Sen Warner: Liberals are not Patriotic

[ChrisNYC]

Sorry for the delay, not sure if someone else pointed this out yet. But, last night Sen Warner was on Fox News following the speech. This is what transpired:

Sen Warner: Let's talk about the homefront. In my
judgement we've got to back the president up in
Congress and show a strong, bi-partisan strength.
Knock off this business of quagmires, and stop
dividing people between those who are
patriotic and liberals who are not patriotic -- You
gotta stop that. Because during our hearings, The
Generals told us they were troubled by the troops that
would approach them and say "What is this that we're
hearing back home?" So we got to --

Britt Hume: You didn't mean to say, did
you Senator, that liberals are not patriotic?

Sen Warner: Well, I'm just pointing out the way these
things are translated. Statements have been made back
here which have filtered their way into the Arabic
Press and tthe Middle East Press and into our troops
and they are troubling the troops. The Generals told
us that when they appeared before the Armed Services
Committee.

I transcribed this myself after watching the tivoed footage, so I'm not sure if Fox has a transcript.

[marmar]

1. I've heard about all I care to hear from Mr. Warner this week...

He can go fuck himself.

[davidinalameda]

2. I think we're the last patriots left in this country

pathetic

[gollygee]

3. He wouldn't recognize patriotism if it bit him on the nose

Patriotism doesn't mean "blindly follow our leader regardless of whether he's maintaining the ideals upon which our country was followed or not."

[eleny]

4. Warner and all pro war people are executioners

They're sending the soldiers to their deaths. So, they're nothing more than executioners. If he's dishing out the hyperbole, so can we.

[ComerPerro]

5. Exactly. If we're traitors, they're murderers

[FreedomAngel82]

41. Then they

turn around and cut VA benefits!!! And that's patriotic?! As John Kerry once said: "Patriotism includes protest."

[converted_democrat]

6. Fuck you, Sen. Warner.

[blue sky at night]

31. Thank you for expressing that so concisely........

I am so sick of their shit.

[cally]

7. I thought he said something similar on CNN

but I wasn't listening closer. Well, we know the Rep. talking points:

The Iraq fiasco is liberals fault because we were against the war. :crazy:

Liberals are unpatriotic.

Moveon is a whacko organization that threatens America.

We have to fight the terrorists over there.

9/11 changed everything.

Oh, my very favorite. What is the Dem plan to get out of Iraq? (Umm, who's in charge of the gov't?)

[fob]

8. I *think* he was meaning that as his rpuke cohorts should knock

that shit off. The quagmire comment was directed at Dems and the division of people into patriot/not patriot was directed at his party.

That being said, he didn't do a very good job of making that clear originally OR on follow-up. Not surprising that brit hume picked up on the sentence fragment and repeated it out of context.

Also I agree with others that Warner should STFU about "bi-partisanship" unless and until he wakes his own fucking asshole repuke buddies up and get's them off the fucking koo-laid.

[LightningFlash]

Write to Warner and put pressure...

Put pressure on him and all Senate to investigate DSM!

http://www.usalone.com/index.htm

Urge him to stop making divisive comments also, for those who support/don't support this war. :banghead:

[northzax]

26. I agree with you

Warner is no acolyte to this administration. I think he's looking for an elegant way out.

[LightningFlash]

9. Warner, you're the one who wanted a timetable.

And when the WH rejected it you ran with your tail between your legs.

Do something for your god damn country instead of labeling everyone a liberal. Sit down and shutup or help us investigate the case of the downing minutes. :mad: :thumbsdown:

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. I wouldn't want to be a patriot by his or Bush's definition.

:hi:

[samsingh]

11. republicans hate american values and the constitution

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Did he mean that as an insult? I'm a liberal and proud to a non-patriot.

"Patriotism is the most foolish of passions, and the passion of fools." Schopenhauer.

[dbeach]

13. Patriots don't start wars.

Iraq was hurting from the PG 1991 invasion..thousand sof kids died from medical problems while maddy albright said it was OK

Busheviks and neo-conthradals want endless wars for corporat profits..if its good for bushness
must be good for halbutton


russia and china are watching this chemperor..spend the military and economy into the coffins and coffers of the elites

[AX10]

14. John Warner and George Allen:

John Warner is from the "Old Country Set" of Virginia. A traditionalist with greying hair and an appearance of statesmanship, John Warner's (type) "owned the slaves" and worked them all day but never whipped them.

George Allen is part of the rural "redneck" areas of Virginia. A lowly turd on the big scale, George Allen's (type) beat the slaves to and lynched them.

