Frist Insists on Apology For Durbin's Remarks

[IChing]

Sunday, June 19, 2005; Page A06


Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called on Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) to apologize and withdraw his comments made on the Senate floor comparing U.S. soldiers' handling of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the actions taken years ago by "Nazis and Soviets in their gulags."

In a statement yesterday from Nashville, Frist said, "In captivity at Guantanamo are murderers . . . many dangerous murderers. They are in jail cells where they belong . . . and not on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . or on the streets of Nashville, Boston, Miami or New York.

"I'm extremely disappointed by Senator Durbin's comments comparing U.S. soldiers' handling of prisoners to the actions taken by Nazis and Soviets in their gulags. Not one prisoner has been murdered while in custody at Guantanamo." >>snip

Frist insisted on an apology: "I call upon Senator Durbin to withdraw his comments and provide an appropriate apology." And he said other Democratic leaders should also seek an apology, adding, "Shameful does not begin to describe this heinous slander against our country . . . and the brave men and women risking their lives every day to defend it."
>>>snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801345.html?nav=rss_print/asection

In related news Frist was diagnosed with a minor brain problem


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1868051&mesg_id=1868051


http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i8503

[annabanana]

1. well then.... Durbin should hold his water until those new

Abu Graib pics come out, right?

[Cha]

2. Fuck you frist!

Pissyfrist!

Has Durbin already apologised?

[chomskysright]

51. Say it again louder: FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FRIST

[chomskysright]

53. Here's what I wrote Durbin re: Frist:

PLEASE DO NOT GIVE SEN. FRIST THE COURTESY OF AN APOLOGY:

We're had it up to hear with Frist, a racist fundie.

FYI re: Frist.

He said you can get AIDs from tears.

2) He said condoms are ineffective.

3) He diagnosed Terri Schiavo long distance based on a heavily edited home video.

4) He (his company - HCA Healthcare Corp) closed the busiest Trauma Center in our city -- then held up the County Supervisors to pay him to build a new one at the Alexian Brothers substance abuse rehab center that he (his company - HCA Healthcare Corp) bought.


http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/18/11719/9579

drop Veteran's health care
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, *******Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $2.8 billion for veterans health care and $2.8 billion for deficit reduction. That’s a commercial.

voted against funding Medicaid
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, ********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas Voted against restoring $14 billion to Medicaid and establishing a bipartisan Medicaid commission. That’s a commercial.

voted against Homeland security
Republicans Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Kyl, Lott, Santorum and Thomas voted against $855 million for Homeland Security grants for first responder programs, port security grants and border patrol agents. That’s a commercial.

voted against restoring Community Development Block Grant Programs
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, *********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas (funny how the same names keep coming up) voted against restoring $1.9 billion in cuts to the Community Development Block Grant Program. That’s a commercial.

voted against Vocationa Education Act (which helps people get jobs who are disabled or have been unemployed)
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $7.46 billion for the Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and deficit reduction. Commercial.

voted against education and deficit reduction
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $4.75 billion for education and $4.75 billion for deficit reduction. Commercial.

voted against increasing Pell Grant (allowing people to move through college)
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $5.4 billion to education program cuts and increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,500. Commercial.

voted against agricultural programs
Republicans put the bricks to farmers: Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $2.8 billion to agriculture programs. Midwest commercial.

voted against family planning
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against a resolution supporting $1 billion for family planning programs, such as teen pregnancy prevention. Moral values hypocrisy commercial.

wants to allow prepackaged news to come your way
Republicans Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against refusing to establish any appropriations bill that allows funds to be provided for "prepackaged news stories" that do not have a disclaimer stating "Paid for by the United States Government" running throughout the presentation. Commercial.

voted against special education programs
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, ************Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against a reserve fund that would provide $71.3 billion for special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Commercial.

[LuPeRcALiO]

3. Is there anything more embarrassing

than watching a winger trying to launch a PC feeding frenzy?

[rodeodance]

4. FRist-where is your apology for dragging us into the Terri S. case? --

that is what Durbin should say!!!!!

[Hobarticus]

Hey, that 'case is closed', sez Frist!

