Durbin/Lott Apology Comparison Demonstrates

[Bobby F.]

Durbin/Lott Apology Comparison Demonstrates
How Washington Works

June 22, 2005

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So Durbin says he apologizes. Now, if we take that at face value, I mean, I guess that means that all his other comments last week attacking Republicans, etcetera, were then bold-faced lies as well. I find it just fascinating. Here Durbin is apologizing for whatever he thinks he did. By the way, here's really the crux of it. Durbin said, "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them I extend my heartfelt apologies." Basically, folks, he's apologizing "if" you were offended. He's not apologizing for what he said. He's apologizing "if" you were offended by what he said. "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them I extend my heart feet apologies." He doesn't retract the remarks and he doesn't say, "I was wrong." Now, you might think this is nitpicking, and you might say, "Come on, Rush! Just move on, can you?" and that's what the libs are all saying, and I find that an interesting phrase: MoveOn.org. "Come on, Rush! Let's move on. It's over with now. Let's get on with it." Well, this is not how it went down when Trent Lott was put through this, and that's part of what I want to review as we go through all of this now -- and of course we will take your comments on this. Senator Durbin also continued to blame people like me. He didn't mention me this time, but he blamed people like me for ginning this up into a huge controversy. Even the Washington Post today: The Comparison That Ends the Conversation - Senator Is Latest to Regret Nazi Analogy. It's by Mark Liebovich, and here's how the story starts:

"Someone should post a sign in the Senate cloakroom or wherever Important People Who Should Know Better will see it. The sign would warn politicians against comparing anything to the Nazis or Hitler or the Holocaust. These comparisons are not a good idea. Repeat : Not a good idea. It will only bring a massive headache, as Sen. Richard Durbin has learned." So once again, the mainstream press in Washington is advising Durbin and others how not to have to go through this again, not to don't say it because it's wrong. "If you want to avoid this, don't do this." If this were a Republican who had said this there would be no advisory pieces in the Washington Post, no helpful hints, nothing of the sort -- and even in this piece I, ladies and gentlemen, get blamed for being a participant and one of the causes of this increased rancor. "'All of this is consistent with the escalation of political rhetoric in general,' says Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown and an expert on political discourse. She mentions the Senate debate over filibusters in which the nuclear option loomed, and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who rails against feminazis. 'It's all part of the same verbal inflation,' Tannen says, adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people." (Laughing) Folks, they can't keep me out of the news no matter how hard they try. I'm now responsible. I have heated the political rhetoric. It's because of people like me and the nuclear option being used by Republicans that Durbin did this, because people like me and the Republicans have simply turned up the gas, turned up the juice here on all of the incendiary rhetoric and we're heating it up. It's not Durbin's fault. It's just part of the way things are going. But what is this line here: Deborah Tannen "adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people"?

I'll tell you what. She's a political expert when she's needed to be a political expert, not only a linguistics expert. This one from Georgetown, George Lakoff (rhymes with) is from Berkeley. But you heard about Berkeley? This is funny. They're going to close down this Thomas Jefferson school because Jefferson had slaves, and the name of the town Berkeley comes from a former slave owner who was actually an apologist for slaves and slave owners! (Laughing.) We'll get to that in due course. But I mean Howard Dean's throwing my name out there again today, and in the Washington Post I am listed as a contributor to the cause, if you will, the reason for all this incendiary rhetoric floating around. All right, how are we going to do this? I guess let's just go through the motion with the audio sound bites. Let's start with Durbin first and go back to June 14th. Here is the despicable, disgusting Durbin comparison of our soldiers to Nazis and Pol Pot. Now, he's the #2 man in the Senate. He ought to be made to resign that position. Is this not worse than what Trent Lott said? It certainly is, in anybody's estimation except DC culture and establishment. Here's Durbin back on December 14th.

DURBIN: If I read this to you and didn't tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot or others that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that's not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their own prisoners.

RUSH: He hasn't taken any of that back. He just said he's sorry "if" anybody was offended by it, but he didn't say he was wrong and he didn't take it back, and he also, ladies and gentlemen, has never been to G'itmo. He's never been. He went to Iraq, but he's never been to G'itmo. You would think he'd want to go if it was this bad down there. You would think he'd want to go and take a look at it. Now, he first apologized. We're giving the apology sound bites now. He first apologizes if anything he said "offended the memory of the Holocaust." This is last night on the Senate floor.


