Powell was asked about AWOL today. "Lets don't go there" Very testy

[NNN0LHI]

A Dem Congressman/Senator? brought it up when Colin Powell was testifying today before congress about Iraq. CNN just showed the snippet. I thought Powell was going to come out of his chair. No kidding.

Don

[thebaghwan]

1. So what exactly did Powell say?

n/t

[NNN0LHI]

4. Its all politics or something to that effect? Then "lets don't go there"

He looked really pissed.

Don

[Richardo]

2. "Let's don't go there"? Who do you think you are? Oprah?

"I KNOW you didn't ask me that."

:eyes:

Seriously: can you just refuse to answer a question from a Congressional committee, if it's not a 5th amendment issue? :shrug:

[Ripley]

3. He should resign and write a tell-all book.

He might gain back a little shred of credibility. They must be paying him and Tenet big time bucks.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. he never had any credibility to begin with

He's a bootlicking whore like the rest of them, and he always has been.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. Powell is as overrated as they come.

:puke:

[Jackpine Radical]

57. Two words:

My Lai.

[HighJinx]

7. Powell

I heard him say very sternly, "Let's not go there" at least three times. I am sure it will be replayed. I was in the other room and heard the tone of voice, and came flying in but I don't know who posed the question or what it was.

[Ripley]

9. Is he looking really old and tired?

He must be tired of defending the Smirk.

[VolcanoJen]

8. My Transcript of the Exchange with Sherrod Brown

I just posted this as a dupe in this forum. Here is my transcription, courtesy of Tivo:

Powell was testifying before the House International Relations Committee.

Congressman Sherrod Brown (an excellent Buckeye congressman): Secretary, we count on you. The President may have been AWOL. The Vice-President has said he had 'other priorities' during Vietnam. Other high-ranking administration officials never served. You understand war, and we absolutely count on you. A lot of us wonder what happened between that Post interview and your statement the next day where you said the President made the right decision.

Powell: First of all, Mr. Brown, I won't dignify your comment about the President, because you don't know what you're talking about. Second, let me get to the point you were raising.

Brown: I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean, Mr. Secretary.

Powell: You made a reference that the President...

Brown: I said he may have been AWOL.

Powell: Mr. Brown, let's not go there. Let's just not go there. Let's not go there in this hearing. You just want to have a political fight on this matter that is very controversial, and it has been dealt with by the White House fine. Let's not go there.

Wow!! Someone's a little edgy about the AWOL question...

WAY TO GO, Sherrod Brown! I'm so proud you're a Buckeye!!

[HFishbine]

10. If that's the way it went

Powell was right.

[mike1963]

16. BULLSHIT. He's a god damned arrogant lying son of a bitch.

:grr:

[HFishbine]

28. Bullshit

She was trying to make political hay prefacing an unrelated question with remarks about Bush's service. The honorable thing would have been for her to ask directly if she really wanted to know. Powell was right.

[Ripley]

29. She who?

Brown is a guy.

[DemLikr]

40. See, this is where Dems go soft. OF COURSE she was making hay

that's what you have to do in Washington D.C. to fight back against the ruthless, no-limits Repugs.

Colon Powell is an arrogant,lying sack of enabling bullshit. Who the hell does he think he is?

Is that going to be his response at his trial for collaborating with the Bush regime?: "don't go there?"

Funny, I don't think that response would work for Martha Stewart.

God, these bastards are unfuckingbelievable.

[VolcanoJen]

47. Sherrod Brown is a MAN, baby!!!

Just wanted to clear that up. :-)

[DemLikr]

60. Oops! thanks

:crazy:

[tom_paine]

50. BINGO!

Time to stop backing up when these gutless turds wave a fist.

HELL YEAH we're polticizing it! We learned how by watching Your Emperor (not mine, Colon), Imperial Congressthing DeLay and Faux News!

[VolcanoJen]

51. "Imperial Congressthing DeLay"

Lovely, lovely description, tom_paine!

And, seriously everyone, we have GOT to drop the kissy-kiss, nicey-nice game with these Republicans. If we play nicey-nice, we do so at our own peril, and ultimate extinction.

Does anyone remember Willie Horton? Paula Jones? I-invented-the-Internet-and-was-the-inspiration-for-Love-Story? Muskie's wife is a drunk? Eagleton is mental? The freaking bugging of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, fercryinoutloud????? Who, exactly, do you think we're running against?

