Dennis Hastert: Raging asshole

[sspadowsky]

Once again, conservative leaders are pandering, rather than facing up to McCain's dead-on assertion that this administration has been more fiscally irresponsible than any of those "tax-and-spend liberals" I keep hearing about.

What is it with the GOP lately? I think they may well fall into the kind of in-fighting that we saw in the Democratic Party a couple of years ago. And it almost seems like they're TRYING to drive McCain away. Why?

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Hastert questions McCain's GOP credentials
Senator responds with statement on 'fiscal responsibility'

Thursday, May 20, 2004 Posted: 10:39 AM EDT (1439 GMT)

Sen. John McCain: "I fondly remember a time when real Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a rare public swipe at a fellow Republican, House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday questioned the GOP credentials of John McCain, a U.S. senator who has often challenged party orthodoxy.

Talking to reporters, Hastert pretended not to know who McCain was when asked about a recent statement by the GOP senator from Arizona.

As other House GOP members stood behind him laughing, Hastert, R-Illinois, then expressed doubt that McCain was indeed a Republican.

The exchange started when a reporter asked: "Can I combine a two issues, Iraq and taxes? I heard a speech from John McCain the other day..."

Hastert: "Who?"

Reporter: "John McCain."

Hastert: "Where's he from?"

Reporter: "He's a Republican from Arizona."

Hastert: "A Republican?"

Amid nervous laughter, the reporter continued with his question: "Anyway, his observation was never before when we've been at war have we been worrying about cutting taxes and his question was, 'Where's the sacrifice?' "

Hastert: "If you want to see the sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda. There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And, at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong."

Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center are two military hospitals in the Washington area.

McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam, later released a written statement, taking issue with the spending habits of Republican lawmakers.

"The Speaker is correct in that nothing we are called upon to do comes close to matching the heroism of our troops," McCain said.

"All we are called upon to do is not spend our nation into bankruptcy while our soldiers risk their lives. I fondly remember a time when real Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility. Apparently those days are long gone for some in our party."

CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

That's nothing. Go look at Newsmax.com.

This is how the Republican Politburo reacts to true conservatism.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by sspadowsky

Once again, conservative leaders are pandering, rather than facing up to McCain's dead-on assertion that this administration has been more fiscally irresponsible than any of those "tax-and-spend liberals" I keep hearing about.

These aren't conservatives we're talking about, at least not the kind of conservatism that has defined the intellectual movement for the last 40-50 years or so.

These are hacks, opportunists, and corrupt partisans.

What is it with the GOP lately? I think they may well fall into the kind of in-fighting that we saw in the Democratic Party a couple of years ago. And it almost seems like they're TRYING to drive McCain away. Why?

You always see in-fighting in the two parties, which is healthy in a two party system. This is different. This is a conscious effort by a select minority of neo-cons, southern moralists, and party opportunists to control this party. The technique brought victory for the Republicans throughout the 90s, but now the party has strayed so far from what it espouses that it will soon disenfranchise all of the real conservatives.

John McCain is a conservative first, a Republican second. He should be proud that this confuses a hack like Hastert.

[mburbank]

I was just saying that there may be a whole sector of Kerry Republican's out there.

[Ronnie Raygun]

HAHAHAHA!

Yeah right, Max.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

The jeers coming from the non-conservative peanut gallery...

[Miss Modular]

And it almost seems like they're TRYING to drive McCain away. Why?

They've been trying to drive McCain away for years. Back when McCain was running, there was this whole smear campaign (possibly on the count of the Bush camp) to get McCain out. It worked.

[mburbank]

Well, I'm not Psychic like you are Nalds. I don't pretend to know the future. But when I think something and it doesn't happen I don't need to become nearly psychotic with denail to get through breakfast.

I'm just a guy. God doesn't tell me about the future.

[Ronnie Raygun]

Sure he does....

[mburbank]

I'm sure that's your big picrure view, God's word as revealed in the bible gives you a general prophecy of things to come, but that's not what I was talking about6 and while it was really cute, you know it.

I'm pretty sure God doesn't tell anyone about who's going to be president and who will vote for whom. Jihadist think God takes those kinds of sides, Pat Robertson think God talks about stuff like that, and who knows, maybe you do to, but my sincere hope is that God doesn't get into things like that.