DEMOCRATS ON WAR

I thought I was done Blogging for the day, then this turned up in my inbox. As your actual official Democratic Party ePrecinct eCaptain, responsible for "getting the word out", I was compelled to leap into action and post:

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Bush deserved "great credit" for his leadership during the war and praised the work of the military. Days before the war began, Daschle had blamed Bush's failed diplomacy for making the fighting necessary and was criticized for his remarks.

"In 21 days, we eliminated somebody who for 20 years has repressed and tortured his own people and posed a serious security risk," Daschle said.

It's just a little confusing to me who the "we" are that Daschle is talking about. I don't remember seeing him in the coverage. Guess there weren't enough embedded reporters to cover his part in the fighting? And is it true that instead of flying in on a jet that Daschle was carried into the building on the backs of taxpayers?

Of course, I need to give equal time to other Democrats, right? Here's John Kerry on Vietnam, "his war." This is from a statement to the Senate in 1971, and references his fellow veterans:

They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

Note that the main difference between Kerry and Daschle's remarks is that Kerry doesn't use the term "we", even though he actually fought in Vietnam and is trumpeting that on his homepage these days.

And all that just somehow reminds me of this Golden Oldie:

"They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street,
where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one
day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so
I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to
look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted
to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York,
and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all
kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave
me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "Kid, you're our boy."

Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaraunt, 1966