Congressman Conyers: The Passing of Ann Richards

[cal04]

I was sad to learn today of the passing of Ann Richards, former Democratic Governor of Texas. You may remember Richards as the governor before George W. Bush and Karl Rove took over Austin.

I remember Richards' memorable keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. She highlighted the failure of the Republican party to come clean and talk straight with the American people.

The scandal back then was Iran-Contra, an occasion where instead of taking a strong line against terrorists, the Reagan Administration sold arms to the Iranian regime that held Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They made this Faustian deal so that they could fund the Contra insurgency in Nicauragua, in direct violation of the law.

Addressing the Reagan Administration's sudden amnesia about its role in this scandal, Ann Richards exclaimed,

(T)he greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the helicopters. And we know he doesn’t wanna answer. But we have a lot of questions. And when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, "I don’t know," or "I forgot." But you wouldn’t accept that answer from your children.

I will certainly miss Ann Richards' tough talk and her forthrightness. She was a legend in Democratic politics and a hero to many.

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000548.htm#comments


http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/annrichards1988dnc.htm

[Erika]

1. Yeah, Reagan gave arms to the Iranians

and she had the guts to call him on it. One classy and brassy lady. Democratic women have that quality.

[midnight]

2. Bush Sold arms to Sadam......... Then invades for supposedly

having WMD. Now we find out that Reagan sold arms to Iran. Now they want to go in and invade them. Why don't we stop selling arms to our enemies?

[clmbohdem]

3. $$$$$$$$$$

[flordehinojos]

4. i think this is brilliant and i love these two paragraphs,

"I remember Richards' memorable keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. She highlighted the failure of the Republican party to come clean and talk straight with the American people.

The scandal back then was Iran-Contra, an occasion where instead of taking a strong line against terrorists, the Reagan Administration sold arms to the Iranian regime that held Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They made this Faustian deal so that they could fund the Contra insurgency in Nicauragua, in direct violation of the law."

democrats today ought to be repeating connyers words and using them against this bush whose "strong line against terrorists" is merely an excuse for a) stealing iraqi oil, b) avenging his father and c) providing him with an excuse to mount his dictatorship in this country.