"April 9, 1999: `Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is . . . ' "
GWB - referring to Kosovo
If Jones is parroting Bush's line against him, why aren't the Democrats?
Didn't see this here but may have missed it. New York Magazine Oct 3 Conan O'Brien on the cover
from:
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/national/features/14574/index.html
new at this quote from here on:
Feature
How the Antiwar Was Won
The ghosts of Vietnam haunting the Iraq war are also lurking over the movement against it.
By Philip Weiss
Coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq, at Dover Air Force Base--one of the photos released by a Freedom of Information Act petition. (Photo credit: United States Government)
As Washington goes, it was a religious moment.
Feature
How the Antiwar Was Won
The ghosts of Vietnam haunting the Iraq war are also lurking over the movement against it.
By Philip Weiss
Coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq, at Dover Air Force Base--one of the photos released by a Freedom of Information Act petition. (Photo credit: United States Government)
As Washington goes, it was a religious moment.
A slender man with sharp features and a thatch of graying hair in an invisible gray suit flitted down the big marble hallway seeming to want to disappear before he turned into a small room. Wrong room. This was some kind of teach-in crowded with antiwar soldiers. Priests with attitude, maimed Vietnam vets, seventies ghosts with silver goatees, the beaded fringe of the Congressional Black Caucus, and all led by a beatific congresswoman from Sonoma County with great legs and a habit of chanting, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here."
Suddenly, the room was silent. Walter Jones, Republican of North Carolina, took a seat at the end of the table. "Walter Jones is here," the congresswoman with the legs announced. He will go next.
"Thank you, Madame Chairman." Jones looked out at the room through narrow eyes. "As you know, being a conservative Republican, I have taken some criticism for doing what I think is right. I believe that those of us, Democratic or Republican, whatever the issue is, if we don't do what's right, we cheat the people."
"Right!"
"Yes."
"Hear! Hear!"
"But I found last week this quote from candidate Bush chastising President Clinton because he did not have a timetable [for withdrawing from Kosovo]. I would like to read this, then I'll close.
"April 9, 1999: `Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is . . . ' "
As quickly as he had appeared, Walter Jones--"French Fry" Jones, as he is known on the left, the congressman who once called for renaming the French fry the "Freedom fry" after the French refused to join us in the invasion of Iraq--vanished, and the room rocked to life. Max Cleland, the former Georgia senator who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, said that Jones was a profile in courage. The Reverend Ed Bacon said that Jones certainly had gravitas if not charisma. Veteran antiwar leader Tom Hayden said it was the first time he'd ever seen a Republican holy man.
.....more