Sherrod Brown, by the way, is one of the good guys. He was the former Secretary of State here in the great state of Ohio, and has made one helluva congressman. A year or so ago, he made national headlines by loading up a bus full of Buckeye Senior Citizens and driving them upstate, and into Canada, to purchase prescription medicine.

edited to add erroneous ommission of Watergate Scandal to further illuminate my point.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

46. Powell doesn't want to "go there" because of his own deplorable...

...activity in trying to cover up My Lai.

Powell also doesn't want to "go there" because while he was in Vietnam he was safe "in the rear with the gear" as part of his division's staff while others were being killed in the front lines.

He was a uniformed chickenhawk...a variety of foul possibly worse than the regular home-based chickenhawk.

[LoZoccolo]

14. Yeah it was a cheap shot.

I agree, it didn't have anything to do with the hearing. We're getting a lot of mileage out of the AWOL charge anyways, no use turning it into something to get us accused of politicizing an important hearing.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

49. By all means, let's roll over and play dead like we have the last...

...several years! Is that what you really want???

If we want to get these people out of power we cannot waste a single precious opportunity to publicly denounce Junior and his cronies.

If that's too hardball a version of politics for you, perhaps you should get out of the kitchen now before it REALLY heats up.

[LoZoccolo]

53. Not what I said. Let's not go there.

Don't imply that the reason I object to this is that I can't handle it or something. If you want to know my reasons, ask for them.

By all means, if they politicize a hearing that we are before, we should react as strongly as Colin Powell did today.

But this "let's do what they do" tactic is dangerous, as I've stated in another post below. It's about as thought-out as the war in Iraq we're fighting right now. You cannot expect the Republicans to just roll over if we continue to do this; what they'll do is dismiss calls for hearings on account of our documented record of politicizing them, and they'll have credibility in doing so. Then abuses of power by the executive branch won't get investigated, and people won't care because it just ends up being a politicized hearing to begin with. There's no exit strategy to this tactic. We'll do it, then they'll do it, then we'll do it, then they'll do it, and we'll have a massive crisis of legitimacy - our congressional hearings will turn into circuses or be dismissed outright or never happen.

This might be a hardball tactic, but it's not a smart one.

[LoZoccolo]

54. And furthermore...

People compare this to the grilling Clinton got about Monica Lewinsky during the Whitewater investigation. What people forget is that Clinton's approval ratings actually went up as people got sick of the investigation, and the Democrats actually gained in the '98 election.

So yeah, this is a bad idea, and one that could backfire. It's unnecessary - we're already getting a lot of mileage out of the AWOL issue outside this hearing.

[KharmaTrain]

58. Thank You Thank You Thank You!

We can't afford to lose any credibility we're currently gaining with something that our enemies and sceptics will construe as a "cheap shot". This was one. It would have been like ambushing Madeline Albright about Lewinski on the eve of the Kosovo action. Or yelling "wag the dog" in '98 that now translates into "Clinton blew his chance to get bin Laden", by the same weasels.

We have gotten good mileage out of the AWOL and there's more to be had if it's slowly fed and allowed to fester in the media. Michael Moore's letter today is a great blueprint on what to do next.

I see a lot of bongos and cigars being passed out around here...extremely premature. We're starting to get a look from those who have been ignoring us for years...the last thing we need do right now is give them a reason to think we're the same type of opportunists as the Repugnicans.

There's a "long slog" between now and November and plenty of opportunities to pop questions about bunnypant's military past, or lack of...other Chickenhawks, "Where Was George" and "Where were you"...the GOOPies have opened a massive can of Vietnam Whoop ass we can use on them...if we're as shrewd and smart and saavy as the anti-war movement got in the late 60's and early 70's...and know when to make noise and know when to let the Repugnicans dance with their tar babies.

[Eloriel]

30. What a shame

I was hoping, from the initial report, that he might have been angry with Bush and didn't want to get caught in the crossfire on the subject. Apparently, that's not the case.

Thanks for the transcript!!

[stopbush]

11. When Powell said this:

"First of all, Mr. Brown, I won't dignify your comment about the President, because you don't know what you're talking about," I had a deja vu back to certain fellow who got up and knowingly LIED at the UN in the run-up to an illegal war. He told some real whoppers about WMD and a whole lot more.

