Politics GOP Rep. Reichert on the War
posted by on July 17 at 20:19 PM
Over on his blog, Postman’s got an interview with US Rep. Dave Reichert about the war.
Reichert’s position boils down to this: Let’s wait until September for the full report on the surge. He characterizes all the withdrawal resolutions as “politicizing” the war.
I’m not sure what’s wrong with “politicizing” a war—as if that’s some how sullying its … purity? I know there’s got to be some canny aphorism about how war is politics… which it is, obviously.
There’s always this: “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
Anyway, the weirdest part of Reichert’s rap is this, from Postman:
Reichert still firmly supports President Bush. The congressman is a former sheriff. When he talks about the war he frequently relates it to police work. And in this case he sees parallels between the criticism aimed at Bush and his most famous case, the hunt for the Green River Killer.“During Green River we were just hammered on by the press and the community and I got hammered by people and criticized and I just feel some of the same pressures are being applied to the president.”
What kind of line is that? As if Reichert was in some way a victim of the Green River Killer. Come off it. Of course the press hammered him. It took Reichert nearly 20 years to catch the killer. This quote reveals how much he believes his own campaign press releases, how much he believes that his Green River Killer mantra is an answer for everything—whether it’s germane or not. Kinda like Bush on Iraq and al Qaeda.
p.s. Good on Postman. I know you’re all gonna holler about how the GOP frames the debate, but seriously, I don’t think reporters talk to Republicans enough. I try to as often as I can, which is difficult at a partisan paper like The Stranger
It's not a war. It's a congressionally sanctioned military action. The congress created it and the responsibility for it lies with congress. Bush never asked for nor could he have obtained a declaration of war, and yet he and Reichert and the rest speak as if he had. In a *war* the commander in chief more or less determines the parameters. In a congressionally authorized action congress does. So the war was politicized when Bush decided to launch into it this way. Of course it's the same way that Vietnam was politicized.
Never elect a fat man as mayor. Never elect a reformed alchoholic as president (Bush, Grant), never elect a law enforcement officer to any office higher than dog-catcher, and then only if you hate dogs.
Wouldn't the comparison to the Green River Killer be more apt if we captured Saddam Hussein, released him, and then recaptured him twenty years later?
SO this guy was an ineffectual sheriff who could not catch a rather daft man killing hookers and its Darcy Burner who was unqualified. right...
Klausewitz (not sure if I spelled that right); "War is politics by other means."
Seriously, does Reichert have anything but the Green River deal? That's it. That, in his own mind, defines him and justifies his every decision. "But I caught the Green River Killer." How the hell does that translate into being a decent lawmaker? Oh, obviously it doesn't.
Even if it had only taken him 1 year to catch the Green River killer... what the fuck does that have to do with being a good congressman?
Once I farted on the set of Blue Lagoon... ELECT ME!
Do the Republicans shy away from you because you're partisan or because they're afraid you'll try to give them the flu?
script reading back bench lackey.
But how's his hair look?
Wasn't Green River that decision by Reichert that almost destroyed the King County budget with a massive waste of taxpayer dollars for NOTHING?
You know, the usual Red Bushie trick of massive deficits to fund things that never should have been funded in the first place?
Yeah, that should haunt him. It almost bankrupted our COUNTY!
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