In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
US presidential race takes nasty tone
The bitter exchange came as new polls showed Kerry, the veteran senator from Massachusetts, opening a significant lead over Bush in the early going of an intensely personal campaign for the November 2 election.
At a fundraiser in his homestate of Texas, Bush dismissed Kerry as weak and irresolute in defending the country and branded the Vietnam war hero a wafffler who follows the prevailing political winds on crucial issues.
"My opponent clearly has strong beliefs -- they just don't last very long," the Republican president told a rowdy crowd of supporters at a Dallas luncheon that netted some 1.5 million dollars for his reelection campaign.
Bush cited a 1995 bill Kerry proposed that would have cut intelligence funding by 1.5 billion dollars over five years. "His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor," the president said.
"Once again, Senator Kerry is trying to have it both ways. He's for good intelligence, yet he was willing to gut the intelligence services. And that is no way to lead a nation in a time of war," said Bush.
Meanwhile..... here's a description of a NY times article from early 2002:
Bush administration's top priority in post-Sept 11 world, preventing future terrorist attacks, has changed priorities of many cabinet agencies, particularly Justice Dept; vivid example is Atty Gen John Ashcroft's recent testimony before Congress, arguing for substantial spending increases for counterterrorism programs; prior to Sept 11, Ashcroft had identified more than dozen other objectives for greater emphasis within Justice Dept, and had suggested cutting out millions of dollars FBI requested to hire new counterterrorism field agents and millions more in counterterrorism grants to states and localities; under Janet Reno, Ashcroft's predecessor, department's counterterrorism budget increased in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
From Atrios here's more of the article:
But in his Sept. 10 submission to the budget office, Mr. Ashcroft did not endorse F.B.I. requests for $58 million for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators.
Mr. Ashcroft proposed cuts in 14 programs. One proposed $65 million cut was for a program that gives state and local counterterrorism grants for equipment, including radios and decontamination suits and training to localities for counterterrorism preparedness.
Last August, before he proposed cutting the program to $44 million from $109 million, Mr. Ashcroft went to Dayton, Ohio, and watched a preparedness exercise and announced grants totaling $1.8 million to Ohio. He said: "All of these domestic preparedness efforts have one overarching goal: to ensure that those of you at the state and local levels build the critical capacity to adequately respond to domestic terrorism. At the Department of Justice, we recognize that the threat of terrorism here at home is a serious and growing challenge for our nation."
Mr. Ashcroft justified the cut to Mr. Daniels by saying that states had been slow to develop the statewide plans needed to qualify for federal money. Congressional critics of the attorney general said the Justice Department was not really interested in the program and did not help states develop the required plans.
In various listings of priorities for his department issued between May 10 and Aug. 9, made available to The New York Times by Congressional officials critical of Mr. Ashcroft, the attorney general did not single out counter-terrorism.
Bush says Kerry can't have it both ways, because Bush is busy having it any way he wants.
- rob 1:03 PM - [PermaLink] -
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