Wm Safire very critical of Bush in his conference with Putin...

[kentuck]

Unlike most of his colleagues in the media, who have been lavish in their praise of Mr Bush, Safire thought it was a deep "disappointment" that Bush did not hold Putin's feet to the fire. He said they were eye to eye and Bush "blinked".

After the SOTU speech, Bush had an opportunity to continue to push his "democracy" crusade and he failed. Will Safire be quoted any other place than DU on this matter?

[wolfgirl]

1. How can Bush hold

anyone's feet to the fire....he has nothing democratic to stand upon!

[Wright Patman]

2. Safire is neocon/Likudnik

and the reason he and others of his ilk think we should have nuked Russia yesterday is because of Putin's crackdown on the oligarchs such as the Yukos Oil chief who now languishes in a prison after having, with Yeltsin's blessing, looted his way to billionaire status by feeding like a carrion dog on the assets of the dead Soviet state.

[kaitykaity]

3. According to MoDo on the same show,

Putin made a pointed comment about how Bush's Daddy's
friends put him in office, so he needs to shut up about
"democracy" or something to that effect.

lol.

[fooj]

4. That was a real zinger!

[Freedom_from_Chains]

9. I also saw in an article somewhere

That one of the Russian reporters chided Putin for not standing up to Bush more over his democracy jag considering how journalist in America are currently being fired for not reporting the party line.

[tsuki]

10. Ouch! Putin has claws.

[robbedvoter]

5. Was Safire sarcastic or he went senile?

"holding feet to the fire" is not what diplomatic events are about. They should be about getting agreements on important stuff.
Arrogant W got his jollies in lecturing Putin who responding by signing the Itanian nuclear treaty a day after. And Safire thinks W should heve been more unpleasant?

[K-W]

6. Safire doesnt think we should be getting agreements.

He thinks we should be pressuring Russia to keep thier economy unregulated.

[deminks]

7. If memory served, Safire said

on MTP this morning that * "wimped out" in the meeting with Putin. I almost spewed my coffee.

[K-W]

8. There are factions in the republican party over foriegn policy

one of the main divisions is between those who think opening up markets is the path to dominating other countries and 'democractizing' them. The other belives it is wrong to work with 'enemy' nations. We shouldnt be trading with Russia and China, we should be using our power to change thier behavior or bring down thier regimes.

This is why we are free trading with China while still supporting Tiawan.

[deminks]

11. Ooooh!

* being squeezed from the right and the left. Safire et al think he is "wimpy" and the left thought he was arrogant with Putin about democracy. I knew it was a good morning. Thank you! :bounce:

[Mark E. Smith]

12. George "Yalta" Bush

He just ceded control of South Asia from Lebanon to the Indian border to his favorite soul man Pootie.