Democrats hurting selves with attacks – Opinion – thespectrum.com

This, of course, could splinter the party as voters tire of the internecine bashing.

For the Democrats to succeed, they must tone down the personal attacks and stick to the issues.

If not, the GOP will have a stranglehold on the White House for four more years.

On Dec. 12, 2000, a divided U.S. Supreme Court halted the presidential recount in Florida, effectively making Republican George W. Bush the ”winner.”

The judicious thing would have been to split Florida’s electoral votes. Gore would have won, just as he won the popular vote. mjh

Sharpton implores Dems to return to their liberal roots / ‘Stop apologizing,’ presidential hopeful says in S.F. speech John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer

The 2000 election, which was decided when the Supreme Court ruled against Democrat Al Gore in the Florida recount, ”was the undermining of democracy itself,” [Al Sharpton] said.

Since then, Sharpton added, ”there’s been a nonmilitary civil war led by the right-wing,” including efforts to put in a new, pro-Republican redistricting plan in Texas [and Colorado] and the successful recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Now the Bush administration has put together a “no dissent” policy when it comes to the war in Iraq or the war against terrorism.

“We’re called unpatriotic if we question (the war in Iraq),” he said. “(But) we’re unpatriotic if we don’t question it.”

Dean’s Band of Outsiders By Harold Meyerson

By winning office with a negative 540,000-vote margin and then proceeding to govern in the most relentlessly partisan fashion from the right, the president has made unmistakably clear that the concerns of Democrats are of no interest to him. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, the Republican leadership relies solely on Republican votes to get its measures passed, going so far as to exclude mainstream Democrats from conference committees. When America’s new laws are to be negotiated, Republicans talk only to themselves. …

In this Congress … no Democrats are allowed into the deliberations that matter. …

Bush is bent on repealing the New Deal and replacing the internationalist order that the United States had erected after World War II with a more nationalist vision of his own. If you aren’t with him, you are against him. And he is against you.

Remember in 2000, how Bush called himself “a uniter, not a divider” and touted his bipartisan efforts in Texas? Liar.

Meyerson goes on to explain why these facts have benefitted Dean, while many Democrats ignore these truths. (Thanks to Sharon for noting this article.) mjh

High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq By DON VAN NATTA Jr., NYTimes

The United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show. …

Gasoline imports are one of the largest costs of Iraqi reconstruction efforts so far. Although Iraq sits on the third-largest oil reserves in the world….

Independent experts who reviewed Halliburton’s percentage of its gas importation contract said the company’s 26-cent charge per gallon of gas from Kuwait appeared to be extremely high.

“I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said Phil Verleger, a California oil economist and the president of the consulting firm PK Verleger LLC. “That’s a monopoly premium — that’s the only term to describe it. Every logistical firm or oil subsidiary in the United States and Europe would salivate to have that sort of contract.”

In March, Halliburton was awarded a no-competition contract to repair Iraq’s oil industry, and it has already received more than $1.4 billion in work. …

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Waxman responded to the latest information on to costs of the Halliburton contract. “It’s inexcusable that Americans are being charged absurdly high prices to buy gasoline for Iraqis and outrageous that the White House is letting it happen,” he said.

Waxman says the White House is ‘letting’ this happen. They are making this happen. mjh

See also: mjh’s weBlog: 2 in House Question Halliburton’s Iraq Fuel Prices October 16, 2003

Two senior Democratic congressmen are questioning whether Halliburton is overcharging the United States government in the procurement of gasoline and other fuel for Iraq, which is now importing oil products to stave off shortages.

Pentagon Bars Three Nations From Iraq Bids By DOUGLAS JEHL, NYTimes

The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying it was acting to protect ”the essential security interests of the United States.”
The directive, issued Friday by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, represents the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq. …

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement criticizing the Pentagon move as a “totally gratuitous slap” that “does nothing to protect our security interests and everything to alienate countries we need with us in Iraq.”

A Republican congressman who recently returned from Iraq said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that it was a mistake to exclude particular countries from the rebuilding effort.