[Speed Gibson,
Sunday September 26, 2004 at 10:35am]
Respectfully Not Impressed
Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton said he would "respectfully not attend" interim Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi's speech to a joint session of Congress, which Dayton said would be "a staged production" presumably to support President Bush.
I am respectfully not impressed with the Senator's logic. No matter what Mr. Allawi is and represents, insulting him and the millions of Iraqi's he represents (not all, but millions) makes no sense. Such sniping will hand the next President - Bush or Kerry - an even more difficult situation to manage. How can this possibly help?
Furthermore, Senator Dayton has no credible information on which to accuse Mr. Allawi of being our puppet. Certainly we put him in power, but where is the evidence of an "understanding" with Bush in particular or America in general? When you call a man a liar or a puppet, you had better have the goods on him, not just an opinion consistent with your Party's leadership.
Finally, while many Senators and some Representatives like to speak on foreign policy, the traditional, constitutional way is to take on the Executive Branch, not attempt to conduct foreign policy directly as Dayton did here. Our disagreements are supposed to end at the water's edge.
I am respectfully not impressed with the Senator's logic. No matter what Mr. Allawi is and represents, insulting him and the millions of Iraqi's he represents (not all, but millions) makes no sense. Such sniping will hand the next President - Bush or Kerry - an even more difficult situation to manage. How can this possibly help?
Furthermore, Senator Dayton has no credible information on which to accuse Mr. Allawi of being our puppet. Certainly we put him in power, but where is the evidence of an "understanding" with Bush in particular or America in general? When you call a man a liar or a puppet, you had better have the goods on him, not just an opinion consistent with your Party's leadership.
Finally, while many Senators and some Representatives like to speak on foreign policy, the traditional, constitutional way is to take on the Executive Branch, not attempt to conduct foreign policy directly as Dayton did here. Our disagreements are supposed to end at the water's edge.