Sherry Chandler

By now everybody in the U.S. knows that GWB had this to say in his speech before the Israeli knesset yesterday:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

According to the NYTimes:

JERUSALEM — President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament on Thursday to liken those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” to appeasers of the Nazis — a remark widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries like Iran and Syria.

Mr. Bush did not mention Mr. Obama by name, and White House officials said he was not taking aim at the senator, though they were aware the speech might be interpreted that way.

There’s a non-denial denial for you.

I bring this up here not to inform you about it but to go on the record as finding this kind of attack intolerable.

I’ve been hard on Senator Obama here on this blog because I would have him be a more liberal candidate. But as I have said we must stand up for all Democrats against the Republican smear machine, so I want to go on record as standing up for Senator Obama.

Also for the record, I want to say that I agree with Senator Obama that we should talk to Iran, we should talk to Hamas, we should talk to China, Korea, Myanmar. Talking is not the same as appeasement.

And, God knows, we haven’t got far toward settling our problems with cowboy diplomacy. A little nuance can’t possibly hurt.

Senators Obama, Clinton, Reid, and Nancy Pelosi have all made strong statements chiding Mr. Bush for such perfidy.

Here is Obama’s:

“It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.”

“Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power — including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy — to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”

Here is Clinton’s:

President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush.

There is a very clear difference between Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy and that difference will be evident once we take back the White House.

The Republicans have screamed loud and long whenever any opponent had the temerity to use terms like Nazi or fascist to describe the Bush administration and yet here is Bush willing enough to throw it around when speaking as the leader of his nation before the governing body of a foreign country. Cheap, classless, and deserving of scorn. Which is why, of all Democratic responses yesterday, my favorite is Joe Biden’s:

“This is bullsh1t, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset … and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”