Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) Rips GOP, Iraq War

By: PM
Published On: 5/9/2007 9:16:31 PM

Wayne Gilchrest, who represents Maryland's Eastern Shore and who recently voted to override the Iraq funding veto, gave a hard hitting interview to Reason Magazine.  I'll include a few of my favorite points.

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http://www.reason.co...

By the way, he's a Vietnam vet who earned his Purple Heart the hard way --

He signed up with the Marines in 1964 and went to Vietnam in the grimmest, bloodiest days of the war. He survived a shot to the chest, and spent the decades afterward studying foreign policy, history, and why nations go to war.

On the Iraq funding bill:

***[T]the president mischaracterized the nature of the legislation. There was no drop-dead date to withdraw troops. There was a recommended goal for beginning to leave in 2007. The president should have looked at that legislation and said "You have your goals, here are mine, let's see what we can do."

On Congress' role:

We've been on the sidelines for four years just watching this policy unfold. It is our right and responsibility to have an impact on this policy. Respect for other members of the government doesn't seem to be apparent to the president.

On his initial vote for authorizing the war:

What I failed to consider was whether the executive branch was competent, informed, and had integrity. Under the circumstances, I don't think it was.

On whether we should be talking to Syria and Iran:

We never stopped talking to the Russians in the `50s, and we didn't stop talking to the Russians when they had deployable nuclear weapons in Cuba. We engaged them and worked through the process. We talked to the Chinese. We talked to the Soviets after Khrushchev pounded his shoe on the podium and said "We will bury you" to Henry Cabot Lodge. How did Ike respond to that? He invited Khrushchev to America.

When asked "How do you respond to these groups that want to oust anti-war Republicans?" he responded:

Look, history is a vast early warning system. Knowledge is key to this issue. Simplistic, dogmatic ideology confines and restricts your view of the world. So if you want to be loyal to the troops in the field, if you're saying you're patriotic, then you'll read a book like Anthony Zinni's The Battle for Peace. You'll read a book like Fiasco. You'll turn the damn television off every night for two hours and read some objective opinions on this thing. Ignorance is pervasive in any culture and ours is not an exception.

On the modern day GOP:

Now it's drying up and the wind's going to blow it away. I just don't think we have the depth of knowledge, intellect, and experience necessary for a viable political party any more.

I'm not sure if maybe the GOP has been hijacked by the base, or by Karl Rove, or by all of these peripheral issues. *** Issues that shouldn't be occupying a nation like this, with our place in global politics. We're stuck on gay marriage, flag burning; we're supposed to make sure you get campaign contributions from the NRA. We were stuck with those for so many years.

On a primary challenge:

I don't worry about a primary challenge. It's inconvenient. My eternal soul will last a lot longer than my short, pathetic political career.

 

Comments



Wow, he sounds like Russ Potts! (Lowell - 5/9/2007 9:57:21 PM)
Unfortunately, something tells me that there are more of "the base" who have hijacked the GOP, than of those with "the depth of knowledge, intellect, and experience necessary for a viable political party any more."  Sad to see a great American political party, one that I used to be a proud member of, go down the tubes like this.  Who will save it from itself?


he was a social studies teacher (teacherken - 5/9/2007 10:11:33 PM)
and he got elected by defeating a truly corrupt Democrat - named Dyson if memory serves

and no, I don't plan to become a Republican and challenge our incumbent Dem.  I may be a social studies teacher, but he ain't corrupt,and I have no desire to run for public office.



Fired Prosecutor Wanted to Proecute Mom Murderer (PM - 5/10/2007 8:17:41 AM)
This is what Karl Rove, George Bush and Grover Norquist have done to the Republican Party.  The Washington Post reports a ninth prosecutor was fired.  I read this on James Martin's Va. Progressive Blog,  http://vaprogressive... but I'm giving the WaPo link for the full story:http://www.washingto...

Graves said he was told simply that he should resign to "give another person a chance." He said he did not oppose the department's request, because he had already been planning to return to private practice. He did appeal to Missouri's senior senator to try to persuade the White House to allow him to remain long enough to prosecute a final, important case -- involving the slaying of a pregnant woman and kidnapping of her 8-month fetus. Justice officials rejected the request.

Gonzo is up on the Hill again today.  I hope they ask him about Josh Marshall's assertion:

And the Department of Justice has repeated stated that eight US Attorneys were fired. That was clearly false.
http://www.talkingpo...

And this point of Josh's:

There's been a lot of back and forth and speculation about all the faulty memories, the fact that virtually every senior official at DOJ has denied any role in actually choosing the names on the firing list and all the various claims of privilege.
  Id.

And why the hell did Monica "If There Were A Fifth Tier Regent Would Be In It" Goodling have written authority to do hiring and firing?  http://www.tpmmuckra...