He backpedalled away from that stinker in a hurry.

[Carla in Ca]

52. And if that isn't bad enough...

Newt Gingrich wants Sen. Durbin censored! Of all the people in the world, he is one of the lowest. I just shook my head when I read that.

[Mythsaje]

5. Oh, Frist,

you poor dumb bastard. Do you not understand the subtlety of the remarks Durbin made? A camp where people are detained without benefit of trial or public scrutiny IS like a gulag. What else would you compare it to?

If the FBI agent's report had been read aloud with no one knowing the source, or what it referred to, the listener MAY WELL be drawn to the conclusion that it was a gulag rather than a U.S. detention center.

Therein lies the problem. As was Durbin's point.

You, as well as many of your fellows, either missed the point, or simply ignored it for your own reasons.

I know which one I'm betting on.

[IChing]

8. Frist has a medical problem as I also reported

in my links

Don't be too hard on a brain dead senator.

[Mythsaje]

14. Of course

one should feel some level of pity for such a poor unfortunate soul.

[NeoConsSuck]

24. What a WONDERFUL graphic..

and in a perfect world, it wouldn't have to be photoshopped.

[IChing]

28. Dreams can come true, Just visulize it , thanks

[mainer]

59. Durbin needs to turn it around on Bush

"I'll apologize when President Bush apologizes for deceiving us into a war. I'll apologize when he apologizes for lying to Congress at WMD's. I'll apologize when President Bush apologizes to the families of every dead American soldier for sending their loved ones into harm's way."

You can bet that Senator Frist will shut up about apologies.

[leesa]

60. Why DON'T one of the real Democrats read it and attribute it to one of the

brown peopled countries we hate. Let the Freeps get hot and bothered about it and then reveal that it was a report about the US.

[rooboy]

6. Someone sent Bill Frist a video tape and he made a full analysis.

again.

[wakeme2008]

20. Or this story of a US ARMY SOLDIER beating so bad they had to medicaly

discharge him..

from this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1867846&mesg_id=1867846

[FloridaPat]

7. How does he know they're murderers? And aren't there bigger murderers

in the White House? There have been no charges to anyone pretty much anywhere, last I heard. And who did they murder?

[Kber]

58. Murderers get a trial before they are convicted.

Prove they are murderers in a recognized court of law and we will have the moral right to hold them.

We will never have the moral right to torture.

[Seabiscuit]

61. Right. By law, no one's a "murderer" until convicted in a court of law.

Dr. Frist's talkin' out of ass again.

Yo, how's that Schiavo diagnosis goin', Dr. Frist???

[BattyDem]

9. More Abu Ghraib pics will be released next week ...

Durbin should hold them up on the Senate floor, turn to Frist and say, "So Senator, what would YOU call this kind of treatment?"

[Tommymac]

10. Go back to diagnosing from video tapes you quack.

I demand an apology for you being you, Frist.

:argh:

[maddezmom]

11. When will the mis-administration apologize for the torture and abuse

at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, etc.? The deaths of over 1700 US military personnel and countless Iraqi's?

[TankLV]

36. When are bushco and the rest of the repuke going to apologize to

Newsweek - they have been proven right, after all!

[Elidor]

12. It's a pleasant distraction from the real issues, isn't it, Frist?

And the captive media sluts are so eager to help you get air time for it. Shameless, craven opportunist.

[CBHagman]

17. Precisely! We wouldn't even be talking about abuses if...

... the administration didn't believe it was above the law, above accountability, and above the Constitution. As usual, the GOP leadership tries to spin the issue to make it all about a few words said by one of their critics.

Yes, the references to the Terri Schiavo case are on the mark. The 'cans will exploit anything to what they believe is their political advantage. Did you read about what the hospice staff in Florida went through thanks to the media circus around Terri Schiavo? They got bomb threats, criticism from medically ignorant types, etc. And add to that the pain suffered by other patients and their loved ones.

The GOP leadership is vile beyond belief.

[bemildred]

13. "Never apologize, never explain".

You woulda thought Durbin woulda known that.

[DUgosh]

15. Don't hold your breath Frist.

But then what would it matter? You might still be as reponsive without air.

