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Durbin's Aplogy

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Jun 21, 2005 at 05:33:34 PM EST
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Sen. Dick Durbin gave a full apology for his choice of words late this afternoon. Here's what CNN's Congressional correspondent Ed Henry told Lou Dobbs, who was on air at the time about the apology: (available on Lexis.com)

[from Durbin's speech] I made reference to the Nazis, to the Soviets and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I've come to understand that was a very poor choice of words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: This comes after heavy pressure from various Republicans on Sunday. Former prisoner of war and Senator John McCain said in fact that Durbin should go further and actually apologize on the Senate floor. Late last night, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the rest of the Republican leadership sent a joint letter to the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, demanding that Durbin go down to the Senate floor and apologize.

As you just saw, he finally did that this evening. And it's very interesting. Privately, Republicans are telling us this is kind of a coordinated strategy they now have. They want to go after Durbin, they want to go after the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and say that a lot of their comments have been extreme, especially on the war -- Lou. (emphasis supplied.)

.... Actually, Lou, what's been interesting is that Dick Durbin, even though he's the number two Democrat in the Senate, was basically twisting in the wind for the last week. No democrats were really coming forward to either denounce this or to support him.

In fact, Democrats were mostly staying on the sidelines. Democratic Leader Harry Reid did voice what he called 100 percent support for Durbin in the last couple of days, but no other Democrats were going down to the floor to defend him. And as you point out, no other Democrats would denounce these words that clearly caused a lot of concern -- Lou.

I saw a later clip on Fox of Nancy Pelosi defending Durbin after his apology. She essentially said this is all a Republican ploy to keep us from addressing the real topic: What we did at Guantamo and who's going to be held accountable. She said no one was blaming U.S. servicepersons....we all know it's Washington that's at fault.

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    Durbin's Aplogy | 31 comments (31 topical)
    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#10)
    by Darryl Pearce on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:20 PM EST
    The Republicans actually have some ability to recognize when lines have been crossed. Please elucidate your opinions on: --Ann Coulter --Rush Limbaugh --Michael Savage --Sean Hannity --Bill O'Reilly For myself, if I was broken down, bleeding in a ditch, I might accept help only from Bill O'Reilly... maybe. . . ...dang! Now I put the discussion thread off-topic. Sorry!

