DeLay Blasts Gates Nomination, Claims He Wants To ‘Negotiate With Terrorists’
DeLay Blasts Gates Nomination, Claims He Wants To ‘Negotiate With Terrorists’
In his previous writings and speeches, Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates has been among the many national security experts who recognize there are no good military options for Iran. In the summer of 2004, Gates and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski co-chaired a task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations that argued for opening a dialogue with Iran, a position Bush has so far rejected.
For that reason, the right wing is angered over the Gates nomination. Frank Gaffney said subscribing to Gates’ ideas would “engender strategic perils the United States can ill-afford.” Last night on Hannity, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) claimed Gates would “negotiate with terrorists,” and criticized President Bush for not picking a nominee that would satisfy “those of us that have supported him and supported his leadership in fighting this war.” Watch it:
Transcript:
I have a little different concern about Robert Gates. He is from the Brzezinski, Scowcroft, the James Baker ilk. He made a speech a couple years ago talking about how we should negotiate with terrorists, negotiate with Iran. I’m worried about his worldview. If the President is going to work with the Democrats, I want the President to tell those of us that have supported him and supported his leadership in fighting this war and winning this war that we’re not going to see a war run by consensus and committee like we did in Korea and Vietnam and Central America.
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82 Responses to “DeLay Blasts Gates Nomination, Claims He Wants To ‘Negotiate With Terrorists’”
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Love it that this guy keeps his ugly mug out there. The face of GOP corruption refuses to go away!
November 9th, 2006 at 12:32 pmWhy is this man getting any air time?
November 9th, 2006 at 12:34 pmcool, let’s have Delay 24/7 now
November 9th, 2006 at 12:35 pmWhy isn’t he in prison yet? His old district is now blue. Why would anyone care what Tom Delay has to say?
November 9th, 2006 at 12:35 pmJust think of how crazier Delay will be once he gets out of federal “pound me in the ass” prison. hahahaha, karma’s a bitch.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:36 pmTom DeLay is no longer valid. Even if he does appear on lapdog shows like InSanity & Colmes, he is irrelevant.
Stop quoting him, please. Lets just MoveOn.org.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:37 pmWhy the hell is this criminal being given a television audience?!?!?
November 9th, 2006 at 12:37 pmwow, keep talkin, bugman!!!
November 9th, 2006 at 12:38 pmIs Delay even relevant anymore? Why do the networks even go to him for commentary? Someone should tell him that his word doesn’t matter in D.C. anymore.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:41 pmThis guy is completely irrelavant, why are people still giving a shit about him?
November 9th, 2006 at 12:43 pmI might care what DeLay has to say only (if then) about bug extermination and how his corruption played out. Otherwise, …[yawn]
November 9th, 2006 at 12:45 pmI thought Delay was supposed to be out “helping” Conservatives, not making them seem even less relevant than the election already has.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:47 pmThis guy is completely irrelavant, why are people still giving a shit about him? Comment by ForTruth
Not people, just those who run FOX GNUS. I’m not sure they qualify as people, technically.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:47 pmYeah, don’t want a consensus in fighting a war. Don’t want to have the backing of the American people. DeLay, you are no longer relevant.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:47 pmThis guy is an idiot. One of the many neocons who just dont get it. And I dont think they will change over the next two years. So we will get a Democratic President in 2008.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:50 pmfox + delay…..click off….
November 9th, 2006 at 12:50 pmOkay, we get it. You don’t think the blowhards are relevant. Don’t tell us, tell Fox. And let us know what they say.
As long as the BS is on the airwaves, we have to have a response to it, no matter how ridiculous it is. The very fact that it’s getting airplay means that someone is taking it seriously or at least wants a large number of people to treat it like gospel.
Don’t attack the messenger, that’s the right wing tactic. Focus on the message and how to defuse it.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:51 pmLet the cannibalism begin.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:53 pmWell, DeLay hates him.
I guess I’ll be alright with Bush’s nomination after all.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:54 pmDelay just doesn’t understand that his braying is of no use any more to any one who is still actively trying to govern this country. He hasn’t been getting the memos for some time but he is still echoing the talking points they last gave him those many months ago when he still walked the halls of the Capital.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:58 pmYeah, those people who supported this administration and this war are dropping like flies what with them being rejected at the polls or going to jail and all.
Delay should be in jail not on FOX News or MSNBC.
Just love to see these far right nutcases coming unglued, leaving W out to dry in front of us all. What could be better!
November 9th, 2006 at 1:01 pmWill FOX continue to ask for DeLay’s opinions even after he his behind bars? That’ll be great.