[bunkerbuster1]

16. ...or what? You gonna cry?

asshole.

[daleo]

18. A Soviet apparatchek would have said the same thing.

In Stalin's day, I imagine that all the prisoner's would have been guilty without a trial as well.

[tanyev]

19. This is the only apology that needs to be made:

"I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it. I think that a lot of my colleagues felt that what I had said badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue."

[AX10]

25. Is that what Durbin said?

Please tell me he actually said that!

[tanyev]

26. That's how Cheney "apologized" after he

used some very indecorous language on the Senate floor.

[kath]

45. Yes, Durbin should say he'll apologize when Cheney apologizes for telling

Leahy to go fuck himself.

[mbperrin]

27. Yes, and he could have said what preceded it, too!

It IS the Senate again, after all!

[peace frog]

21. Frist knows what he can kiss...

... and when to kiss it. Pucker up, asshole!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. I think Frist's office should be the subject of a massive call-in....

..asking him to apologize for being one of the NeoCon leaders that demanded we attack Iraq.

[sam sarrha]

23. we kidnap people and send them to Uzbekistan to boiled alive,Fuck Frist..

[Old and In the Way]

29. Apologize for what? Republicans not understanding what he said?

And distorting the spirit off his point which was: how is Gitmo any different from the torturing proclivities of Stalin, Pol Pot, et al?

And how do we know what atrocities these people committed, since they are being held incommudicado without any public hearing? Should we take this administration's word for their status? I think not.

[Toucano]

30. Eat shit, Frist! n/t

[NJmaverick]

31. a-hole frist didn't apologize for his Shiavo remarks

Typical republican hypocrisy in action.

[truthisfreedom]

32. tee-hee-hee. let 'em stew! keep 'em busy! this is great. we're rattling

their cages and jerking their chains every day now!

[Sandpiper]

33. Dr. Frist says that blind women respond to visual stimuli

So, really, who cares what he thinks.

[bushcrab]

35. frigid frist's parents need to apologize

for raising such a whiney dumbass.

[barb162]

34. piss on Frist

[stillcool]

37. First Durbin has to do something.....

worthy of an apology. I can think of a few things....

[ihelpu2see]

38. Has Frist apologized for the Terry Schavo(sp?) diagnosis ??? nt

[Orion The Hunter]

39. RE: Pot, meet the kettle...

How's bout when Frist apologizes to Michael Schiavo for his stupid video tape diagnosis then he can start asking for apologies from others?

[Catrina]

40. This is unbelievable

Didn't Frist call the Democratic Party Nazis because they wouldn't vote the way he wanted them to?

I just wrote a letter to some newspaper about Gen. Clark on the Hannity and Colmes Show. Colmes said that Frist had called Democrats Nazis.

I think that is shameful. To tell the world that half the US government is a bunch of Nazis.

I think we should call his office tomorrow and demand that he apologize for that.

Also ~ Democrats, like Reid should be told to demand an apology from him for that remark.

This is infuriating ~ I hope his Nazi remark is all over the news by the end of the week. We should email Sen. Durbin and tell him about it. He can tell Frist he hasn't noticed him apologizing for his Nazi remark.

[C_U_L8R]

41. So... It Seems Frist Actually Condones The Torture

Meow Meow Meow

[orleans]

42. frist can kiss durbin's ass!

[warrens]

43. Hold your breath, kittenboy

McCain just said the same thing. Now, in the words of your buddy Dick Cheney, go fuck yourself.

[Catrina]

49. Poor kitty!

I made a mistake, it was Sen. Santorum who called Democrats Nazis. Frist accused them of 'assassination' because they opposed some of Bush's nominees.

GOP senator compares Democrats to Hitler
By John Byrne | RAW STORY

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) compared Democrats' attempts to keep the filibuster to Hitler's moves in 1942 in a floor speech in the Senate Thursday afternoon, RAW STORY has learned.