Geez, Colin, who is it that doesn't know what he's talking about?

[sventvkg]

12. F Powell That Lying Bastage.......he should be strung up with the rest

of them as far as I'm concerned...

[SoCalDem]

13. Sorry Dude, you work for US..

These "public servants" who suckle at the adminstration's teat, are their on OUR DIME.. If our representatives (the press) ask a question, they OWE it to us to answer.. or get the hell out ..

These are the same people who thought that NO question was off-limits when it came to Clinton.. and now they are "sensitive" and adopt this
"How DARE you?"attitude when THEY are asked...:grr:

[savistocate]

20. Very _relevant_to the matter

any matter Secy of State has oversight over.. is required to answer to.
Relevance as to his credibility..our trust in his honesty trustworthyness.
"we count on you"..Brown says, can we count on you to give Congress, the public, truth, when he willfully skips out on Bush's awol _question, that there
are sound reports backed up which make this a "controversial issue" . Will he back up WH response, will he cover-up, whitewash, add to our uncertainty or clear it up..what? Could not be more to the point can we should we trust what Powell presents as fact on Iraq attack the process of making such judgement. Not reasonable that they could/we should if he cannot be straight on this awol--these gaps in recording of his service.

Exactly--NO question was out of line over the line in their attack on Clinton--unrelated utterly to matters of state. Good point.

[berry]

26. And the worst thing about it was the WAY Powell said it.

He was, in his voice and demeanor, saying exactly that: "How DARE you?" Which of course was intended to cow the questioner. Unfortunately, the CNN clip cut off there. But if I were Sherrod Brown, I'd be furious. Powell was way out of line--his anger was palpable, but it was hard to see why he had to react that way. The normal bland courtesy was gone.

[Flubadubya]

39. Hmm... and he's our Top Diplomat??

[anti-NAFTA]

15. Brown should not have brought it up

Now people are going to associate Bush with Powell's defense of "The President", and they will associate Democrats with young Senators who "have no idea what they are talking about" and probably never served to begin with.

the awol charge might die with this instant. Silly to bring this up at such a meeting.

Great. Now we are the "politicizers"!

FUCKING AMAZING BROWN! THANKS!

[Q]

17. Indeed...thank you Brown for connecting the dots...

...of this lying administration. Actually...Bush* serving poorly and lying about his record has EVERYTHING to do with his lies that drove this nation to war.

[VolcanoJen]

18. Thank you, Q.

Brown's statement was absolutely relevant to the questioning of Powell's, and this Administration's, war stance.

[anti-NAFTA]

19. How was it relevant?

I don't believe it is relevant at all. It is only relevant to show Bush's character flaw and his lack of integrity.

Do you think that only a man with military experience should be allowed to send troops to their deaths?

[Terwilliger]

21. no, but Repukes do

it's time to show them and everybody in the middle that Repukes don't own national security and patriotism

[anti-NAFTA]

25. do you honestly think the 'pukes will vote for Kerry?

for the simple fact that Bush dodged Vietnam and Kerry fought valiantly?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

48. Some GOPers will vote for Kerry for a variety of reasons...

...primarily to see that Junior never steps foot in the White House ever again.

Some of the GOPers hate him worse than we do...because they feel far more betrayed than we do.

[sangh0]

22. It ws very relevant

Read the question again. It's not about Iraq, or WMD lies, specifically. It's about how Powell can be trusted when he changes his story from one day to the next.

[LoZoccolo]

33. Yeah that part was relevant.

But that's not what he was talking about, about politicizing.

It doesn't really matter if we can convince ourselves that we can technically ask any question we want or if we can point out where Republicans did it before or not. It's dangerous to do this because we need to be able to hold hearings like this, and if we pull this kind of a stunt, they'll have a little more credibility in saying that we shouldn't hold the hearing because it's being held for political reasons (which is what they've done). Watch for the story about this question to come up time after time when we want to question the executive branch before congress.

[Q]

59. It shows a pattern of deceit by those unqualified...

...to send Americans to war.

- Let's remember back to a time when Republicans said we couldn't trust Clinton about ANYTHING because he lied about a private, consensual affair. They impeached him over a decades old land deal. What does sex and a land deal have to do with the duties and responsibilities of a president? Nothing. But the Republicans said it had everything to do with character and 'no president being above the law'.

