Bill O'Reilly beginning to turn on Bush re: Iraq

[TheWebHead]

from his 'Talking Points' memo Friday.

video link:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player.html?5407&Talking_Points&Talking%20Points

Click the 'options' button...

Bush continues to 'muck up' Iraq post-war... Blasts DoD no contracts punishment... Newsweek finding UBL & Omar message courier but we can't find them.

[PSR40004]

1. A ploy

To make him look independent....

[PDittie]

4. if you didn't believe anything he said before...

there's no reason to believe this...

[fishnfla]

2. iraqi contracts

looks like the conswervatives are using this as wedge issue to get on the right side of the Iraqi situation, ours.

[supernova]

3. Also going to get weary

of an open-ended stay in Iraq for our military. Just watch the true conservatives come out of the woodwork over this issue in the coming years. They will be the one's calling to "bring our troops home" evenmoreso that we libs are.

[BadFaith]

20. Not necessarily...

We are, I think, in the beginnings of a split within the Republican party, and more specifically the conservative movement, that is going to be fought over the dominance of U.S. foreign policy and defense by their neo-conservative faction. Wolfowitz's memo, leaked a day before the President was scheduled to talk with world leaders about expanding the international role in Iraq, seriously undercut the administration's efforts to those effects. Given the insular nature of this administration, and its history with regard to press leaks, I am not of the opinion that this particular leak was accidental.

This situation has been brewing for some time, and started nine months ago when former Bush speechwriter David Frum, who authored the phrase "axis of evil", smeared so-called "anti-war" conservatives as unpatriotic in a NRO article. Many conservatives who did not entirely adopt the neo-conservative view on the then-pending Iraqi war were outraged over Frum's attempt to "out" any conservative who dared do partake of that contemptible practice of "not doing what you're told". Paleo-Conservative internet columnist Justin Raimondo did a piece on Frum back in March, calling the former speechwriter "Commissar Frum".

[supernova]

23. I agree

because true conservatives -- not the neocons -- are at heart isolationist in nature, like Pat Buchanan.

We libs may get after them at times for not engaging the world in a healthful way (it more often comes out as anti-immigrant sounding), but this tendency of the conservatives to just stay at home at least winds up being a good, nonthreatening thing to the rest of the planet.

I'll have to go away for a few and read your article.

[fishnfla]

25. Well neocon/pnac architecht Wm Kristol came out this week

in the Weekly Standard specifically regarding these Iraqi contracts and full-out said the * policy was stupid. It was fun to see that. I'll go find that link now

[BadFaith]

26. Don't Confuse the Ringleader with the Clown

While Bill Kristol's pull within the Neo-Conservative circle is significant, calling him the movement's architect is absurd. And PNAC is not so much the Neo-Con movement in its totality, but the most succinct expression of its ideals. Other purveyors of the Neo-Conservative agenda, with much more sway in American politics than PNAC can ever hope to achieve, include the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

No, if there was an architect of Neo-Conservatism, Kristol would not be it. Rather, the modern Neo-Conservative Movement finds its origins, principally, in such former-leftists (and radical ones at that) as Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol (father of William), and Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

[fishnfla]

31. Ok then thanks

what are their views on the Iraqi conflicts?

[dkf]

5. Carter says Sr. Reagan and Bush officials privately saying Iraq was a

mistake.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/12/lkl.00.html

KING: Newt Gingrich, in a surprising statement over the weekend, said we've gone off the cliff -- off a cliff in post-war Iraq. And the White House has got to get a grip on this. Were you surprised at that criticism?

CARTER: I was surprised that Newt Gingrich said it, but privately, I have communicated with some of the former leaders in the Reagan administration, Bush Senior's administration, you know, who privately tell me it was a terrible mistake.

KING: Really?

CARTER: Oh, yes. And they are reluctant, obviously, to speak out. I was surprised that Newt Gingrich spoke out so clearly, but his voice is not alone among very conservative Republicans who feel the same way.

[calimary]

9. When did Newt say this?

Anybody got a link on it?

[Cooley Hurd]

13. Here's a link containg the quote...

U.S. Gone "Off a Cliff" In Iraq, Gingrich Says

<snip>
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich said yesterday that the Bush administration has gone "off a cliff" in postwar Iraq and that "the White House has to get a grip on this."

