cause than help it, Mr Frist. We are not fools out here, whatever you politicians think (and yes, that's what you are--you proved it today). We know what integrity smells like. A single man expressing an unpopular view against those with enormous power and malice--right or wrong, that is an act of courage.

Whereas what you have done has the ugly urine stink of cowardice all over it.

[raysr]

31. Throw out the big headline

"Clarke accused of Perjury" and that's all the general public will read, theyby to them making it true.

[Bozita]

33. Headlines should read, "Frist's allegations are pure BULLSHIT"

Thanks for sharing your excellent letter.

[lolly]

34. Wow

That was good.

You should print it out and send a LTTE.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

32. I just saw McConel (R) on Faux

when asked by Tony Snow "Do you have any evidence he lied" he squirmed and said "ummm well ummm well let's see" bull line.

[lazarus]

36. Is that a tail between your legs

Or are you just happy to see me?