DURBIN: I made reference to the Nazis, to the Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, it is very clear that even though I thought I had said something that clarified the situation, to many people it was still unclear. I'm sorry if anything that I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust, the greatest moral tragedy of our time. Nothing, nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy.

RUSH: But yet again he simply apologizes for the feelings that it caused, he doesn't take back what he said, and then here come the tears, the Senate awash in tears. This is last night on the Senate floor, Durbin tears up while apologizing "if anything he said cast a negative light on the military." Cast a negative light? He called them Nazis! What do you mean if anything he said cast a negative light? Listen to this.

DURBIN: I'm also sorry if anything I said in any way cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military.

RUSH: Stop the tape. How could it not? I'm also sorry if anything I said in any way cast a negative light on our -- I am sorry for casting a negative light and I take it back. That's an apology. Here he continues saying he's sorry if anything he said cast a negative -- he did. You compared them to Nazis, Soviet gulags, Pol Pot. Here's the rest of it.

DURBIN: I went to Iraq just a few months ago with Senator Harry Reid and a delegation, bipartisan delegation, the president was part of it. When you look in the eyes of the soldiers, you see your son, you see your daughter. They're the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them.

RUSH: (Crying sounds.)

DURBIN: Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them I extend my heartfelt apologies.

RUSH: There you go. "Some may believe my remarks..." They did cross the line. You're not taking it back. You didn't erase the line. The line's still there. Your words are still over the line, and you're apologizing to people for making them feel bad. Now, I know what you're saying, Rush, can't you just let this go? Come on, Rush! Come on, Rush, he apologized. Can't you just let it go? This is only gonna -- see, you're just going to make everybody think the right-wing is just a bunch of wackos and freaks. Stick with me on this, folks. Stick with me. You have been with me long enough to know that we don't do anything here without a major point with a big exclamation point to be followed, and that's what's going to happen here. So just stick with me before you say, "Come on, Rush! Be nice, will you? Be big about it. Be bigger than Durbin, accept the apology." I just want to show you how Washington works here and I know how short memories are. Just sit tight. Let's finish up with Durbin here before we go to the break. Let me check the roster here. Yeah, this is the last Durbin. He ends up here by quoting Abraham Lincoln who was shot in the temple. Remember that joke that he told about Lincoln? A lot of people think that he's Jewish, yeah, Abraham. And he was shot in the temple. (Laughing.) Everybody laughed big time on that, still haven't heard an apology for that one. Anyway, here he is, he invokes Lincoln's name.

DURBIN: There's usually a quote from Abraham Lincoln that you can turn to in moments like this.

RUSH: We do every day.

DURBIN: Maybe this is the right one. Lincoln said, "If the end brings me out right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong 10,000 angels swearing I was right wouldn't make any difference. In the end I don't want anything in my public career to detract from my love for this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great senate." I offer my apologies to those who were offended by my words.

RUSH: There you go.

DURBIN: I promise you that I will continue to speak out on the issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and to the nation.

RUSH: How do you hear this? I'll tell you the way I hear it. "I apologizes if..." First the Lincoln business. Hey, look, you know, if what I said was right it doesn't matter what anybody else says; I'm going to be right -- and if I was wrong, it doesn't matter who defends me. I'm still going to be wrong. That's just for icing. He gets to the point here. "I offer my apologies again to those who were offended by my words," and then he says, "I'm going to keep saying it," then he says, "I promise you I'm going to continue to speak out on issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and the nation," and if your feelings get hurt I may apologize again, but I'm going to keep speaking. All right, now, for those of you saying, "Come on, Rush! Can you let it go?" just stick with me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: So Dick Durbin says that "some may believe that my remarks crossed the line." But he doesn't say he thinks that. He doesn't say, "My remarks crossed the line." He said, "Some of you may think my remarks crossed the line, and if you do, I'm story for offending you," but I'm going to keep speaking out on these issues. He didn't take the words back. I'm sorry, he didn't take it back. "Come on, Rush! Give him the benefit of the doubt." Just sit with me, folks. Let's continue with the audio sound bites. Last night on the Senate floor, John McCain -- who has to insert himself into virtually every story that there's going to be a lot of press on -- rushes to the Senate floor to praise Durbin and ask that we put this behind us.