Let's make that clear.

Warner is an SOB, Allen is an SOB, and AX10 is a REAL PATRIOT be AX10 believes in TRUTH and JUSTICE!

[AlwaysQuestion]

15. Warner, close that yap!

"Statements have been made back
here which have filtered their way into the Arabic
Press and tthe Middle East Press and into our troops
and they are troubling the troops."

Oh, puhleeeese, spare us. You're worried about what the troops HEAR but you don't give a damn that these kids are risking their LIVES in an illegal war--what!--so you and yours can get richer. Yes, let's keep your forces in the dark. The truth hurts--THAT'S what's getting under your skin. You, sir, are a disgrace to your country--hell, any country.

[GiovanniC]

16. We Are Traitors to America

In much the same way that La Resistance were traitors to France.

Sit on that and spin, Warner.

[DefenseLawyer]

17. It looks to me like Hume

was trying to spin it into that. I didn't see it, but just looking at that transcript I thought he was talking about Democrats with his quagmire reference but talking about Rove trying to divide, saying that this was not the time for him to divide people into patriotic v. unpatriotic, because statement like that (Rove's) make us look divided when seen abroad. Then again, he certainly didn't exactly correct Hume very clearly when he jumped on that phrase.

[PST]

38. hume is a dirty scumbag who will go down on *

faster than a $10 hooker would.
how that pathetic excuse for a man can get up every morning and look at himself in the mirror without throwing up is one of the world's unsolved mysteries.
god I hate Fux News!

[Wright Patman]

18. Well, if it'll make some 'troop'

feel better, I will say I support his right (and sacred duty as he sees it) to allow himself to be blown away by some sort of explosive device in an oil-soaked land 7,000 miles away.

[ElectroPrincess]

19. Terrific - that's our VA Governor!

Hope he runs for Senate. Although he's as biased as hell, he's good with financial management planning within our state.

Damn! What a "jump on the bandwagon" MORONIC statement!?! :puke:

[SaveElmer]

23. Think you got the Warners mixed up

John Warner is the current Repub Senator who made that comment...Mark Warner is Governor and a Democrat who to my knowledge hasn;t said anything

[ElectroPrincess]

27. Yes I did get them mixed up. I stand corrected

Well gee, ole John Warner is predictable if nothing else.

How 'bout we get two Warners in the senate, ONE standing Republican - John Warner, and one Democratic - MARK Warner.

Thanks for helping me keep these two separate. :-)

[SaveElmer]

30. Not a problem...

Mark Warner ran against John Warner in 1996 I think...he had bumperstickers that said MarkNotJohn to help people out. He actually came pretty close to knocking him off in that race.

[Norquist Nemesis]

20. He tried the same thing with Costas on Larry King Live too!

transcripts (interview with Bayh and Warner) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/28/lkl.01.html
(Notice, Bayh's only statement even remotely connected to R vs D is that ALL of us want to be successful. Warner then takes his poke. :bandhead:

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTAS: Senator John Warner is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is a member of that committee. Senator Bye, you asked President Bush, earlier this week, to present and unvarnished version of the situation in Iraq.

Did he do that tonight?

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: Well, Bob, he did a good job of saying things that the American people already agree on; all of us Democrats and Republicans. We all want to be successful in Iraq. We all support the troops. We all want to be successful in the War on Terror. What the president didn't do as well at, Bob, was to lay out a clear plan with benchmarks for progress that will end in success and I think that's what the American people were looking for and that's essential that we do that to maintain the moral that will be necessary to stay in the course here. And in a word, Bob, we need accountability for progress and I think he could've done much better about that tonight.

COSTAS: Senator Bayh, at this point, what defines, realistically, success in Iraq?

BAYH: A country that does not threaten its neighbors, a country that does not harbor terrorists that could strike us or the rest of the civilized world, and a country that is Democratic and more representative, certainly, than Iraq has been in the past. I don't think we can expect perfection, Bob, but a combination of those three things, I think, we would constitute as success and would certainly enable to us to come home with pride.

COSTAS: Senator Warner, are you more satisfied, than you were an hour or so ago about the way President Bush now stands with his the American public? Did he do a good job of making his case tonight?

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: Well, let the American public answer that. I'll give you my own thoughts and they are very clearly that I spoke -- as the president spoke with a great confidence, a strong resolve to stay the course and I disagree with my good friend over here. There's more than enough benchmarks for progress.

