Media largely ignored Biden's disclosure that two more Senate Republicans will withhold views on Iraq until after election
SUMMARY: In a weblog post, ABC News' Jake Tapper reported that two Republican senators told Sen. Joseph Biden that they plan to "break with the White House Iraq strategy," but only after the midterm elections. Only three other media outlets have reported the disclosure.
Noting that Sen. John W. Warner (R-VA) has recently stated that "a change of course" may be needed if the situation in Iraq does not change "in two or three months," ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper reported in an October 6 weblog post that according to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE), "two other Senate Republicans" will "break with the White House Iraq strategy," but "they won't do so until after the November elections." But despite the significance of the disclosure -- that two Republican senators would opt to withhold their views on a matter of such importance to protect their party's electoral prospects -- most media outlets have ignored it, as a Media Matters for America search* of the Nexis database found. Only the October 6 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, an October 7 New York Times article, and ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, on the October 8 edition of ABC's This Week, have noted Biden's claim.
According to Tapper's blog post:
"Two leading Republican Senators have come to me," Biden recalled, and said that after the election "the need to protect the president will be nonexistent" and Republicans will be freer to break with the White House and call for change in Iraq.
Tapper later wondered: "How do you do that math on that?" He then asked: "Holding the Senate is worth, say, 500 dead? One thousand? How many US troops? How many wounded? How do you justify it in your head?"
From the October 8 edition of ABC's This Week:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Chairman Warner doing exactly the same thing. You have Senator Biden on Friday saying that two other Republican senators have come to him and said, "I want to do this after the election." You have Secretary Powell coming out on Wednesday saying, "Change the course."
From the October 6 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: Today, Biden says several Republican senators have told him that the White House has -- let me do the rest of it as a quote -- "already made a decision ... they've got to get the hell out of the position they're in now and they can't do it from under pressure from Democrats and they're going to be able to do it by this, quote, "bipartisan commission."
Is it really conceivable the administration hatched a plan to start all over again in Iraq with the Democrats' plan, but they won't tell us until after we vote next month?
JONATHAN ALTER (Newsweek senior editor): That's pretty close. Yeah, that could very well happen. You know, in Bob Woodward's book, General [John] Abizaid was talking to Democratic Senator Carl Levin and he said we're about this far apart, in other words, the Democrats and the administration.
But what the Warner thing does, Keith, is this really gives the Democrats cover from Republicans on Iraq in this election. Remember, he said, "change the course." That's what he said just on the tape a few minutes ago. That's very different from the official Republican view of "stay the course." So, when Republican candidates say to their Democratic challengers, "Hey, you want to cut and run. You haven't suggested anything specific for what we should necessarily do in Iraq." All the Democrat has to say is, "I'm with John Warner. I'm with your chairman of the Senate Foreign Relation -- the Senate Armed Services Committee." And Warner, in this case, gives the Democrats some real cover.
that Biden can't get a spot on Wolfe Blitzer at the least to reveal something as potent as that? If they have tried and failed to get it out, then the coverup by the media is in itself a story that should be explored.
Biden was on Blitzer's show on October 8th talking about Iraq... didn't say anything.
And the New York Times carried this piece on October 7 (Section A Column 1 Pg. 6).
And to be technical... it wasn't from some Jake Tapper blog... it was in a news conference that has been transcribed in Congressional Quarterly. At least MMFA could have gotten it right. ;-)
wants to be President.
Biden is one of many who fall into the category described by Dave Lindorff in a good article at [link to www.smirkingchimp.com] ("Vote Democratic, But Always Carry A Toothbrush"), begging us to suck it up and vote for the pitifully inept guys (like, in my view, Biden and Reid) because it's going to get worse if we don't, and we've already seen what happened to the country when a principled few tried to take a stand with Nader. As he suggests, we need to get the worst out of office and then work on what is left.
it is helpful if they get it right. They do manage to stay 99 44/100 percent pure, though.
In the bizarre world of politics, this story is more bizarre than most. By withholding their views, they hope to earn reelection based on the present strategy of "stay the course", which the American public is baulking at, as opposed to offering an alternative which might help them keep their seats. It is as if they are willing to admit the Bush/Republican strategy is wrong so long as they don't have to admit it.
A celebrated day in the history of doublethink and doublespeak.
That was my first impression too. Strictly speaking, one should be more likely to hold onto one's seat by breaking with a policy that is disasterous and, finally, deservedly unpopular. But first they need to re-spin it from "cut and run" to something else. It's not clear even Rove can pull this off.
After the election, they will announce that the War on Turr has moved somewhere else, and we don't need all those troops in Iraq any more. Cut and run? We never said any such thing!
Hide and watch.
Right now, their primary purpose, above all else, is to maintain their majority in Congress. If they don't, most of the Bush administration will get the anal exam of their lives. So, look for lots of dirty campaign lies, some kind of October surprise (bomb Iran? Bin Ladin's corpse?) and lots of voting machine "irregularities".
An medium that has allied themselves with the Neo-Cons and are as complicate in the power grab, and assault on the Constitution/Bill of Rights to erode our democracy into the abomination we see today, an American Fascism.
Depriving the public of afore knowledge of Republican Armed Services Committee dissent with the current administration, and its conduct of the war is propaganda, it's pure and simple. A crime!
We won't know the extent of the crimes against Americans, and our government, the plundering of our treasure, erosion of our honor, and moral standing in the world that may well be permanent.
Oversight, Oversight, Oversight, Oversight. Any Questions?? Please see the title of this post.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
While military personnel are dying every day, we have Republican Senators who feel it's more important that they cover their political party's ass than it is to come right out and say today exactly how they feel.
Since Friday:
2 people were killed Friday 1 person was killed Saturday 3 killed on sunday.
is there any other person saying this -- that is not referencing Biden.
Frankly, I hope he is telling the truth. But just announcing it does not make it so. That is "Bushthink" -- I can say crap and reality will bend to my will with the help of the press. It does not work for him and he is the "leader" of the most powerful nation in the world. Oh, people may be fooled but reality is reality. If Biden has names let them fly. If he has proof let it fly. This "I know a secret gambit" is not news. It is crap.
Make Republican law makers answer. Then they're on the record. If they say one thing and then change immediately after the election, then the electorate will know they are liars. And they can start packing before the next election. Maybe if the voters are lucky they can push for the removal of the candidate by using this as proof they did not act in the "best interest of the country" and therefore broke their oath of office.