Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Earl Landgrebe, Call Your Office
Earl Landgrebe was the Indiana congressman and Nixon supporter who, when confronted with the smoking gun tapes at the climax of the Watergate affair, said, "I have made up my mind; don't confuse me with the facts." His ghost has apparently landed in the office of Oklahoma's prize idiot, Senator Jim Inhofe. He's more outraged by the outrage over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners than he is over the treatment itself. Reuters quotes his comments this morning a to Senate committee probing the scandal: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." And also: "These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals." And, predictably: "I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations, while our troops, our heroes are fighting and dying."
The Red Cross quotes Coalition Provisional Authority estimates that say up to 90 percent of the prisoners were captured by mistake. But what the hell, says Senator Jim. Kill 'em all and let God sort em out.
More than anything else, it's people like Inhofe who make me wish I lived in some other country, where such common-sense-defying, lunatic ravings didn't pass for leadership.
Earl Landgrebe was the Indiana congressman and Nixon supporter who, when confronted with the smoking gun tapes at the climax of the Watergate affair, said, "I have made up my mind; don't confuse me with the facts." His ghost has apparently landed in the office of Oklahoma's prize idiot, Senator Jim Inhofe. He's more outraged by the outrage over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners than he is over the treatment itself. Reuters quotes his comments this morning a to Senate committee probing the scandal: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." And also: "These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals." And, predictably: "I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations, while our troops, our heroes are fighting and dying."
The Red Cross quotes Coalition Provisional Authority estimates that say up to 90 percent of the prisoners were captured by mistake. But what the hell, says Senator Jim. Kill 'em all and let God sort em out.
More than anything else, it's people like Inhofe who make me wish I lived in some other country, where such common-sense-defying, lunatic ravings didn't pass for leadership.