The following is a transcript of the particular section of the senator's floor speech, from the closed-captioned text taken by the Senate.


http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/santorum_hitler_519



And I think Frist is looking for revenge since it was Sen. Durbin who chastized him for using words like 'assassinate' to describe Democrats' opposition to Bush' judicial nominees:


Frist: GOP Rhetoric Veers Dangerously Towards Extremism


On the same day that a federal judge whose family was assassinated testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about courthouse safety, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) described Democratic efforts opposing some of President Bush’s judicial nominees as “leadership-led use of Cloture vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.”

Federal Judge Joan Lefkow was a target for assassination, and her husband and mother were murdered in February of this year. Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) hammered Frist's comments and asked they be struck from the Senate record.

Durbin remarked, "When words are expressed during the court of the debate that those of us who oppose these nominees are setting out to 'kill, to defeat or to assassinate these nominees, those words should be taken from this record. Those words go too far."

[shadowknows69]

44. well then chew on these comments Bill

You're a racist, facist, constitution hating, right wing extremist as bad any terrorist you and your fellow neo-con devils could create. fuck you,I hope you get syphillis. No apology coming from me either. bite it.

[progressivebydesign]

46. Kitties everywhere demand an apology from Killer Frist!!

meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow.

I plan to rent a cat costume and picket Frist if he ever visits my state. That kitten killer will be so humiliated by the animal lovers that he'll never get the nomination.

[PurityOfEssence]

47. How many times have Republicans called Democrats Nazis?

There are a whole bunch that I remember....

[wallwriter]

62. Santorum most recently

but that was based on all-important parliamentary procedure, not imprisonment without charges and torture...

[Cornjob]

68. Rick's days are numbered here in PA!

He is sinking fast in the polls and Casey is getting stronger every day.

[Occulus]

48. famous last words

"Not one prisoner has been murdered while in custody at Guantanamo."

Okay. I'll remember you said that, Fister Frist. Mister Fist. Whatever the fuck I'm supposed to call you- I'll remember you said that.

[bunny planet]

50. Really, well we insist on an apology for your shameless Terry Shiavo

grandstanding and your unprofessional and fraudulent 'diagnosis' by videotape. Perhaps your medical license should come into question over that one, aren't there rules against that kind of thing.

In other words Fristula STFU.

[depakid]

54. This is a perect opportunity to make a fool out of Frist

and expose him to some ridicule.

Ridicule works- it's good rhetorical tactic- I wish the Dems had the guts to use it more often-

[oscar111]

55. FOCUS SHIFT fm crime, to messenger

a tactic used now by frist

PS Frist is typical of what is wrong with for profit medicine

He is the kind of guy you get going into medicine when it is for profit. We are now overrun with Frist types in medicine.

[blm]

56. Taxpayers want our20mil.dollars back you spent opening a recessed congress

during its Easter break to slander Michael Schiavo, just so you could PRETEND you were a doctor AND a Senator.

You were really spending OUR millions of dollars on a GOP horse and pony show for your dwindling base.

[maxrandb]

57. Some Guys Really Deserve

a "Frist Fuck".

[shantipriya]

63. Frist?!?!?!?!?!?

You hypocrit,first aplogize for the Sciavo fiasco and charade in the Senate!

[JABBS]

64. Straw men

Frist demands an apology from Durbin? Then Harry Reid should demand an apology from Rick Santorum, because he invoked the Hitler comparison when talking about Democrats filibustering Bush's judicial nominees.

And while we're at it, maybe Reid should formally demand an apology from Vice President Cheney, for dropping an F-Bomb on Patrick Leahy last summer.

This is the sort of nonsense that convinces me that Frist is just a lackey for Karl Rove, Frank Luntz and the other Bush imagemakers. He should be ashamed.

[JABBS]

65. One ofther thing on Frist ...

It's called Freedom of Speech. Durbin has a right to his opinion, just like Frist had a right to diagnose Terri Schiavo after watching her on a three-year-old video.

[LiberalAndProud]

66. Compare to

DEMOCRATS DEMAND ROVE APOLOGY

[Initech]

67. Ah, fucked up Republican logic strikes again!

So Durbin makes a controversial comment and he is FORCED to apologize, but when Rove makes a controversial comment, he just almost literally laughs in our faces.