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Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized?

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Wed Jun 22, 2005 at 08:22:28 AM EST
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The Chicago Tribune is running a poll on its front page with the question, "Should Dick Durbin have apologized.?" Go on over and vote.

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    • Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? | 21 comments (21 topical)
    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#1)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    NO

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#2)
    by soccerdad on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    HELL NO But then again, most Dems are cowards without spines

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    NO-NO-NO-NO-NO! Oh, did I forget to say NO?

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    soccerdad-I second that!

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:22 PM EST
    hell no-why be afraid to let the military/America know what you really think of it

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    I think it took a lot more courage to issue this second apology than it did to make his original statement. I have more respect for the man.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#7)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Yep. And many are still waiting for him to do so. Some people just don't get it. They get in trouble for being a egotistical blowhard (although, what pol isn't?), yet instead of learning, they continue to blather on long after they should have stopped, which just makes things worse. Now the airwaves and internet (like TL) are full of people analyzing every friggin' word of his teary-eyed speech and will be probably for days. He could've just said something like: "Mr. President I appologize for what I said. It was offensive, innaccurate and wholly out of line. I sincerely applogize to you, our military and all of our citizens. I deeply regret the hurt I caused and hope that we can all put this behind us and move forward and confront the issues that threaten our great nation. Thank you." Simple, stand-up, to the point, and the whole issue drops out of the news cycle w/in a day or two.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#8)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    To answer the question, we need to wait a few more days and see if the apology gets the Republicans to stop harping on Durbin's word choice and start discussing whether prisoners in Gitmo are treated appropriately. So far, it doesn't look good.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Well said roy. A clarification was in order, but not an apology, in my opinion. Durbin should have called out the right wing spin machine for twisting the words, and re-emphasized his point. Stick to your guns man!

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    yes-those darn Republicans like Daley harping on those words. why should they let a golden opportunity provided by an ignoramus go by?

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#11)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Senior U.S. intelligence officials note that in fact, the frequency of terrorist attacks carried out by Muslim radicals is increasing, not decreasing. 9-2-04 When asked "Can we win?" the war on terror, Bush said, "I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are — less acceptable in parts of the world." "Across the world, we are fighting and winning the war on terror." Dick Cheney 4-2004 There are those that believe some of our policies especially gitmo are hurting the war on terror. Then there are those that say we are winning the war on terror. Riddle me this batman, if there is an increase in terror in the world since the start of the war on terror, how is it possible you are winning the war? Durbin should have apologized for the lack of propriety in his context, but methinks there is a long list of adminstration officials that owe us about a year's worth of apologies for their outright lies regarding the lead up to the war and the successes credited as mentioned above as an example.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    Josef Stalin alone killed 20,000,000 people in the gulags The Nazis started a war which led to the death of 55,000,000 people Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are responsible the deaths for at least 1.6 million To compare those attrocities to the ones occurring in Gitmo is irresponsible. The torture occurring there cannot be ignored, but there are far better ways to bring about change than to make such extreme accusations. Durbin should have apologized and does not deserve the support of rational Democrats fed up with the lies and spin of the Bush Administration.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    They owe us, especially the troops, apologies for foolish policy as well as their outright lies. "To suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don't think is accurate. I think that's an overstatement." Cheney.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:23 PM EST
    "Posted by Ed: "why be afraid to let the military/America know what you really think of it" Gee, Ed, the funny thing is that at least 1/3 of the most horrific abuses WERE DONE BY PRIVATE CORPORATIONS THAT RUMSFELD/BUSH GAVE A FULL-LEGAL WAIVER. Privateers for war and torture don't deserve an 'apology' -- they deserve PROSECUTION. As do the felons who wanted their thugs to do the dirty work, because the trained military police know the rules. And the 'contractors' who were stripped, forced to sleep on concrete floors, threatened with dogs, etc. BY OUR TROOPS -- that was OUR TROOPS supporting DURBIN'S comments ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. Forcing our troops to fight with mercenaries -- another new 'theory' of Bush that he wants to test out on real live people (our troops, and the mercs' victims).

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#15)
    by Slado on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:24 PM EST
    You guys can rant all you want about "lies" and Haliburton etc.. those arguments are tired and way past the point. Chris Matthews - "Rep. Ford, should we have invaded Iraq." Rep. Harold Ford - "Chris, that questinon is irrelevant. We need to win." Durbin should have used better judgement. He should have said he wants investigations into Guantanomo. Period. That would have gotten his "point" across. Instead he went waaaayyyyy overboard, like all politicians do (Santorum, Lott, Dean etc...) and he's paying the predictable price which is outrage from the other side (no matter how hypocritical) and media scrutiny. Just because he says what you think doesn't make it any more resonable then if Bush said we should hang them all by their toenails (something I'd be for).

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:24 PM EST
    Slado- "those arguments are tired and way past the point." According to who? According to our troops? They are in this hell-hole, maybe you need to ask them if issues about the private security forces, shortage of troops for rotation purposes, lack of armor because all of the money is going to pay for all of this privatizing, if these arguments are "tired and way past the point"! Yeah, "tired and way past the point for you, maybe, but what about them?

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:24 PM EST
    Oh, excuse me, was that "waaaayyyyy overboard"? TOUGH!

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:25 PM EST
    Scottish is right. It's all over when Richard M. Daley -- one of the nation's most prominent Democrat mayors and from the same state as Durbin -- says Dick should apologize. As I recall, however, repeated apologies didn't help Trent Lott in the eyes of his critics, not until Trent resigned his party leadership post. Which is what Dick should have the decency to do.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#19)
    by Kitt on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:27 PM EST
    It's all over when Richard M. Daley -- one of the nation's most prominent Democrat mayors and from the same state as Durbin -- says Dick should apologize.
    Please...Daley may be a Democratic mayor of a prominent city; I certainly wouldn't term him a prominent Democrat - at all. Durbin got sucked into the trap.....

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    Durbin has nothing to apologize for. This is manufactured outrage at it's most apparent, trying desperatly to take the focus off of Downing Street. Anyone who falls into this manufactured outrage is a total moron.

    Re: Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? (none / 0) (#21)
    by glanton on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    Fenria, you're right, the "outrage" over Durbin represents the newest savage little strain of epidemicus moronicus. A third grade reading level would seem enough to inoculate one, but go figure. However, this truth reflects even worse on Durbin since he did after all apologize. And on the MSM in general for fueling this thing instead of exploring the issue itself.

    Poll: Should Durbin Have Apologized? | 21 comments (21 topical)