THE MAVERICK: The senator from Illinois just made a heartfelt statement, one of apology. All of us, I believe, who have had the opportunity to serve in public life from time to time, have said things that we deeply regret. I know that I have. I can't speak for the other members of this body. I would like to say to the senator from Illinois, he did the right thing, the courageous thing and I believe we can put this issue behind us, and I thank the senator from Illinois.

RUSH: A courageous thing here. So why doesn't Durbin have to go on an atonement tour like Trent Lott did? Why doesn't he have to go to sensitivity training? Why doesn't he have to go meet Abraham Foxman? Why doesn't he have to apologize to all the different Jewish groups in person like Lott? Lott had to show up on Black Entertainment TV, for crying out loud and sit with some of those stone-faced anchors who didn't care that he was there and weren't going to accept his apology no matter what. Lott apologized five times and they never accepted it once. And after he apologized five times the White House dumped all over him, and they took his Senate leadership position away from him and created an enemy out of him from now on until Bush leaves office. Five times Lott apologized -- not once was it accepted -- over a remark he made at a birthday party, and yet this that Durbin did was courageous. We're not finished here. Do the Republicans demand that he resign his leadership post? Do they refuse to accept the apology? No, they accept it and move on. This morning on Fox and Friends, Mitch McConnell was there, and E. D. Hill says, "Some of have suggested that he should be canned from his job as minority whip. Do you think that's going too far?"

McCONNELL: You know, leadership posts are up to the Democratic conference. That will be for them to decide. I think we're probably going to move on from this point and to other issues.

RUSH: Yeah, we'll get back to Bolton and the filibuster. Hubba hubba. Yes siree bob. Now, folks, don't misunderstand me. I don't care whether Durbin resigns his post or not. I'm just trying to show you the differences in these two parties. I'm trying to show you a party with gonads and a party with linguini spines and you tell me which party is which. I'm trying to show you which party's got the guts to act like winners, which party has the guts to act like they have spines and which party, despite the fact that they lose, still acts like they run the show. As far as Durbin going or staying, I don't know. If he stays, fine. I think he's a poster child here for the Democratic Party, and I hope he keeps talking, and I haven't changed my mind, and whether he apologized or not is irrelevant to me. I'm just pointing out to you I don't think he did. I don't believe in these public apologies anyway. I think it's all a bunch of -- he said what he meant to say. He said what he meant to say, and the really irony here is that while he's out there supposedly apologizing for hurting people's feelings what's Nancy Pelosi doing? She's organizing 133 members of the house to set up this investigation of what's going on at G'itmo and to get us out of Iraq while Durbin is out there apologizing and praising the troops and the guards and everybody else. There's not one bit of scrutiny from the mainstream press on any of this, just reporting and praise and, "Okay, Durbin did it. Can we now move on," and the Washington Post we get a little story, tips for the Democrats. Hint: Next time don't compare anybody to Hitler -- and, by the way, the only reason they're doing it is because Rush Limbaugh invented the term feminazis. That's the sum total of the Washington Post story, Durbin did it because I popularized it first with feminazis. I haven't used that term on this program in years. But it still gets to 'em, doesn't it, and you know why? (Laughing.) Because it's right. Because it's accurate, and I'm not going to apologize if it hurts your feelings but, you know what? I think if you're offended it's your problem, not mine. That's another thing about this. Durbin is not in charge of other people's feelings. He has no business apologizing if people are offended. People's feelings are their own. So if you're offended it's your problem. That's the way I look at it. You can't go through life trying not to offend people or you'll end up being a wimp. Anyway, Bill Frist accepted Durbin's apology, this is this morning on C-SPAN2 on the Senate floor.

FRIST: Last night's statement from Senator Durbin both honored our troops and recognized the sacrifices of those who lived and died under the grim systems of Nazi terror, of Soviet repression and Cambodian genocide. That is right and fine and worthy. Senator Durbin took an honorable step yesterday afternoon and I look forward to working with our colleague from Illinois as we move forward.