What is it with FOX news and their hiring of disgraced ex-speakers? I’m all for FOX continuing to ask for DeLay’s POV. It just shows how much the right-wing is filled with nut-bags and crazies.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:02 pmAwww, did someone forget to tell Tom Delay that he’s unimportant now? I’m afraid the president doesn’t have to answer to indicted former representatives.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:08 pmi thought tom was already in prison…
well, perhaps he is part of the fox furlough program, you know the one g gordon liddy and ollie north are in…
anyway, following my ‘nothing is at it seems with these bastards’ world-view, i suggest that delay coming out against this guy is a head-fake to the democrats and the media…
November 9th, 2006 at 1:09 pmWait! When did Tom DeLay become a friggin’ pundit?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:12 pmOnly FOX News would seek comments from a criminal like DeLay. What is next … commentary from Foley on online chat services?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:13 pmHasn’t DeLay been indicted? What the hell are we listening to a criminal on national television for? Get him off the air!
November 9th, 2006 at 1:17 pmWhy does a washed up, has-been, crooked politician even get a venue for his views?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:18 pmI think that was a very relevant question, so I’ll repeat it. Why is a criminal being given a television audience?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:19 pm“those of [you] that have supported him and supported his leadership” had a really bad tuesday and should really take the hint
November 9th, 2006 at 1:19 pmAmericans everywhere are appalled to have this GOP indicted criminal on the air - get him out of our faces already! He’s a liar and a crook and has zippo credibility. No one wants to see his ugly mug any longer. Since when do we give air time to criminals?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:20 pmThanks, Fox, for reminding everyone that REPUBLICANS ARE CRIMINALS.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:21 pmIrrelevant loser rants incoherently! News at eleven.
Seriously, PLEASE keep this up Tom. Make sure no one forgets the spectacle of the mean-spirited, irrational christianist right
November 9th, 2006 at 1:23 pmWow. How ironic that a former exterminator is acting just like the vermin that he used to kill for a living.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:23 pmWow. How ironic that a former exterminator is acting just like the vermin that he used to kill for a living.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:24 pmConvicted Republinazi Criminal
Why isn’t this convicted Republinazi criminal sitting in prison? Wasn’t this scumbag Christian terrorist mother fu*ker convicted and sentenced?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:24 pmDoes anyone know how I might get in touch with Tom? Phone #, email, street address?
We have cockroaches.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:25 pmDeLay lives in a fantasy world where he believes people care what he says and that what he says is relevant. He thinks this will make a great soundbite when he runs for president in ‘08 from his jail cell.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:25 pmWhy is this man still running free,making speeches and talks values and attacking people who disagree with his old,corrupted and rotten concepts ?…looks like he is a good commodity now at FOX network after the defeat of GOP….now he is criticizing Bush.The country do not want this man’s ideas,which proven to be corrupted and outdated.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:27 pmlevin of michigan has said, essentially, that he wouldn’t object to hearing on this black-shirt in the lame duck session! where is the outrage! i am sick and tired with this ‘we are democrats and we are going to play nice’ nonsense… the republicans are the enemy and they ought to be treated as such.
noone NOONE seems outraged by this switch to the blackshirts in heading the defense department. the only reason for doing so is to continue and expand the covert activities of negroponte in the region. what happened in sammara? who tried to assassinate chalabi? who is behind the massacres in iraq? why is the pattern of violence so similar to the negroponte methods in vietnam and nicaragua? why isn’t anyone distinguishing between covert cia activities and covert military activities? why isn’t anyone understanding that there is NO OVERSIGHT of the cia by congress in these activities and that that is the ultimate reason why the cia is being brought in to run it???
November 9th, 2006 at 1:27 pmHmmm. There really appears to be a fissure now between the neocon architects and W. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this… What’s W’s motivation? Is he actually worried about his legacy?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:28 pmTom who?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:31 pmTom who?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:31 pmMay be because Faux News is the only channel willing to give them the forum. I expect the following “pundits/experts” to show up on “Insanity and Colms” or other Faux channel programs
Mark Foley = Teenage issues
Ted Haggard = Family Values
George Allen = Race Relations
Jack Abramoff = Financial Matters
Tom Reynolds = Corporate Relations
Randy “Duke” Cunningham = Business negotiations
Donald Rumsfeld = Expert at large on “Complex” matters
Don Sherwood = Entertainment
Please feel free to amend or add to the list.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:36 pmI’m shocked that a fair and balance news outlet like fox would have an indicted felon on the air.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:38 pmWhy is Tom Delay on TV and not in jail? And why does the media care what an ex representative who has been indicted has to say anyway?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:43 pmDoes anyone know how I might get in touch with Tom? Phone #, email, street address?
We have cockroaches.
