QandO: Dennis Hastert is an Idiot

May 21, 2004

Dennis Hastert is an Idiot
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The Dallas Morning News editorializes this morning:

If you're keeping a list of the most idiotic things politicians say this election year, here's a lollapalooza: House Speaker Denny Hastert's suggestion this week that Sen. John McCain, the ex-POW and torture survivor, does not know the meaning of sacrifice.
Mr. Hastert's insult of his fellow Republican came in response to comments the Arizona senator made the day before at a deficit conference. "My friends, we are at war," Mr. McCain said then. "Throughout our history, wartime has been a time of sacrifice. But about the only sacrifice taking place is that by the brave men and women fighting to defend and protect the liberties we hold so dear, and that of their families. It is time for others to step up and start sacrificing."

Apparently, Republicans can't say that kind of thing in Washington these days.

Mr. Hastert snorted at Mr. McCain's Republican credentials, and lit into him over his opposition to Bush tax cuts, saying that if Mr. McCain wanted to learn something about sacrifice, he ought to visit wounded soldiers in military hospitals.

Let's get this straight: The House speaker, who ducked Vietnam service on a medical deferment, is telling a man who was beaten so badly by the Communists that he cannot lift his arms over his head, and who refused to leave prison ahead of his comrades, that he has something to learn about sacrifice for his country – all because the senator disagrees over spending?

I don't like John McCain much personally. He seems like an ass.

But how can anyone be so outrageously stupid as to question McCain's service to his country, and the hideous sacrifice it entailed through his torture for years at the hands of the North Vietnamese communists?

While Denny Hastert was sitting out the war in Vietnam stateside with his cozy medical deferrment, John McCain was being beaten svagely by the commies in an attempt to procure confessions of war crimes.

I think McCain has learned quite enough about sacrifice, thank you very much.

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Comments

Dale, the reason there's so much screaming over this is that Denny Hastert certainly had McCain pinned in that McCain certainly was not ACTING he had the definition of "sacrifice" pinned. Like any big government type, McCain's version of "sacrifice" is raisng taxes, not cutting spending.

In any event, here, we get to the question again, 'Does having worn the uniform grant one immunity from being questioned on political matters?' If the answer is 'yes' then we may as well hand the election to John Kerry; there's no way we can question the twerp on any of the weird crap he's pulled since spending his four months in country.

Posted by: Bithead at May 21, 2004 02:17 PM

Maybe I should join the military myself. That way, I can deflect criticism on anything for the rest of my life.

BOSS: "I'm afraid, Mark, your work is not what we've expected lately."

MARK: "Question my patriotism, will you?!"

Posted by: Mark at May 21, 2004 06:31 PM

Read Mr. Hastert's comments in context, http://us.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/19/mccain.hastert/ :

>Amid nervous laughter, the reporter continued with his question: "Anyway, his [Mr. McCain's]observation was never before when we've been at war have we been worrying about cutting taxes and his question was, 'Where's the sacrifice?' "
>Hastert: "If you want to see the sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda. There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And, at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong."

Overall, the Speaker's conversation with the reporter was derisive of Mr. McCain. And the particular statement above is a poor response to Mr. McCain call for sacrifice across the broad population. (Indeed, Mr. McCain had acknowledged the sacrifice of soldiers in his comments at the deficit conference.) However, read in context, Mr. Hastert's comments do not rise to the level of questioning " McCain's service to his country".

Posted by: JP Sobel at May 22, 2004 04:17 AM

I am in Arizona, and McCain is my US Senator. I am a Republican, and I personally think McCain is a bigger asshole than some of the Democrats, and that is saying a lot.

McCain is everything my party seems to be standing for. He mocks Bush's tax cuts and has pictures of him holding Kerry around. Who needs idiot Democrats when we have a moron like McCain around?

And I don't give one rat's tit that McCain served - if a soldier is an asshole, he is an asshole. Hell, I went to school with a Vietnam vet, and he was as big a moron as can be. Should I defer calling him that because he served? Who cares if McCain served, when he is doing his utmost to undermine my party?

I only wish McCain would allow himself to be run on Kerry's ticket. Or maybe he can do a Jim Jeffords and switch. I personally would be thrilled to see a little "D" after his name, because he makes me ill being in MY party.

Oh, and to Dennis Hastert: Thank GOD someone finally called McCain the asswipe that he is.

Jim Taylor
Tucson, Arizona

Posted by: Jimmy Taylor at May 23, 2004 12:41 AM

McCain might do well to visit our wounded and then come up with some ways the government can sacrifice their addiction to my money.

Posted by: Thomas J. Jackson at May 23, 2004 02:17 AM

Who is the asswipe here? Look in the mirror.

Posted by: Eric Bostwick at June 2, 2004 10:45 AM