RUSH: You can't be serious. I wouldn't look forward to working with the guy. The guy is holding up everything you want to do, Senator Frist. This is the collegiality that of course our friends in the Senate, blah, blah, blah, blah. Durbin, after all this, is going to think the slate's been wiped clean and he's going to continue to stand in the way of everything Frist wants to get done. Nothing is going to change. All this collegiality, all this bending over forwards and backwards to be nice, to try to be bigger than everybody about this, to try to be bigger than the Democrats, it never works. It doesn't make the Democrats like them any more. It isn't going to get John Bolton a new vote. It isn't going to get him approved. It's not going to get Social Security advanced. It isn't going to get anything done. Republicans are just afraid of the media ripping them to shreds if they refuse to accept the apology. That's all this is.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I'm not through here, folks, just stick with me on this. The best is yet to come here, but I'm telling you, why has Durbin apologized? You don't think it's because the Republicans are mad at him, he couldn't care less. I mean, the Republicans in the senate have been saying things he wouldn't respond -- he could not care less. He's apologizing because you are upset, he's apologizing because he's heard about it from average, ordinary Americans -- and you average, ordinary people know who you are -- all over the country. Make no mistake about it. If it was just a bunch of Republicans demanding it he would still be doing his Howard Dean routine. By the way, a little side note based on what's on cable TV news these days. I happened to be reading the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation newspaper today, and they've got this thing called The Vent section, and I saw something, and I didn't know this. They said the name Van Der Sloot, one of the suspects in the Natalie Holloway disappearance down in Aruba, Van Der Sloot in the Atlanta-Journal newspaper today, Van Der Sloot apparently is Dutch for Kennedy. And now back to the Dick Durbin circumstance. I want to go back now to the Trent Lott episode. We have just set the table for you here. Let's review what we've done. Durbin apologized but didn't apologize. He didn't take back his words.

He didn't say he thought his words crossed the line. He said "if you" think his words crossed the line, he's sorry for hurting your feelings, and he apologizes for that. He's actually apologizing for you being offended but he didn't take his words back and in fact said he's going to keep speaking out on these important issues. And then we had Senator McCain run to the Senate floor to praise him and we had Senator Frist say the same thing this morning on the Senate floor, it's all bygones are bygones and we can move on and get back to the business of the Senate which is obstructing everything that the Republicans want to do. And we're going to be happy to work with Durbin again, Frist said. We're excited, we're looking forward to working with our colleague from Illinois as we move forward on the Bolton filibuster, no action on Social Security, no action on judges, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're looking happy, and we're happy we're looking forward to getting back to the business of the Senate working with our friend and colleague from Illinois. And then Mitch McConnell said, "I don't have anything to say about the leadership in the Democratic side of the aisle here. That's their business." That's what happened last night and today. Let's go back to December 12, 2002. I want to go back and just replay you a prediction that I made during the Trent Lott controversy, and I said then, Senator Lott, if you want to end this, switch parties today and the criticism of you will end.

RUSH ARCHIVE: If we want to end this now, and let's face it, we all do. There's one thing and only one thing Senator Trent Lott can do. Switch parties. Become a Democrat today, and all this will be overlooked. Now, he'll have to resign the Senate because there would go our majority if he switched parties and stayed in the Senate, but I mean just personally for him, if he wants this all this to go away, become a Democrat and it will be overlooked.


RUSH: Let's now look at a montage of how Democrats reacted to Trent Lott's apology -- and, by the way, there wasn't just one Trent Lott apology. There were five. Trent Lott apologized five times! Not one of them was accepted. We have a montage here, December 2002, from Democrats and John McCain, reacting to Lott's apology. We've got governor Cuomo, we have former Texas governor "Ma" Richards. We have the former head of the NAALCP Kweisi Mfume. We have Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu. We have California representative Maxine Waters, and the president and founder of the PUSH and Monochrome Coalition, the Reverend Jackson, along with Senator McCain. Here was what they had to say about Trent Lott's apology.

COOOMO: Trent Lott speaks for the Republican Party. It was terrible.

RICHARDS: Had a Democrat said what Trent Lott said, there would had been no question about whether or not that Democrat would have stayed on or not.

MFUME: We think he should resign, and we think the party should find a way to make that happen.

LANDRIEU: The real issue is does the Republican Party think this should be their leader. I can promise you, if a Democratic leader said something like this or close to this, their leadership position would be pulled.

WATERS: Trent Lott has made yet another statement consistent with his long history of supporting segregation and separatism and now it's gotten to the point where it's downright racism.

JACKSON: Trent Lott's redemption will come through action, not just through words.

MCCAIN: I believe that Trent Lott ought to hold a press conference, restate his commitment to equal opportunity, his abhorrence of discrimination of any kind and answer questions and make a compelling case.

