Cleland: 'we don't have democracy'

[Rigorous Intuition]

<br>Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., energized and frightened Missouri Democrats Saturday as he laid out the stakes for the party and the country.<br><br>...<br><br>“If Harry Truman were alive right now, he’d put Halliburton and everyone associated with it in jail,'’ he said.<br><br>But Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, said he was most concerned about Iraq and the American troops there. He said that the administration has mishandled the war and turned it into another Vietnam — “there’s no strategy to win it; no strategy to end it.'’<br><br>“There’s only one man in the Bush administration with combat experience — Dick Cheney after he went duck hunting,'’ Cleland said.<br><br>Cleland added that he also was concerned about the integrity of the new voting systems, and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>questioned the accuracy of the Diebold systems</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> in use in Georgia and Ohio. In Ohio in 2004, he asserted “there was a lot of funny business'’ with the voting systems, such putting too few machines in Democratic precincts.<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong><br>“It’s insane for us to install democracy in Iraq when we don’t even have it in our own country.'’ </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/news-politicalfix/2006/03/demo-days-cleland-calls-bush-a-disaster">St Louis Today</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[marykmusic]

Did you read it all the way to the end?<br><br>Last paragraph:<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>As for Cleland, he remains in DC as a member of the board for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. (Bush appointed him in 2003.) But Cleland expects to move back to Georgia later this year. He says he won’t run for office again, but will help selected candidates in his home state and elsewhere.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>How did the guy become a Bush appointee? --MaryK <p></p><i></i>

[Rigorous Intuition]

Yeah, Cleland left the Kean Commission to take that appointment after having called the 9/11 inquiry a disgrace and a whitewash. I wonder what pressure was applied to make him jump. <p></p><i></i>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Cleland may have simply not wanted to be a human credential for what he saw was going to be another Warren Commission.<br><br>He realizes his power as a political symbol ("served and sacrificed") and the Bush cabal wanted to use him somewhere.<br><br>And, like Colin My Lai/My lie Powell, he may rationalize that 'tokenism gets in me in the door but atleast I'm in which is better than out.'<br><br>I don't see any reason yet to cast doubt on Cleland's motives despite the many around him. I see the same dynamic with Ramsey Clark who I still believe is sincere even as he is used as a political discrediting device against his embraced causes.<br>I know Jeff sees him as an "intergenerational cointelpro" agent but I disagree.<br><br>Cleland's line about Cheney's combat experience with his shotgun is very useful for describing the chickenhawks and pealing away more Repubs who think of themselves as 'war constituents.'<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=hughmanateewins>Hugh Manatee Wins</A> at: 3/5/06 12:08 pm<br></i>