Comment by shmo
I wouldn’t bother. I understand that DeLay just wants to talk to the cockroaches. Same species, I believe.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:44 pmJack Abramoff : Financial Matters/Indian Culture
November 9th, 2006 at 1:45 pmKen Blackwell : Computer Tips & Tricks
Don Sherwood : The Heimlich Maneuver
Ted Haggard : Colonic Irrigation
Focus on the message and how to defuse it.
You’re right and that’s easy: Opening lines of communication are far better than getting us into another, even more devastating military quagmire than Iraq.
I heard Wesley Clark and several others on the DR show this morning speaking on the new Secretary and how hard his job is going to be because “every option has been tried” in Iraq.
What I keep thinking is that not every option has been tried, only every military option (apparently).
November 9th, 2006 at 1:51 pmTom is just being a good soldier and carrying water. The administration wants Gates in bad,he is damage control from Daddy Bush. Using Delay to attack him is a tactic to make Gates look more palatable to people who may not know his history as one of the architects and executors of the Iran Conta affair.
November 9th, 2006 at 1:51 pmDelay is still on the airwaves because they WANT HIM THERE!
DeLay is a nonentity…why are we even worried about what this pompous windbag has to say. It’s not like he’s in office anymore.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:07 pmSo the Repug strategy now is to trot out Delay to condemn what they do and make it look moderate.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:08 pmWhats odd is that Delay is not attacking the Dems, for once, but is attacking Bush Sr. and the old school conservatives further splitting the GOP. Delay would attack anyone, not just Gates, to stop any dialogue with Iran, which would ‘Ruin the war on Terror” as Leeden says.
Is a battle of the Roses on the Horizon?
November 9th, 2006 at 2:18 pmAdding to the #45 list
November 9th, 2006 at 2:29 pmTom Delay = Effective Government
Boo hoo. His party got bitch slapped.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:29 pm53, and 54, et al.
i sincerely request that my progressive brothers do not fall for this trick…
please re-read nos. 24, 41, and 51…
this nomination is crucial to the bush plan of avoiding oversight by the democrats in the new congress… it is a shift towards daddy bush and his blackshirts and not one towards ‘opening up negotiations’ with anyone…
of that i am sure.
the one thing i am not sure about is whether the baker commission will suggest the biden breakup. if so, southern iraq will be under control of syria and iran… it may be argued that the only way to have a ’stable iraq’–read, safe oil–is to have iran take the south to buffer the sunnis in the west. gates, with his background in iran-contra, would help in this ‘deal’??
in any case, do not take any republican statement as anything but a lie…
November 9th, 2006 at 2:39 pmI’m with those that sez trot this guy out as much as possible. If Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney, Curt Weldon, Richard Pombo, and Don Sherwood all end up as Fox commentators, so much the better. The Republican Party could have no truer representatives.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:41 pmYou’ve all got it wrong, Tommy is pissed because he was tapped for the job.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:44 pmIn my prior post, was sb wasn’t.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:45 pmPlease, please, please! Keep this guy on the air until 2008. Pretty please with sugar on top.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:48 pmHey Delay, practice saying “Madame Speaker”
hahahahahaha
November 9th, 2006 at 3:00 pmQuick! DeLay has got rabies! He need a vaccine shot, or he will keep preying in the ones the very next to him. Or, maybe, keep the vaccine. Seeing it will be funny.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:00 pmI agree that Delay is just making Gates more palatable so the democrats want have to explain why they confirmed his appointment.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:24 pmtesting
November 9th, 2006 at 3:27 pmIsn’t going to Tom Delay for soundbites the equivalent of interviewing Charles Manson about victim’s rights?
November 9th, 2006 at 3:29 pmQuick! DeLay has got rabies! He need a vaccine shot
Um, that’s not allowed. Christofascist kooks don’t believe in science, simple biology, and evolutional facts, and anti-biotics derived from same simply don’t exist.
Besides, frothingly insane Christian criminals help expose what Republicanism stands for.
I say, let him froth.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:33 pmDelay could be right… Iran Contra, anyone… that was trading arms for hostages… and it didn’t work… this is why the Senate rejected Gates last time.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:50 pmI’ve also been wondering why we keep seeing DeLay on the talks shows, as if his opinion has any weight anymore (not that it ever had any with me). We know that DeLay thinks his opinion is worth something, but it’s frustrating that the supposed news shows think so too. Didn’t this election teach them anything?
November 9th, 2006 at 4:00 pmIf Tom Delay does not like Gates, then I say confirm his nomination. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I never thought I would say this, but just possibly, Bush might get it. Already, the hate radio is filled with tirades about how Bush is, heaven forbid, talking to Democrats. The Bush/Pelosi lunch makes him a traitor in their very midst.
Gates is a good choice in that he is a pragmatic man who advocates speaking directly to Iran and Syria, and the Democrats too. Yes, Gates may even have a dialougue with the militias in Iraq to try to get some type of agreement. All these things would be helpful.
