“I have no intention of scheduling that resolution”
by Boozman Press Office
September 20th, 2007
On a day when the Senate works in a bipartisan fashion to condemn MoveOn.org’s vicious attack of General David Petraeus, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives balked at moving on, and bringing up a similar piece of legislation.
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
BLUNT: The Senate just passed a resolution condemning moveon.org ad in the New York Times that suggested Gen. Petraeus might be General Betray Us. Since that has now passed the Senate, when can we expect to see a resolution like that on the House floor?
HOYER: That information is new to me. I am pleased to hear the Senate can pass something.
BLUNT: Maybe we should encourage them by passing this as well.
HOYER: I am not sure I want to encourage the Senate, except to do the work we sent over to them. They have a lot of work on their table. I haven’t looked at that resolution. My friend has seen my quoted as not in agreement with and disappointed with the particular ad that appeared. But having said that, I don’t having any intent at this point in time to bring up that resolution. I haven’t seen it, so I have no intention of scheduling that resolution at this point in time.
BLUNT: I thank my friend for that, I’d encourage you to look at it and would hope that we can see a similar action taken here on the house floor.
HOYER: Will the gentleman yield?
BLUNT: Yes.
HOYER: I want to say, on behalf of myself, and I believe the overwhelming majority of my caucus - perhaps every member of my caucus – we have great respect for General Petraeus. It does not help, in my opinion, the debate to impugn the integrity of those serving our country in uniform in harm’s way. I believe that general Petraeus is an honorable man of great integrity who has severed our country well. I may disagree with him. He may disagree with me on issues. But that does not in any way, any more than you and I might disagree, and we are good friends, undermine our respect for one another’s opinion. And as I say, I want to articulate because you bring up the issue that I believe that impugning of his integrity and patriotism and commitment to this country was inappropriate
BLUNT: I appreciate that and in fact while you may not want to articulate it. I thought you did very well. If you want to take that out and enter it into the Congressional record of our proceedings. I am sure I could co-sponsor exactly the comment that you just made and would like to see us have a chance to do that.
And thank you for this advocacy. ( CHIP) I am grateful that you care more about the issues than the grand standing. I also am grateful to know how consciencious you are on behalf of our children, seniors, and vets. We have a lot of common ground there.
I wish you could get Medicare/Tricare fee schedules up to that of our neighboring states, so we would stop losing the young doctors. Our seniors are having more and more trouble finding a physician, as are our service personnel.
Craig
still in the trenches but getting greyer
====================
This afternoon, Rep. Boozman called on the House leadership to put forward a bill which would extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program before the September 30 deadline, while protecting Arkansas’ seniors.
[…] the Moveon.org attack ad against Gen. Petraeus that ran last week in The New York Times. [Source]Click To Read a Transcript of the Exchange Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
I agree with the Moveon ad—Gen. Patreus did the job he was appointed for by GW. That in no way reflects on the troops, who were not trying to legitimize GW’s illegal war.
Thanks to MoveOn, and I hope they and the other organizations opposing this Oil/Israel War continue to awaken the American people to this debacle.
I think it’s too late to expect our representatives ( REP) to admit the truth.
PS—3700 + Americans dead–27,000 + maimed for life for Halliburton, Exxon, Bush,& REP, Inc
I am watching the grand standing in the Senate about the despicable Move On add. It roundly deserves condemnation. I agree with you on that.
I do have a real concern that many who are so up in arms about this were strangely silent when the Bush Administrations friends did the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry, and before that on McCain. Those adds were patently untrue but told so cleverly and loudly that they were devastating in their effect. Neither Senator Kerry nor Senator McCain deserved that sort of thanks for their voluntary service in Viet Nam. If I recall correctly, none of the Bush main people served except stateside of at all.
I hope that if you take a position against the Move On filth, you will equally condemn the equally reprehensible stuff from the far right. It is time for this to stop. It damages our democracy, regardless who does it.
Consistency and Truthfulness are what separate statesmanship from partisanship.
I am a proud Democrat and I like America. I am from New York. I speak to you today on some facts I picked up. It seems that my senators, from the state of NY, voted against the resolution to condemn the despicable ad. What makes this intreging is that they are the only senators from a state that was attacked on 9/11 to vote against the resolution. The other two states that were attacked on 9/11, Pennsylvania and Maryland, both these state’s senators voted for the resolution. Could it be that they must have forgotten 9/11 and the general mission to defeat terrorism. I do think we need to approach Iraq diplomatically and take out our troops and use them in a transition. But even with my stance, attacking our generals is not the right thing to do.
This pseudo-outrage over MoveOn’s ad about General Petraeus would be amusing if it weren’t so pathetic. It wouldn’t be the first time a highly-respected man in uniform twisted the facts surrounding war. Colin Powell put forth some pretty impressive distortions at the U.N. during the stampede to Iraq. In 1967 William Westmoreland, also “highly-respected,” assured Congress that “mopping up the enemy” in Vietnam would take about two years. And good stuff, that Agent Orange. Helping us win the war, he said. Some 58,000 American troops died. No ceasefire until 1973.