RUSH: All right, now, that's how to Democrats play ball in these sorts of circumstances and this is how the Republicans play ball. Durbin doesn't apologize and we say, "Well, that's great, Senator! We're looking forward to working with you again. Hubba hubba! Let's move on. You're a great guy." Mario Cuomo: "Trent Lott speaks for the Republican Party." Well, so does Dick Durbin, but you didn't have a Republican anywhere with clout saying it. You didn't have an elected Republican saying it. We said it here, and we've been saying it for years and years and years, things like it, but you didn't hear it from elected Republicans in Washington. "Ma" Richards: "If a Democrat had said what Trent Lott said, there would have been no question about whether or not the Democrat would have stayed on or not." We just found evidence that Ma Richards didn't know what she's talking about. Mfume: "We think he should resign and we think the party should find a way to make that happen." Landrieu: "If a Democrat leader said something like this or close to this then their leadership position would be pulled." What did Lott say? He just said, you know, Strom, the country would have been a lot better off if you'd have won back in 1948.

And you compare that to Durbin comparing US interrogators and US military people and America in general to Nazism, Stalinism, and Pol Potism, and I ask you: Did one Democrat dissent? Other than Richard Daley, did one Democrat suggest, "We don't want this kind of man speaking for us in our party, particularly the #2 leadership position"? Nope. Did the Republicans come forward and say, "We gotta get Lott outta there! We can't put up with this. This is bad news for us. We gotta throw him overboard"? Yes, they did, and you might say, "Come on, Rush! One's about race and one's not." That's a good point. I think it's time to stand up on this stupid race business, too. They charge racism every time somebody makes one comment that the left disagrees with about it and as long as you keep running with your tail between your legs they're going to keep acting this way and they're going to keep forcing people from office this way. To argue that this country is racist and has not changed since the days of slavery and the '64 Civil Rights Act is just wrong. It's blind, and it is purposeful. It's just silly, and then McCain (impression) says, "Trent Lott, hold a press conference. Yeah, restate. He's not a racist and I'm not, either! That's what I'm worried about. Everybody is going to think I'm a racist unless I go out there and dump on Trent Lott. I gotta do it to save myself and the stupid party I'm a member of, damn it!"

That's how the Republicans deal with this stuff. Now, let me go to our Nexis research. I'm holding here the Gannett News Service, essentially USA Today, from December 11th, 2002. Here's the headline: Democrats Reject Lott's Apology. "Republican leader Trent Lott's apology for saying the country would have been better off if elected a pro-segregation president in 1948 fell flat with many black lawmakers and many Democrats on Tuesday and some called for him to give up his leadership post. Kweisi Mfume, 'Senator Lott's statements are the kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of Congress. His remarks are dangerously divisive, certainly unbefitting a man who is to hold such a highly esteemed leadership role as the majority leader of the Senate.' Tom Daschle said Monday he accepted Lott's explanation that the Republican had not intended to endorse Strom Thurmond's then ardent support of segregation. However, after the critical comments from Maxine Waters, Daschle issued a second statement saying his acceptance of Lott's explanation does not mean that I found the statement appropriate. 'Regardless of how he intended his statement to be interpreted, it was wrong to say it. I strongly disagree with it.'" Maxine Waters helped me get my mind right on this. Maxine Waters spanked Daschle; Daschle went out and took back what he had said. Then Benny Thompson, Mississippi representative: "It's obviously not enough from our vantage point, this apology. It was insulting, and not the words that you would expect from the next Senate majority leader." Bob Mendez, Democrat, New Jersey, Cuban-American, called Lott's apology "a day late and a dollar short." That's story one.

Story two, December 12th, 2002, Chicago Tribune, headline: Lott Hopes Third Apology is the Charm. (Laughing.) "Urgently trying to quell a growing controversy Mississippi Senator Trent Lott gave broadcast interviews Wednesday to expand on his apology for saying America 'would not have so many problems' if it had elected Strom Thurmond president in 1948. 'The words were terrible and I regret it. This was a mistake of the head and not of the heart. I don't accept those policies of the past at all.'" He actually took his words back. He apologized for the words that he used. "Tom Daschle, meanwhile, called on President Bush to personally repudiate Lott's words, as did the DNC's Terry McAuliffe. Sources said the NAALCP, which already has called on Lott to step down, was mulling whether to run a television ad critical of Lott, though a spokesman denied it. John Kerry, a 2004 presidential aspirant, became the first Senator to ask Lott to step aside. 'I simply don't believe the country can today afford to have someone make these statements again and again, be the leader of the US Senate.'" So Kerry called on him to quit. That's the Chicago Tribune on December 12th, 2002. We get to the next story. It is the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader, December 14th, 2002. Headline: Lott's Fifth Apology... (Laughing.) It's so funny. "Lott's Fifth Apology Brings Little Support; Rival Tests Waters for Leadership Role." So he apologized five times. The Democrats never once accepted it, and they forced him from the leadership position and actually forced President Bush in on the issue as well.