Show me one area in which the terrorists have achieved their goals. They tried to stop and disrupt the elections; they were held on time. They have tried, in many ways, to destroy the police force and each time they inflict terrible harm on police, killing them and so forth, twice the numbers show up the next day to volunteer to take their places. You can see many, many examples of a slow, but steady progress and at the same time, we're not unmindful for a minute of the losses of our own men and women in uniform and those that are injured.

It's very is at the heart of the president, but I have to say that if we stay the course and if we take an attitude back home in everything we say and do, whether we're Democrats or Republican, Evan, and not talk about quagmires and not talk about how maybe the conservatives are more patriotic than the liberals and be more respectful and send a strong bipartisan message that we're behind the men and women of our armed forces and the coalition forces and for the Iraqi people to move ahead and make steady progress with their new government and not, hopefully, let that August 15th deadline for the constitution slip.

Those are the types of benchmarks that we look to, to signal that progress is being made and we don't want to set any deadlines and the American people spoke strongly today in the polls. They don't want to cut and run, and we're not going to do it. (Note: he says "we don't want to set any deadlines" immediately after he stating and "August 15th deadline". Go figure.)

COSTAS: But in those same polls, more than 60 percent said that they felt President Bush had no clear plan for victory in Iraq and now, more than 50 percent say it was a mistake to go there in the first place. I say this respectfully. Virtually all Americans strongly support the troops. All Americans were horrified by 9/11. All Americans know that we face evil and ruthless enemies. They're united in their option to the likes of Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. What they differ on, in good conscience; loyal, patriotic Americans differ about Bush policy.

WARNER: All right. First, you gave two examples, that they feel we shouldn't have gone there, but the facts are, as you said earlier in the program, we're where we are and we have paid a heavy price in men and women, lost lives and those that have been injured and the families who have suffered tremendously.

Secondly, the president stepped up to the plate tonight and in a very convincing way, I believe, said to the American people: Look, if we don't stop the terrorists where they are in these remote places of the world, be it Afghanistan or Iraq, they're likely to come here in greater numbers.

You pointed out earlier: Well, what's to stop them from coming now? Well, I think we've done a great deal in terms of our homeland defense and we've put up checks and balances and deterrents and we thank the dear Lord, it seems to be working.

But if we do not contain terrorism abroad and send a strong signal that America, together with its coalition partners, are going to stay the course and defeat their attempts to bring more harm to civilization, whether it's in Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever it is, they will most certainly come back at us.

COSTAS: Senator Warner, Senator Bayh, stay with us.

We're going to take a break and when we return, we'll be joined by Congressman Chris Shays of Connecticut and Congresswoman Jane Harman of California.

So, there will be four on our panel from Capitol Hill, when we continue on LARRY KING LIVE after these messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[DefenseLawyer]

28. Damn I hate to keep defending a republican

but when he says we should "not talk about how maybe the conservatives are more patriotic than the liberals" he is talking about Rove. Saying Rove should NOT be suggesting that conservatives are more patriotic than conservatives. I would say that might be the only line I can agree with in his statement that is otherwise worthless Bush apologist tripe

[Norquist Nemesis]

34. I would agree had he not said it in a chastising tone pointedly

to Bayh rather than generally to the audience or Costas. It was an "Oh Evan, you're just part of the weak Democrat Liberals and good Americans see through this strategy" moments.

[PunkPop]

21. Disgusting pig

Oh goodness, we musn't trouble the troops. God forbid they hear some truth and start questioning the purpose of this totally fucked-up, criminal enterprise they are engaged in.

Hey, Warner, they're big boys and girls and instead of wasting your time worrying about protecting them from WORDS, maybe you should be working harder to get them some armor to protect them from all the bullets and roadside bombs, you freaking douchebag repub zombie!!

[spanone]

22. He's an ASS. Bush* could shit on tv and he would call it fertilizer.

[endarkenment]

24. So the basic message from yesterday

was the chilling:

"All you liberals shut up and sit down. Fly your flags on Monday to show that you support the war. Anyone not supporting the war is a terrorist."

Been waiting for that. It is very close now. Can't you feel it?

There is a scene in Hotel Rwanda where it is explained that a certain message will go out on Rwandan Hate Radio, and that will be the signal to start the slaughter. What do you suppose our signal will be?

[MrScorpio]

25. Warner is a doddering old coot and Reagan ass kisser from way back

Fucking shame he has to be a senator for the state that I've decided to adopt.