- And now we have a 'president' who lied about and misrepresented his military service in an effort to deceive Americans into voting for him. Worse...knowing he was scamming the people all along...he dressed up in a fighter suit to further deceive voters into thinking he had actually had a career as a fighter pilot and was now a great and experience commander in chief.

- The American people deserve to know that those making life and death decisions about war and sending them off to die are basing those decisions on facts founded in reality. But as it turns out Bush* was morally and ethically unqualified to order others into battle when he failed to honor an oath to serve his country.

[arcane1]

24. and sends the message to the brownshirts

that their dear leader is a chicken-shit, and can't be truested in matters of war :D

[DemLikr]

41. wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

Dems should milk this, work it, use it relentlessly and tirelessly just as the Repubs used Monica's ministrations to take this nation to the brink of chaos during the Clinton years.

This nicey-nice bullshit you want to play doesn't work against the Repubs.

[NNN0LHI]

44. You would think people would have figured that out by now. But no n/t

[Malva Zebrina]

23. I heard Powell say on th eTV today while testifying that

"we were right and we should be proud" (re the invasion of Iraq) Powell, I agree, has never been anything but a leech and a hack. He has really done nothing extraordinary--just going along until he can retire and Michael gets another cushy government job due to his daddy's influence--then Powell can write a book and buy a house in a gated community and be lauded as a "brilliant" sec'y of state and no one will ever suspect he actually was rather banal and not very intelligent.

He has, though, thoroughly perfected the "look" that goes with the fake reputation and the "speech" and the "tone" that makes him appear as if he really is intelligent , sober and reasonable, thinking things out fully before making any decisions.

I don't think so. I did once, but that was when I was younger, last year.

[Snappy]

27. Let's keep going there.

The matter is relevant.

Powell is a liar, a disgrace to the American people, the Military and the World. We should go there, as well.

[Jack from Charlotte]

32. Quote from Powell's own book?

I read on this board today, somewhere, a quote from Powell's book about how much disgust he felt for the rich guys who didn't have to serve in Viet Nam by getting preferential treatment with Guard appointments, etc......... Anyone have that quote?

The congressman should have read Powell's quote from his own book to him and asked him if he still believes it. That would have made for much better TV.

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[Bandit]

34. "because you don't know what you're talking about."

Ummmm and you do. Very interesting.

[DemLikr]

42. Exactly. Brown should have asked Powell to share his inside info

with the rest of us Mortal Humans here below.

[kskiska]

35. Powell, in his own autobiography,

denigrates guys who didn't serve.

[NNN0LHI]

37. Here it is. This must just be for Dems though?

TacticalPeak (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-11-04 12:23 AM
Response to Original message

8. Colin Powell, in his autobiography, "My American Journey":

Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 12:25 AM by TacticalPeak
"I particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war. The policies -- determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -- were an antidemocratic disgrace. I can never forgive a leadership that said, in effect: These young men -- poorer, less educated, less privileged -- are expendable, but the rest are too good to risk. I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well placed and many professional athletes managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country."

[bobbieinok]

45. wasn't Jack Kemp (R) an athlete who got in Nat Guard and

continued to play football??

[CatWoman]

36. Crossfire is gonna play it after the commercial break

[TheDonkey]

38. I am glad I'm not in congress. I'd walk up to that jerk

and punch him in the face.

"Don't go there, girlfriend!" *snaps fingers wildly*

the awol administration is breaking down.

[ecstatic]

43. it was kind of sexy...

oops! did I actually type that? :spank:

Seriously, Powell scared me during that clip. I'm glad Brown didn't completely backdown during the encounter--I liked the way he slipped in the "AWOL" word after Powell's initial snap.

[Hippo_Tron]

52. I admire Powell's loyalty but he's being loyal to the wrong person...

It's very sad.

[joanski01]

55. And I certainly hope we've seen

the last of the "Powell for Democratic Vice President" posts. Please, no liars for Vice President. And please forget about McCain, also. He's kissing up to bush*.

[Wapsie B]

56. Ya know, at least

during Iran-Contra, there was someone whose conscience finally got to them and tried to committ suicide. I forgot who that was. But I was wondering if there was anyone connected with this train wreck of an administration who was on the edge, so to speak.