Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Outrage over CBS
Yes, CBS screwed up. But the Congressman from Illinois makes some excellent points about the government's response and moral outrage. Thanks to Liz for sending the minutes:
(House of Representatives - September 21, 2004)[Page: H7303]
---
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, the Nation is talking about Dan Rather, CBS, and the false National Guard memos. Republicans are saying that he misled the Nation, that it is a scandal that threatens our body politic. Congressional Republicans are talking about an ethics investigation. And yesterday on a radio show, Bill Bennett said the Dan Rather incident went beyond bias. He said, ``This is corruption.''
Let me tell the Members something. Dan Rather is going to get a whopping, and he deserves it. CBS has a black eye, and they earned it. There is no excuse for what happened. However, all this outrage from the self-righteous right wing of this country has taken hypocrisy to a new low.
Let me ask my colleagues where was the moral outrage and where is the moral outrage when the President of the United States here in the State of the Union at this podium used falsified evidence to allege in his State of the Union that Iraq had attempted to purchase yellow cake uranium from Nigeria?
[Time: 20:15]
Where is their moral outrage when Condoleezza Rice and DICK CHENEY repeatedly link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, all the while knowing that no evidence supports the claim?
Where is their moral outrage when our President said we would find tens [Page: H7304]
of thousands of pounds of chemical and biological weapons when we invaded Iraq, even though he knew there was no absolute proof?
Where is the their moral outrage when we are told that Iraq purchased aluminum tubes in order to refine uranium, even though weapons experts said otherwise?
Where is their moral outrage when Paul Wolfowitz told the Congress that Iraqi oil money would pay for reconstruction, all the while knowing that the burden would be placed on the American taxpayers?
And where is their moral outrage when we discovered that the chief architects of the Iraqi war, Vice President Cheney, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld, paid Mr. Ahmed Chalabi $49 million in U.S. taxpayer money for faulty intelligence claiming that Iraq had mobile weapons labs and that we would be greeted as liberators? If this is how Iraqis greet liberators, they have a funny way of saying ``welcome.''
Mr. Speaker, the outrage of the self-righteous right over the falsified National Guard documents is nothing more than opportunistic partisan politics at its worst.
Did Dan Rather do wrong? Undoubtedly, and he is going to get what he deserves, as will CBS. Dan Rather deserves criticism and he should be held accountable.
But I fail to understand why Dan Rather's credibility has raised such a moral outrage, but the same critics cannot find that the President's credibility equals that of Dan Rather's. What civics class did they go to, where they learned that Dan Rather's credibility weighs more important to the fabric of this country than the President of the United States?
As far as I am concerned, both individuals have a piece of the public's trust; both individuals have to be accountable for what they say. Dan Rather said he was wrong and he will be held accountable. We have yet to hear that same explanation from the President of the United States.
I say this in all seriousness: I do not think the President of the United States takes it lightly. Dan Rather's poor judgment and false statements did not lead to where the country is today in Iraq and the cost we have paid both in lives and in our treasure. Time and again, this administration has used false statements and false documents to justify their actions, and America has paid dearly.
Mr. Speaker, my challenge to my friends on the right wing is, I will join you any time you want to condemn Dan Rather. If you want to have an hour debate here on the floor, I will be down there. But I offer you the invitation to come and join me any time you want to have an hour debate about the President's false statements and what he used to justify a war, knowing all the while that was not true.
Dan Rather will pay for this, as will CBS. But the President of the United States also has credibility, all of our credibility, and when it is misused, we all pay dearly for it.
So I ask the people on the right who usually talk about moral consistency to stop being so inconsistent in their moral relativism, where they see Dan Rather's credibility and his character as more important than that of the President of the United States. Understand that the President, our President, speaks for all of us, and his credibility is our credibility, and when we use it in front of the world and we are questioned from here forward because we no longer have told the truth and people do not believe us, we all pay a price that we are seeing every day in the news.