[Nordmadr]

29. It occurs to me that we are exactly the kind of patriots

our forefathers hoped for when they established this country. We are the people. We are the ones that follow politics and search for thruth. We do not always agree on ideals, but we do hold many truths to be self-evident. We educate ourselves and as liberals, tend to have a few characteristics lacking, in my opinion, greatly on the other side. Tolerance. You and I may not agree on many things Mr. Republican, but I support your right to disagree. The fundamentalists in your camp would label me a traitor. I am un-American. My dissent can not be tolerated. The fundamentalist ideal must reign supreme. Your God requires it.

My principle, as many on my side, is based on a particular building stone. It is called do no harm. Do what you want, but do no harm. There is freedom in that. There is social and environmental responsibility in that. If I may, there is even Christianity in that.

Our principle requires that we seek truth. It requires that we stand up for those that can not stand up for themselves. It requires that we stand with each other when adversity strikes to protect the freedoms our forefathers took so seriously. We are the 4th branch of the government. We are the final check in the balance. In this respect, it is not my party I hold to, but my values and principles (to think, and me not even Christian). So for those that would label me unpatriotic, think again, for I defend the do no harm principle, and I see much harm. Continue to think me trivial. Go ahead and discount me, and even scoff at my protestations, for there will come a time when sanity reigns. There will come a time when good people lead, for the oppressed lose patience after a time. You see, it is a cycle we seem to have, and your time is almost up.

Olaf

[elehhhhna]

32. Never take advice form a dipshit that was someone's 6th husband.

Sure sign he's an idiot.

[orwell]

33. I Pledge Allegiance

What is with this "patriotism" litmus test.

I am not patriotic. I am not nationalistic. I am anti-authoritarian. I don't "love" the state or any other inanimate object for that matter. I reserve love for the living.

I treasure my ancestral heritage(s). I like apple pie and 4th of July fireworks. I am in awe of the national park system. But I will never subvert my free will and opinions to the majority just because it is the majority. I declare myself a freeman.

I pay my taxes because I use the infrastructure of the state. That is all I owe it. They can stop going to war and protecting me. I am not afraid. I don't want or need their protection. My security comes from treating others with respect and kindness.

I pledge "allegiance" to liberty and justice for all.

[Nordmadr]

35. I second that. n/t

[evolved Anarchopunk]

42. beautiful, your mind is free and beautiful orwell n/t

[LynnTheDem]

36. "We're losing this war...Iraq could be worse than Vietnam"...said LIBERAL

Senator Chuck Hagel, REPUBLICAN.

War in Iraq not justified, said LIBERAL Rep. Doug Bereuter, REPUBLICAN.

"Freedom Fries" Congressman Now Opposes Iraq War, LIBERAL Senator Walter Jones, REPUBLICAN.

And tehre's so many more of them LIBERAL REPUBLICANS. Perhaps Warner would like a full list?

[Bill McBlueState]

37. are the troops really so spineless? I doubt it.

Who are these troops who go running off to their commanding officers crying everytime they hear the truth about the occupation and public opinion of it? I thought our troops were tougher than that, but Warner seems to think they're very fragile emotionally.

[Burried News]

39. The frontline troops have been undercut by Senator Warner.

You as Chair of the Armed Services Committee have abandoned them when you abandoned further investigation of the Taguba Report. The report was leading to the extensive use of contractors for 'interogation'. Had you continued to investigate as YOU promised the Americam public we would have learned that Karpinski and other Army personnel took the fall.

The prison scandal continues because you chose cover up over truth. Now frontline troops share in the blame and humiliation you heaped on their uniform. You aren't protecting our troops. You aren't protecting Iraqi's. You aren't protecting Americans. You aren't protecting the Senate and its prerogatives under the constitution. You are protecting a cabal that took us to war on lies and deceit.

As for setting an example, I suggest you read some of Former Senator Hollings' recent work.

Warner, your kind of patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

[LightningFlash]

43. Warner has been calling for a full timetable and investigation.

He's just discharging old rhetoric right now. The man is fully well aware that Bush fucking lied, he's just trying to help the morale and the creepy corporate news spins it.

:shrug: :shrug:

[FreedomAngel82]

40. And he wants

to have bi-partisan work? HA! Good luck jerk!

[kwolf68]

44. MY SENATOR

And compared to the other knuckle-dragger we have (Allen) I liked (ed) this guy.

Not anymore. He's a stooge just like the rest of em. Liberals better damn well take the fight to these people just like Sullivan in New Hampshire.