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#1)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:21 PM EST
    Even Andrew Sullivan says there is nothing at all wrong with what Durbin said. The outrage was totally manufactured, and it's part of the Republicans' conscious strategy to attack individual people rather than engaging on issues. What Durbin said was spot on, 100% completely accurate, and absolutely needed to have been said.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#2)
    by glanton on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:21 PM EST
    And thiis strategy is precisely why we can't seem to be a substantive discourse, about our most vital issues, going in this country. It's all jingoism, corporate show. "He said Americans are Nazis!" That's so much better than actually facing up to anything. But most sickening of all is Durbin's cave-in. A jellyfish at the core. A momentary burst of guts, but no power to sustain it.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    OK, then Santorum should go down there and apologize. And Senators Sessions. And Inhofe. And Cole. And Phil Graham. Here is a litany of this particular brand of Republican hypocrisy. The Repukes are just trying to distract people away from Gitmo and the Downing Street Minutes. Man, I hate these people.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimcee on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Well what he said was pretty over the top and I wish folks that disagree with the Bushies would be a little more circumspect. The Nazi deliniation is pretty desperate as well as shabby as was his anlogy/apology. In the end Sen Durbin's original statment says what he thinks should be said. I guess it was way too revealing of the Lefty talking points of sites such as this, time to back away a bit. If the guards at Gitmo are Nazi torturers by the Senator's own words then I guess they are Nazis. This is not an issue of interperation as much as an overreach on the part of Sen Dubin. How can he be an elected official and be so foolish? And how can his apoligists here defend him without destroying their own credibility? Just asking.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#5)
    by DonS on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    No, no, this is just accomodating the thug sleaze machine, and I wonder exactly what buttons they pushed to orchestrate this "apology". Sometimes I'mglad this a family oriented site, because my real feelings are not easily expressed without a few expletives.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#6)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    cheney should have apologised for saying "Go f**k yourself" on the senate floor. When will the dems learn, when you have told the truth, NEVER apologise! And regardless of all the rush lamebaugh kool-aid drinkers on the site saying 'he compared americans to nazis', all he actually did was say they were employing the same torture techniques. repubs frequently compare dems to nazis, (please, please trolls, ask me for links, but be prepared to pay for TL's increased bandwidth), where's the outrage? Being reasonable is no longer a viable political strategy in this bizarro world. And yes, Andrew Sullivan is a republican and extreme right winger. Trolls think that just because he's gay he must be on the left. Yet another example of their willingness to limit the rights of anyone they don't completely agree with.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#7)
    by jarober on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Compare and contrast Republican reaction to Trent Lott (for remarks that, while reprehensible, did not aid the enemies of the US) with the reactions of Democrats to Durbin. It's very instructive, I think. The Republicans actually have some ability to recognize when lines have been crossed. Democrats have no such ability, seems like.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    1. Democrats turned on him, too. What is so sad is that they continue to apologize when they shouldn't. What is wrong with them? This is why Americans think they are too weak for run the country. If they can't stand up to freakin "bullies", how can they possibly stand up to a terrorist? 2.. Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean will be Jon Stewart's guest on The Daily Show this Thursday at 11 p.m. Be sure to watch! 3. Most blogs carry the "Sunday Shows" and feature exclusively MSMs such as MTP, Face the Nation, etc., implying THEY have merit and integrity and are THE place to be. Why don't BLOGS replace and/or add a piece for Air America's special guests,trip, etc. Front Line has a piece on tonight about all of the contractors in Iraq cleaning up - yet this gets no mention in our own blogs. Indifference is the greates insult, why don't we dis the corporate media and promote our own instead. 4. When will we take our party back so we can take our country back? Haven't we had enough of elected liars, crooks, whores, and murderers that are more interested in winning and holding power so they can feather their own nests and ignore the the job we pay them to do. They lie, stab their party and colleagues (Dean and Durbin) in the back clearly demonstrating their values or lack of them. If they'll do that to them, just what do you think they will do to us? Remember, what you see is what you get. Republicans manipulate the religious right. What makes you so sure that Democrats aren't simply manipulating the left? Remember ABB? They said, shhhh, don't eat your own. We listened, they lost - AGAIN.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#9)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    JR is either a fool, or he thinks we are. Why would racist repubs casigate Lott!? repubs frequently compare dems to nazis, claim dems are racist, and the rethug prez of the senate says "go f%$k yourself" on the Senate floor.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#11)
    by nolo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Lines that needed to be crossed were crossed. Our government is up to its elbows in ill deeds.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#12)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    jimcee, you obviously haven't heard what he said, just what people said that he said. What he said was that if he didn't know that the lurid details he was reading were actually coming from an FBI report, he would have no way of telling whether the behavior being described there was happening at Gitmo or if it were happening at some gulag run by the Nazis or Stalin. And he was right. Read the report yourself.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#13)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    I'm very proud to have Senator Durbin representing Illinois. I wish he hadn't felt the need to apologize -- I made it clear to his staff that I certainly supported his statement wholeheartedly. My great fear for this country is that we will lose our way by listening to some (like the person upthread) who equate the responsibility of free citizens to hold their government accountable, with somehow aiding the enemy. When 911 happened, there was a lot of talk about how the terrorists hated us for our freedoms, and for our democratic approach to government. We came together as one vowing that they would never succeed on their terms -- we as Americans were too powerful, proud, and moral to lose to such terrorists -- they could kill us, but not take away our freedom. So now we have our own citizens saying "Watch what you say or you'll hurt the war on terror... Don't criticize the government while we're fighting the war on terror... Give up your freedoms in the name of the war on terror... Torture is OK in the name of the war on terror... Immoral acts are OK in the name of the war on terror..." The only way we lose this war is by cowering in fear of being free. Go Durbin!

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    I find it very interesting that everyone's jumping down Durbin's throat for an apology for something he said that is actually true....yet no one is demanding an apology from Frist and Delay for being 100% wrong about Shiavo and making the worlds biggest fuss over it, reaching new levels of shrillness unheard of before. Nor is anyone demanding an apology from Cheney for telling Leahy to f off on the senate floor. I don't hear anyone calling for an apology from Rep. John Hostettler for his insane remarks about Dems hating Christians. Hmmmm..could it be that when you're a Republican, you can kill and eat little puppies on national t.v. without having to apologize, but if you're a Democrat, you have to prostrate yourself across the ground repeatedly if you fart too loud?.....Yup, that old Republican double standard, back again to make you bang your head into a wall out of sheer frustration...