(House of Representatives - September 21, 2004)[Page: H7303]
---
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, the Nation is talking about Dan Rather, CBS, and the false National Guard memos. Republicans are saying that he misled the Nation, that it is a scandal that threatens our body politic. Congressional Republicans are talking about an ethics investigation. And yesterday on a radio show, Bill Bennett said the Dan Rather incident went beyond bias. He said, ``This is corruption.''
Let me tell the Members something. Dan Rather is going to get a whopping, and he deserves it. CBS has a black eye, and they earned it. There is no excuse for what happened. However, all this outrage from the self-righteous right wing of this country has taken hypocrisy to a new low.
Let me ask my colleagues where was the moral outrage and where is the moral outrage when the President of the United States here in the State of the Union at this podium used falsified evidence to allege in his State of the Union that Iraq had attempted to purchase yellow cake uranium from Nigeria?
[Time: 20:15]
Where is their moral outrage when Condoleezza Rice and DICK CHENEY repeatedly link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, all the while knowing that no evidence supports the claim?
Where is their moral outrage when our President said we would find tens [Page: H7304]
of thousands of pounds of chemical and biological weapons when we invaded Iraq, even though he knew there was no absolute proof?
Where is the their moral outrage when we are told that Iraq purchased aluminum tubes in order to refine uranium, even though weapons experts said otherwise?
Where is their moral outrage when Paul Wolfowitz told the Congress that Iraqi oil money would pay for reconstruction, all the while knowing that the burden would be placed on the American taxpayers?
And where is their moral outrage when we discovered that the chief architects of the Iraqi war, Vice President Cheney, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld, paid Mr. Ahmed Chalabi $49 million in U.S. taxpayer money for faulty intelligence claiming that Iraq had mobile weapons labs and that we would be greeted as liberators? If this is how Iraqis greet liberators, they have a funny way of saying ``welcome.''
Mr. Speaker, the outrage of the self-righteous right over the falsified National Guard documents is nothing more than opportunistic partisan politics at its worst.
Did Dan Rather do wrong? Undoubtedly, and he is going to get what he deserves, as will CBS. Dan Rather deserves criticism and he should be held accountable.
But I fail to understand why Dan Rather's credibility has raised such a moral outrage, but the same critics cannot find that the President's credibility equals that of Dan Rather's. What civics class did they go to, where they learned that Dan Rather's credibility weighs more important to the fabric of this country than the President of the United States?
As far as I am concerned, both individuals have a piece of the public's trust; both individuals have to be accountable for what they say. Dan Rather said he was wrong and he will be held accountable. We have yet to hear that same explanation from the President of the United States.
I say this in all seriousness: I do not think the President of the United States takes it lightly. Dan Rather's poor judgment and false statements did not lead to where the country is today in Iraq and the cost we have paid both in lives and in our treasure. Time and again, this administration has used false statements and false documents to justify their actions, and America has paid dearly.
Mr. Speaker, my challenge to my friends on the right wing is, I will join you any time you want to condemn Dan Rather. If you want to have an hour debate here on the floor, I will be down there. But I offer you the invitation to come and join me any time you want to have an hour debate about the President's false statements and what he used to justify a war, knowing all the while that was not true.
Dan Rather will pay for this, as will CBS. But the President of the United States also has credibility, all of our credibility, and when it is misused, we all pay dearly for it.
So I ask the people on the right who usually talk about moral consistency to stop being so inconsistent in their moral relativism, where they see Dan Rather's credibility and his character as more important than that of the President of the United States. Understand that the President, our President, speaks for all of us, and his credibility is our credibility, and when we use it in front of the world and we are questioned from here forward because we no longer have told the truth and people do not believe us, we all pay a price that we are seeing every day in the news.
Comments:
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Excellent speech. Espeically from a Social Psychology point of view. He put forth enough of the "merits" of the presidents actions that they could be referenced, but left out enough that the republican spin wouldnt appear in this speech. Very well done.
And of course Sherean, you did a great job of copy and pasting it to the blog!
-Brett
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And of course Sherean, you did a great job of copy and pasting it to the blog!
-Brett
# posted by 
: September 29, 2004 at 3:30 PM
: September 29, 2004 at 3:30 PM << Home