In a blunt critique by a leading Republican, Gingrich said the administration has failed "to put the Iraqis at the center of this equation. . . . The key to defeating the bad guys is having enough good guys who are Iraqis," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
<snip>

This coming from the biggest Neocon enabler of the 90's... :eyes:

[TreasonousBastard]

16. I believe it.

Party unity and loyalties are one thing, but real conservatives are not stupid.

I find it difficult to believe that many are not in great distress over the way the war is going, the complete breakdown in foreign relations, and the looming fiscal disasters. This is not good for anyone, and them least of all in many respects.

Methinks the cooler heads in the Republican Party are trying desperately to change the course of things. They're just not all that interested in hanging their dirty laundry out.

[mzmolly]

22. This is another reason Dean is gonna kick *'s ASS!

:thumbsup:

[joefree1]

6. Hmm, I guess not all the neo-cons

got a Haliburton dividend check.

[supernova]

10. The neo-cons do

to get Haliburton checks. Regular conservatives do not. This whole Iraq escapade is becoming a wedge issue withing the GOP. Just watch it grow.

I'm experiencing no small amount of schadenfreude over it. ;-)

[SoCalDem]

7. It's just bluster

He does that kind of thing from time to time to "prove that he's fair and balanced"..

Phony baloney..

[BeFree]

12. Bluster is ok

Because his audience will remember. It plants a seed in their heads, and with us watering the seed day after day, it's bound to grow. From an acorn grows a mighty oak.

Besides, the truth, in any form, is a good thing. Even if it issues forth from a phoney baloney.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. OReally: Celebrity Journalist

What's his opinion on Michael Jackson? Any new Hollywood gossip I should be aware of? SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! This guy is a "moran".

[JackSwift]

11. What has changed his mind?

The facts on the ground haven't really changed. Has he just seen enough screwing up? Is it the war profiteering? The casulties? The cost?

All of these things are endemic in war.

But O'Reilly will be back to his usual crap the next show. Rupert Murdoch will fire him if he criticizes Bush in more than passing.

[Eric J in MN]

14. Throwing a crumb to the left. He won't go anywhere with this. (nt)

nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. March 18 2003

"If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush Administration again, all right?"

O'Reilly on ABC's Good Morning America

Is he getting a bit embarrassed at his previous support of Bush?

[opihimoimoi]

18. Well, he should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Considering he made the statement without a gun to his head.

And where is the apology??

Nada. so don fall fo the HO.

[NewJeffCT]

35. well,

Every time it gets brought up, he keeps pushing the deadline to find WMD back. I think he gave them a few weeks, then a month, then 2 months, then 90 days, then 6 months...

you get the idea.

[supernova]

19. Would be a good start.

If he stood by that quote.

[littlejoe]

17. Not to disrespect you, but

how can anyone waste their time watching Bill O'Reilly?

[TexasSissy]

21. Does anyone listen to "Bill O'Lielly" (as Franken calls him),

anymore?

[supernova]

24. I don't

but then again I don't have cable.

[BertrandL]

34. A lot of right wingers do, eom

[LTR]

27. Is this the same Bill O'Really

That blasted anyone who dare badmouth Bush?

Pot, meet kettle. Glad to meet ya!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

28. He also said "How is it that Newsweek can find Osama but we can't"

n/t

[kerry-is-my-prez]

29. If O'Reilly starts bashing Bush - Bush could be in deep do-do

I'm going to write him and telll him to keep up the Bush-bashing - much as I can't stand the guy.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

30. O'Reilly also bashed Bush on how he's not liked overseas/wants to tax rich

Agreed with the decision to remove Judge Roy Moore.

wtf!!! The world as we know it has ended...

OK - he still has a lot of the same goofy opinions but he seems to have become a little more reasonable.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105448,00.html
Talking Points admires accountability, but admires vision as well. President Bush is not well liked overseas. That's not good for us. He should stick to his principles, but also embrace policies that will improve America's image abroad. Payback is sometimes justified, but it's not only the wisest thing to do.

And that's The Memo.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104683,00.html
Finally, Talking Points has a solution to the whole government spending mess. Every new entitlement should be funded by a national sales tax on everything except food and clothing under $100. Talk about taxing the rich -- those Mercedes-buying, yacht-sailing fat cats would pay their full share without slippery corporate deductions.

[mrdmk]

32. Just a question

Did Bill O’Reilly say he would eat something by a certain date if no weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq?

[Catherine Vincent]

33. That may be but it won't matter.

Newt Gingrich criticized bush on the Iraq war too but he was on Washington Journal about a week ago and he was still spewing the party line and praising bush.

Don't let these right wing mouthpieces fool you.