[Zenlitened]

45. Serve your country. Punch a republican in the nose.

[eleny]

46. Here's your boss, Senator Warner

[Bleacher Creature]

47. Take a step bak for a second -- it's sick, but impressive.

Sen. Warner (a/k/a Mr. Barbara Walters) never actually said that liberals were unpatriotic.

Hume said it, but not on behalf of himself.

Finally, Warner gives a weasely "clarification."

And in the end, neither technically said anything.

THIS is why Faux News is dangerous, and THIS is why people need to understand that they are nothing more than an unit of the RNC.

[kwolf68]

50. What?

nothing more than an unit of the RNC.

How about just nothing more than a unit ("unit" is sometimes used as a code word for penis)

[Bleacher Creature]

51. That's fine -- but for the sake of my post, I'll change it to "branch"

[kwolf68]

55. I was joking

Should have put some smileys in there...The term was accurate.

[ernstbass]

48. He's senile

And this Virginian thinks it's time for him to retire!!

[Peace Patriot]

49. Hard to figure. The Bushites have their manufactured retention of the

White House--with not a peep out of the Dems (with a couple of notable exceptions) or the news monopolies--and their manufactured Congress, and their made to order Supreme Court, and their purged intelligence community, and their bootlicking commanders of the Armed Forces of the United States, and their secret prisons and death squads, and their torture memos, and their lapdog media, and all their little hearts could ever desire by way of unaccountable power, and they're whining about...

...liberals quoted in Al Jazeera?

I guess they can't figure out why they're failing on every front, and have to blame SOMEONE.

When you purge people like Joseph Wilson and Richard Clarke, and when you whine like these people do at any voice of dissent, and when you have ill motives for everything you do, such as these Bush Cartelists are clearly guilty of, what you are doing is consigning yourself to the trash heap of history--to the long, sorry tale of pea-brained tyrants who have ever attempted to lord it over their betters and to bully ordinary people into compliance and worship.

Children will mock you in their play. History will revile you. And future generations will learn from you many lessons about egotism, failure, psychosis and false dealing.

It's too bad that we have to learn these lessons all over again. They are very hard lessons, purchased with great suffering. But history is not really a straight line. It is a spiral with recurring themes. And the Bush Cartel is repeating one of the most excruciatingly painful of them: Power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Our Founders tried terribly hard to protect this great democratic experiment against tyranny, by carefully constructing a "balance of power" in government. They knew quite a lot about power tending to corrupt. This is WHY they did what they did. They knew that a Bush Cartel would rear its ugly head, sooner or later. They are likely rolling over in their graves now, with the "checks and balances" that they constructed--under assault by global corporations for some decades--have, one by one, been battered into dust. There is only one left: the People. Us. The governed. And the issue now before us is whether or not we can recover our right to determine who our leaders and represenatives are, that is, our right to vote.

The power over election systems still resides at the state/local level. That is where we must fight this battle. It is a power given to us by the Constitution--and one of the last powers we have. If we can reclaim our right to vote, we will never have to listen to the likes of Senator Warner (the errand boys of the Bush Cartel) again--not to that pea-brained tyrant in the White House.

Banish electronic voting machines. Clean out the corrupt election officials. Paper ballots/hand counts in the meantime. And start over from scratch. Paper ballots/hand counts work just fine in Canada and a number of modern democracies. The closer to the people, the better, in my opinion. Maybe non-profit, non-partisan-owned, open source electronic voting systems could be made to work eventually. For now, we have to completely chuck this extremely non-transparent and corrupted voting system--completely clean house, and demand to SEE our votes counted, and to be able to IDENTIFY those who are counting them, and to MONITOR every bit of arithmetic they do.

[ms liberty]

52. Is America and her citizens really so fragile...

that serious and potentially fatal injuries result when public disagreement occurs? Do the right wing nuts really think the US is that delicate? If they do believe that, well they're woefully uninformed...wait a minute, they ARE woefully uninformed, and proud of it!

[pstans]

53. I saw this speech

I think Warner's words were misintrepreted. He was talking about Kennedy calling Iraq a Quagmire and Rove saying Liberals were unpatriotic. He was saying that those kinds of words need to be stopped. Hume brought it up and gave Warner a chance to clarify and he did a piss poor job of doing it. What he said sounded like he was saying it cause he didn't link it to Rove, but I don't think he meant it cause the rest of the interview was about not saying things that will bring down the confidence of the troops and to have bipartisian support from Congress.

[JaneQPublic]

54. Make him apologize! Make other GOPs say if Warner speaks for them! nt