Occasionally, even I, the political junky, can be amazed at the crap that comes out of a politicians mouth. Yesterday, on on Meet the Press Tom Delay made me laugh out loud several times.
MR. RUSSERT: Congressman DeLay, one week after the capture of Saddam Hussein, how would you describe the situation in Iraq?
REP. DeLAY: Well, I think it's very exciting.
(goes on and on about the benefits of capturing Saddam)
um.. the question was about the situation in Iraq (where there is a country to be rebuilt), not why it was good to catch Saddam. We all know why it was good to catch Saddam. I doubt the troops in Iraq would describe it as exciting.
MR. RUSSERT: I want to talk to you about something you did say about the Democratic candidates on Tuesday. "The Democrats' hateful, moronic comments are beyond the pale, and the Democrats know it, and they don't care because they have nothing to offer the public debate but rage, resentment and quackery. Until other Democrats stand up against this hysteria, they're admitting to the country their party has no claim to national leadership. I guess Oliver Stone is on the Democrats' short list for vice president." That's pretty harsh, Congressman.
REP. DeLAY: It's pretty harsh what the Democrats are saying. It's amazing to me the comments that you're hearing now coming from national politicians running for national office. You'd think it would come from the French or their party or from these demonstrators that demonstrate in the streets that you see.
so.. all French people and anyone who protests are quacks?
MR. RUSSERT: You said this specifically about former Vermont Governor Howard Dean: "If this cruel, loudmouth extremist is the cream of the Democrat crop, next November's going to make the '84 election look like a squeaker"--'84 being when Ronald Reagan carried every state but Minnesota and the District of Columbia against Walter Mondale. What has Governor Dean said that is cruel and extremist?
REP. DeLAY: Well, cruel and extremist in just about anything you--you look at everything he said.
Everything Howard Dean says is extreme?
MR. RUSSERT: But Governor Dean is appealing to the Democratic base. He believes, if he can rally that base and get a large turnout, that he can beat President Bush. Do you believe that Governor Dean could beat President Bush? Or do you stick with your prediction it would be a landslide for the president?
REP. DeLAY: Well, I hope Howard Dean is nominated for the Democratic nomination, I got to tell you. As I said--as you pointed out earlier, I think the Democrat platform for 2004 could be titled "Dean Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." We would love to run against Howard Dean. He is so far out there on the fringe. Maybe he is appealing to his base, but thaté?¥ou can't win by just exciting your base. You've got to be able to get 51 percent of the electoral votes in this country, and he would have a long way to go. And he's already made so many outrageous statements. We can't--I can't wait to see the commercials that will be run next year.
MR. RUSSERT: "Cuckoo's Nest" was your expression, not mine, Congressman, just for the record.
Dean Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?? Talk about your quack comments! I love Tim Russert.
Howard Dean is not out on the fringe. Republicans keep saying it because they think that if people keep hearing it, they will believe it.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you this front-page story from The Washington Post: "The Wall Street Journal editorial page accuses Bush of Medicare fiasco and Medicare giveaway. Paul Weyrich, coordinator of the conservative movement, sees `disappointment in a lot of quarters.' Bruce Bartlett, conservative economist with the National Center for Policy Analysis, pronounces himself `apoplectic.' An article in the conservative American Spectator calls Bush's stewardship on spending `non-existent,' and Steven Moore of the Club for Growth labels Bush a `champion big-spending president." $500 billion deficits as far as the eye can see. Why isn't that a legitimate issue for Governor Dean, who balanced the budget in Vermont, to go after the president on?
REP. DeLAY: Well, first of all, Howard Dean has a real hard time with the truth. He says one thing one day and says something else the other day. This isn't the largest deficit in history. It may be the largest dollars in history, but as a percentage GDP, it is not the largest deficit in history. But it is something that we need to deal with. And I also remind you that it was the Republican House of Representatives that first balanced the budget in well over 40 years; 40 years of control by the Democrats of the House of Representatives. And we did it in the '90s.
A. So Dean has a hard time with the truth, but what he is saying is true?
B. The House balanced the budget by themselves in the '90's? And if Delay believes that is such a big accomplishment, why is ok now to have huge deficits?
MR. RUSSERT: Congressman, Democrats would say that Bill Clinton was president when, in fact, the budget went into surplus and that he submitted budgets that cost less than the Republican Congress offered. They would also say that this year, when you--non-defense spending has gone up 12 percent to 15 percent.
REP. DeLAY: It was Bill Clinton who vetoed twice the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and we forced him to sign it. It was Bill Clinton who vetoed twice the welfare reform and we made him sign it. It was Bill Clinton that fought us every step of the way for six years while he took credit for everything that we did. Bill Clinton deserves no credit for balancing the budget in the 1990s. He never presented a balanced budget to the Congress. It was the Congress that did it against his vehement objections. I was there, Tim. I know history. People can try to change history but I know what happened.
Pretty ballsy to critisize Clinton for not signing the Balance Budget Act when you consider how his party loves to over spend and cut taxes now that they are in power. Not to mention that if you know even a little about economics, you know that sometimes during recessions it is appropriate to run a short term deficit (meaning not the largest deficit in history with no hope of ending for years to come) to help boost the economy.
MR. RUSSERT: His first budget submission which passed without one Republican vote, you'll give him no credit for that.
REP. DeLAY: None at all because it raised taxes and made it even more difficult for us to come back in 1995 and change his economic policies and get us back to balance.
I don't have words.
MR. RUSSERT: As long as we have these $500 billion deficits, will you not introduce any more tax-cut legislation?
REP. DeLAY: Tax cuts will lower the deficit and bring us to balance.
Even though that has not worked in the past
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. DeLay, your Congressional Budget Office put a report out just yesterday that we're facing a potential economic crisis, we're going to need dramatic tax increases or dramatic spending cuts across the board if you're going to deal with the baby boom generation coming on for Medicare and Social Security. That is your Congressional Budget Office.
REP. DeLAY: Well, they're not always right.
So, we should just ignore them because we don't like what they say?-----
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