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#15)
    by Andreas on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    There was nothing to apologize for. Dick Durbin is a typical Democrat: a coward.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#17)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Gotta hand it to the Republicans...time after time they manage to blame and smear the messenger. The Dems continue their decline, because they are severely lacking in backbone. Didn't anyone ever teach them to stick to their guns? As always, they are more concerned with their own re-election and image than the good of the nation. Shame on Durbin for being as soft as toilet tissue. If we want our country to once again be a beacon of liberty and freedom, we desperately need a third party.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#18)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Good for him for apologizing for the context of the statement. It is too bad that Americans see apologizing as a weakness, which is obvious because our president when asked could not find a single thing he or his administration has ever done wrong. Humility is strength, ignorance is bliss.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#19)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Fenria writes:
    Hmmmm..could it be that when you're a Republican, you can kill and eat little puppies on national t.v. without having to apologize
    , My, my Fenria. What a short memory you have. Can you say, "Trent Lott?" kdog - He apologized because the firestorm was getting worse. Why was it getting worse? Because he said our military was the same as nazis, soviets and Pol Pot. They aren't, and his overblown statement burnt his butt. Works for me. Michael D - That's the worse case of parsing I have ever seen. Were you being sarcastic?

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    the problem is that average folks aren't as enlightened to the evil of the US as the average poster here. the right wing infection even reached Richard Daley, the Democratic mayor of Chicago, who lambasted DD in no uncertain terms. Is Daley part of the Limbaugh/Savage/Coulter brigade?

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#21)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Because he said our military was the same as nazis, soviets and Pol Pot
    He most certainly did not.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#22)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    Top Ten Things Dems are still waiting for an apology for: 10. Go f*ck yourself. 9. "We know exactly where the wmd are hidden" 8. "Mushroom cloud" 7. It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, that we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again." 6. "I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons." —Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003 5. "We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." —Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003 4. Santorum has a problem with homosexual acts", that the right to privacy "doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution" 3. "i had more important things to do during vietnam" 2. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." 1. “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories,” Mr. Bush told Polish television. “For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." May 29, 2003, Mr. Bush

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    apologize to Sen. Leahy for not kissing his rear and then telling him in a most American way what you think of him? His delicate sensibilities are not really on the plate for most Americans. I think slandering the military and peeing on the graves of victims of those other regimes is a little more egregious.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#24)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Nice list J...well done. You left one good one off though....(paraphrased) "Americans need to watch what they say"

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#25)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.
    That's what Durbin said that's being objected to. How was I parsing?

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#26)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    "peeing on the graves of victims of those other regimes" Is this an example of the rhetoric you are accusing Durbin of? Hell, at least make an attempt to cloak your hypocrisy when making an argument in the same thread.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#27)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    given the vast intellects here, I am sure you have heard of metaphors. I did not mean to imply he literally peed on their graves. there are too many of them to do that.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#28)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Given that the argument here is about metaphors, I find it ironic that you would use one so inappropriately as to suggest that a US Senator would urinate on a soldiers grave.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    yes-so insensitive. I was referring to the graves of victims of the regimes DD equated us to. Using their ghosts for his cheap political stunt was, I am sure, most appropriate. Is he too classy to do the actual thing? If he could get cheers here, probably not.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#30)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Aw, confrontation identifying your hypocrisy is fair game.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#31)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:25 PM EST
    Ed should try comparing Lt. Calley to Genghiz Khan some time. The effect on the victims was EXACTLY THE SAME. There were just a lot more of them. Durbin didn't attack the military, and he CERTAINLY didn't attack 'us.' He drew a comparison, a comparison that the actions of a handful of private contractors and some malfeasant mil intel guys took in total disregard of longstanding international law and US-signed treaty -- actions they took with the approval and the orders of the USPNAC staff. But Ed is a trained schnauzer for his paunchy Panzer unit of the 101st. Arf, arf, Ed.

    Re: Durbin's Aplogy (none / 0) (#32)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:26 PM EST
    PILA-sorry but you are wrong. look to the words used-I know that is a problem here but try. are you as historically ignorant as he is?

    Durbin's Aplogy | 31 comments (31 topical)