Petraeus said the things Bush told him to say and, John, some of those things were lies. At the very least, a twist of the truth. In war, we get a steady diet of lies. But considering the collective apathy, the breathtaking patience, this country shows for the slaughter of its young, one wonders why Bush—and you, John Boozman–even bother. Just give Americans any old reason—doesn’t have to make sense, doesn’t even have to be true—we’ll send our young people off to die. Oh, we tsk tsk all the way to the mall about casualties and, like the Junior League, we’re careful to send thank-you notes. Our church leaders are oddly quiet. We call the anti-war folks radicals and the pro-war–well, we call them patriots. My brother was a patriot, albeit a drafted one. Last month, after two tours in Vietnam, years of cancer treatment and surgeries, he succumbed to Agent Orange. Only took the government 20 some-odd years to own that one.
So yes, generals do lie, along with presidents, politicians and CEOs, if there’s enough money and power to make war worth their while. As for the rest of us ordinary folks working, paying, agonizing and dying for the war, well, we lie too. Mostly to ourselves.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
John,
I received your note today, Thank You.
And thank you for this advocacy. ( CHIP) I am grateful that you care more about the issues than the grand standing. I also am grateful to know how consciencious you are on behalf of our children, seniors, and vets. We have a lot of common ground there.
I wish you could get Medicare/Tricare fee schedules up to that of our neighboring states, so we would stop losing the young doctors. Our seniors are having more and more trouble finding a physician, as are our service personnel.
Craig
still in the trenches but getting greyer
====================
This afternoon, Rep. Boozman called on the House leadership to put forward a bill which would extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program before the September 30 deadline, while protecting Arkansas’ seniors.
September 21st, 2007 at 12:22 am
[…] the Moveon.org attack ad against Gen. Petraeus that ran last week in The New York Times. [Source]Click To Read a Transcript of the Exchange Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
September 21st, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I agree with the Moveon ad—Gen. Patreus did the job he was appointed for by GW. That in no way reflects on the troops, who were not trying to legitimize GW’s illegal war.
Thanks to MoveOn, and I hope they and the other organizations opposing this Oil/Israel War continue to awaken the American people to this debacle.
I think it’s too late to expect our representatives ( REP) to admit the truth.
PS—3700 + Americans dead–27,000 + maimed for life for Halliburton, Exxon, Bush,& REP, Inc
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:12 am
John,
I am watching the grand standing in the Senate about the despicable Move On add. It roundly deserves condemnation. I agree with you on that.
I do have a real concern that many who are so up in arms about this were strangely silent when the Bush Administrations friends did the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry, and before that on McCain. Those adds were patently untrue but told so cleverly and loudly that they were devastating in their effect. Neither Senator Kerry nor Senator McCain deserved that sort of thanks for their voluntary service in Viet Nam. If I recall correctly, none of the Bush main people served except stateside of at all.
I hope that if you take a position against the Move On filth, you will equally condemn the equally reprehensible stuff from the far right. It is time for this to stop. It damages our democracy, regardless who does it.
Consistency and Truthfulness are what separate statesmanship from partisanship.
Thank you for listening and considering this.
Craig
September 25th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Dear Congressman Boozman,
I am a proud Democrat and I like America. I am from New York. I speak to you today on some facts I picked up. It seems that my senators, from the state of NY, voted against the resolution to condemn the despicable ad. What makes this intreging is that they are the only senators from a state that was attacked on 9/11 to vote against the resolution. The other two states that were attacked on 9/11, Pennsylvania and Maryland, both these state’s senators voted for the resolution. Could it be that they must have forgotten 9/11 and the general mission to defeat terrorism. I do think we need to approach Iraq diplomatically and take out our troops and use them in a transition. But even with my stance, attacking our generals is not the right thing to do.
-Ryan Ali (Democrat)
Resident of New York
September 27th, 2007 at 12:00 am
This pseudo-outrage over MoveOn’s ad about General Petraeus would be amusing if it weren’t so pathetic. It wouldn’t be the first time a highly-respected man in uniform twisted the facts surrounding war. Colin Powell put forth some pretty impressive distortions at the U.N. during the stampede to Iraq. In 1967 William Westmoreland, also “highly-respected,” assured Congress that “mopping up the enemy” in Vietnam would take about two years. And good stuff, that Agent Orange. Helping us win the war, he said. Some 58,000 American troops died. No ceasefire until 1973.
Petraeus said the things Bush told him to say and, John, some of those things were lies. At the very least, a twist of the truth. In war, we get a steady diet of lies. But considering the collective apathy, the breathtaking patience, this country shows for the slaughter of its young, one wonders why Bush—and you, John Boozman–even bother. Just give Americans any old reason—doesn’t have to make sense, doesn’t even have to be true—we’ll send our young people off to die. Oh, we tsk tsk all the way to the mall about casualties and, like the Junior League, we’re careful to send thank-you notes. Our church leaders are oddly quiet. We call the anti-war folks radicals and the pro-war–well, we call them patriots. My brother was a patriot, albeit a drafted one. Last month, after two tours in Vietnam, years of cancer treatment and surgeries, he succumbed to Agent Orange. Only took the government 20 some-odd years to own that one.
So yes, generals do lie, along with presidents, politicians and CEOs, if there’s enough money and power to make war worth their while. As for the rest of us ordinary folks working, paying, agonizing and dying for the war, well, we lie too. Mostly to ourselves.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Honorable John Boozman,
Thanks for your efforts to get the House to condem the MoveOn.org NYT ad as the Senate did last week.
Regards,
Sam