The genius of the Democratic takeover of both houses is that it happened because moderates ran for office. And now the Democrats have taken the entire middle that the Bush Republicans have always scorned (and Reagan courted). I hear that 45% of us are in the middle and the middle is not a bad place to be.
The middle is where common ground and compromise are found; and that makes for good governance. Gates is a good guy for the middle. I finally approve of something that George Bush has done.
Never say never they say.
November 9th, 2006 at 4:52 pmRobert Gates has always been a trusted consigliore for the Bush family
November 9, 2006 — How many Democratic senators who voted against the confirmation of Robert Gates to be CIA director in 1991 will vote against him to be Defense Secretary?
The following current Senate Democratic senators voted against the confirmation of Robert Gates as CIA director on November 5, 1991: Max Baucus (MT), Joe Biden (DE), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Kent Conrad (ND), Chris Dodd (CT), Tom Harkin (IA), Ted Kennedy (MA), John Kerry (MA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Carl Levin (MI), and Jay Rockefeller (WV).
Current Democratic incumbents who voted to confirm Gates included Dan Akaka (HI), Bob Byrd (WV), Dan Inouye (HI), Herb Kohl (WI), Pat Leahy (VT), Joe Lieberman (CT), Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Harry Reid (NV). Republican Senator Orrin Hatch did not vote.
These senators were concerned about the role of Gates in the Iran-Contra scandal and did not believe him to be suitable to head the intelligence agency. Word from veteran intelligence officers: Gates is dirty.
Robert Gates has always been a trusted consigliore for the Bush family. At the Pentagon, he will undoubtedly use his two years to clean up for Dubya and suppress incriminating information on the Iraq debacle — all in a continuing effort to protect the Bush family legacy. His nomination should be rejected.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
November 9th, 2006 at 5:05 pmI hear that 45% of us are in the middle and the middle is not a bad place to be.
The middle is where common ground and compromise are found; and that makes for good governance. Gates is a good guy for the middle. I finally approve of something that George Bush has done.
the left is the only position to have when opposing the radical right.
gates is a bush 41 black-shirt and his pretense at ‘open discussion’ is simply a pretext. gates will only be cover negoroponte’s death squads, cia psyops, mixed with extremely violent special operations people.
with all due respect to the moderates in the crowd, don’t check your brains at the door, and don’t assume the extreme right will play fair with you as you wallow in the filthy mud of the middle ground.
November 9th, 2006 at 5:12 pmTom DeLay is funny.
But looks aren’t everything…
November 9th, 2006 at 5:22 pmPeople who’s opinion we don’t need anymore:
Tom Delay
November 9th, 2006 at 5:47 pmBill Bennett
Rick Santorum
Richard Perle
Who gives a rat’s ass what this shitbird thinks?
November 9th, 2006 at 6:46 pmWhy isn’t he in jail?
November 9th, 2006 at 6:50 pmWhy does anyone care what he says?
Delay doesn’t like this guy so, maybe he should get the job afterall.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:06 pmI’m with #1 - keep his discredited, felonious ass around as long as possible - a constant reminder of what kind of low-life thugs run the Republican party.
The Gates nomination is proof-positive that Dubbie&co. are completely without contrition or remorse in defeat, nor will they change their gameplan or m.o. one iota in deference to the will of the people - that’s fine with me, as it means there’ll be no sympathy for them when they are subpeona’ed, dragged kicking and screaming into hearings, then handed the harsh punishments they deserve for crimes against the Constitution.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:20 pmI heard Frank Gaffney mention something about Gates wanting to —- egads —- TALK to our enemies (Iran/Syria). He doesn’t think we should reward our enemies by gracing them with our presence.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:32 pmFrank Gaffney is as stupid as Bush - and as arrogant. It makes no difference how much you may despise your enemy, but not talking to them is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Don’t these guys ever learn?
November 9th, 2006 at 11:41 pmTom Delay is not relevant to any discussion from now on.
The American people have spoken and they have rejected partisan politics and endless war.
Frankly speaking people like delay are simply not sure what to do now that the Republicans have lost.
I don’t think in their low IQ minds they ever contemplated losing and I also think the right wing rhetoric that accompanied everything they did masked the fact they are all bark and no bite - that is until the votes were counted and the people spoke.
November 10th, 2006 at 7:51 amDidn’t this election make it painfully clear we don’t want the chickenhawks in charge anymore? Is it lost on even the wooden skulls at FoxNews that Mr. Delay, who never served a day in uniform, has no standing to call Robert Gates wrong about anything having to do with Military strategy?
November 10th, 2006 at 5:07 pmI thought that this dude was going back to his pest control business. Why in the hell is he still pontificating for anyway? Who f’n cares about what he thinks.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:32 pm