Who gives a shit why they walked out? Lame reason A or lame reason B, take your pick.
They spend weeks railing against Bush that he won’t make time and then they walk out early.? Exactly how stupid are these people?
I said already why they walked out, Demostylus. Prior commitments.
Kerrey met with Senator Pete Domenici. Hamilton met with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
If we’re to take Kerry and Hamilton at their word, and I don’t think they lied, we’re still left with two men who left for meetings of far lesser importance.
Fair enough. I missed that. Sorry.
This is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard this week. If you have proof that Bush said “Well, all my sources say that there are no WMDs in Iraq, despite there being virtual concensus amongst the US and the UN, but who cares? The US is cool and all that, so I’ll just say there are WMDs and look really confused when there turn out to be none”, bring them out. If not, keep your kneejerk partisan lies to yourself.
Unlike Sam Stone, I have neen very impressed with Kerry’s performance up to now, but this was idiotic. Kerry and Hamilton have some serious 'splaining to do.
I think what they did was incredibly rude.
They bitched and moaned because they wanted to talk to Bush and Cheney, then when they have the opportunity, they have the unmitigated gall to leave early?
You may not respect the man, but you should respect the office. This is the President and Vice President of the United States of America, dammit, and as such they deserve some modicum of respect.
Ducking out of the meeting to meet with a senator and the leader of a foreign country is disgusting. If I have a meeting with my boss, and the CEO of the company calls me into his office, am I going to say, “Sorry, Head of Our Company, gotta run?” Hell no. I’m going to stay put until he’s done. My boss will understand. And this other senator and the PM of Canada could have been served tea and asked to wait.
If you don’t respect the President, why would you want to show him respect?
One of the best things about not being an elected official is that you don’t have to care what people think of your actions anymore.
Yeah, they were idiots. It couldn’t possibly be that they got all of the information that they needed, or that information they would get from their other appointments was more relevant, or that they felt they were wasting their time. No, let’s jump right to the conclusion that they were simply too dumb to realize that they were in a meeting with the prez and simply wandered out by accident.
And we know this to be true because so many dopers were there at the time.
I also wonder what dopers would be saying had they blown off their other appointments to stay with the prez longer. No doubt that they are idiots who don’t know how to keep appointments.
tdn, you do realize that Kerrey used to be a Democratic senator, and that Domenici is a current Democratic senator? They’re colleagues, part of the boy’s club. Rescheduling that appointment could have been accomplished easily.
I can’t speak for Hamilton’s appointment. Paul Martin is a busy man. But it is likely that something could have been arranged.
Conflicts in business or politics occur all the time. You try to accomodate them as much as possible. But I think we can all agree that nothing short of a personal emergency should keep you from a meeting with the President.
What has it all come to, if we can’t even agree on this point? I was no fan of Bill Clinton’s, but if he needed me for anything at all, I’d be there with shoes shined.
But that straw man is not the conclusion that anyone has drawn. It has been stated in the press that they had other appointments that they felt were more important. So far this has been unchallenged by either man, and unless it is we have to assume that the President’s and Vice-President’s remarks were not that important to them. I’m still waiting to hear Kerry or Hamilton explain themselves.
While we might question their abilities to schedule their days, I don’t think we’d be giving it much thought.
If they get all the info they needed, then they sit there, shut up, and wait for everyone else to get the info they need. They shouldn’t leave until excused.
These guys had been snapping at Bush about being unavailable for talks, then cut those talks short by leaving them?
Do you realize how stupid this is?
We don’t need to be there. The excuses they offered up were fucking lame. Are you disputing that? In fact any excuse they could have offered up would be stupid, considering that there really isn’t much more that is important then what they were doing at the moment.
What would really impress me is if they hadn’t made any appointments right after a super fucking important meeting, on the totally wacky, impossible chance, they have to stay longer. :rolleyes:
Credit where credit is due. Your apology is gratefully accepted, Desmo.
No, I’m not disputing anything. I just feel like we’re not getting the whole story here. What they did – as reported – is entirely illogical. There’s got to be a missing piece somewhere.
Or maybe they’re just idiots. I don’t know.
I agree with this wholeheartadly!! They are investigating the larges disaster in living Anmerican memor, so why the fuck couldnt Bush and Cheney give testimony like everyone else involved? The manipulated this to the point where it was basically just another day for Bush!! Bush basically just had a 3hour meeting in his OWN freaking office!!! And know one knows what the fuck was said.
Bush is a coward. He insults all the dead on 9/11, and since, by hiding behind closed doors and using flash cards to answer questions.
Likewise from me. It’s very easy to miss a post.
damn…I get all excited and start mis-typing…
should be NO on knows…
I now return you to your previously scheduled rant…
Presidents don’t generally go to meetings. Meetings come to them. That’s just the way the world works.
RHIP, as we used to say in the Navy. For better or worse, the President and Vice-President are not just any old witnesses.
And, since the commission had agreed to this condition heading in, they were stuck with it. Kerrey and Hamilton should have stayed put.
Yeah the commision “agreed” to those terms before heading in. :rolleyes:
You imply that they had some sort of choice.
I heard on this morning news that it was a campaign financing meeting. Kerrey was told the Pres and Vice Pres would only be testifying for 2 hrs so scheduled this meeting, but I am sure if there had been a phone call to Sen. Domenici’s office, he would have understood.
I try never to take Washington explanations at face value, and this one is less credible than most, being so out of character for these guys and so out of harmoney with what has gone on before.
So my guess is that Bush and Cheney were spouting the same nonsense in private that they’ve been doing in public, Kerrey and Hamilton pressed them for the straight dope, but they kept it up anyway (perhaps fearing leaks from other persons in the room). Then K&H said something about B&C’s wasting the commission’s time, perhaps even lying when they didn’t have to lie, more words were exchanged, and K&H decided to demonstrate that almost any other use of their time would be more productive than putting up with more of that.
But that’s just a guess.