Now, I wanted to go through this because I wanted just to show you, in case memories are short. You know, 2002 is three years ago. Some people's memory goes back to yesterday. Some goes back longer than that. But I just wanted to illustrate for you how the two parties play ball and how they're different, and it's sort of sad, and I know why the Republicans do it. It's the same way we've got this Klein book out there. There are certain conservative commentators in a race, they're in a virtual race to show the mainstream media they are not knee-jerk reactionary right-wingers -- and so they're out there dumping on this Klein book. They're dumping on Klein. They're dumping on the whole concept of these kinds of scandal books. In fact, this may not even be what this book is. But it's the same old thing, whether it's renegade Republican commentators, conservative commentators who desperately want the DC culture, "Please, please don't think of me as one of those talk radio guys. Don't think of me that way. Don't think of me as one of those right-wing wackos! I think the Klein book sucks too and look what I wrote and I was first out of the box with it." Same thing in the Senate. "Please, you know, I want any profile in the Style section to be good. We accept Durbin's apology and we're willing to forgive and forget, and move on. We want you to write that we're growing here in stature in Washington." That's just the way things are. That's what happens when the culture of Washington, DC, is dominated by the left.

END TRANSCRIPT

[Janice]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/arti...27/85316.shtml

Durbin Apology - Not Accepted!

Illinois Senator Richard J. Durbin – the minority Whip and second most powerful Democrat in the United States Senate – has now joined other Democrat apologists who think (and hope) that Americans will forget what he said last week when he compared the U.S. military's treatment of al-Qaida enemy combatants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the treatment doled out by mass-murderers Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, whose regimes in Germany, Russia and Cambodia, respectively, wantonly slaughtered tens of millions of innocent people.

For the record, approximately nine million people, including six million Jews, died in Hitler's concentration camps; nearly three million people died in Stalin's gulags, and about 2 million Cambodians died in Pol Pot's death orgy.

Durbin based his remarks on an e-mail he received from an unnamed FBI source but he significantly failed to mention that of only 530 prisoners who are under our military's watchful eye, not one of them has died – or had been tortured or beheaded!

Durbin's whiny complaints were that the terrorists sworn and determined to murder us were subjected to loud rap music and rooms either too cold or too hot.

His statement was headlined in the old media as if it had even a nanometer of historical accuracy. As columnist Vince Fiore has noted: "It's hard to figure out just who the biggest offender to our military is: A media that breathlessly reports that Guantanamo Bay prison is the `gulag' of our time' because Amnesty International said so, or a political party with members like Dick Durbin who by virtue of his true heartfelt feelings have soiled the flag and the soldiers who fight and die for it."

"These are not acts of bravery or noblesse oblige by the media and the Dick Durbins of the Democratic Party," Fiore continues. "These are the desperate flailing and thoughtless wailings of two institutions that would sell their souls for the power they once enjoyed."

Indeed, within minutes of Durbin's profoundly ignorant and malevolently vicious statement, the anti-American media in the Middle East – which is tragically identical to the leftwing media in our own country – used his words to "prove" that Americans are evil and anyone opposing them is justified in their hatred.

Leading the pack was the chief purveyor of anti-American propaganda in the Middle East, Al-Jazeera, which screeched 24/7 for days on end: "U.S. senator stands by Nazi remark."

About Durbin's astonishing ignorance, columnist Frank Gaffney, founder of the Washington-D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, wrote in The Washington Times ("Dustbin Durbin"): "How can we be critical of students who have no idea what the Revolutionary War was about, who Abraham Lincoln was or just about anything else predating the Michael Jackson trial if one of the most prominent and powerful of American legislators is so ridiculously ignorant of historical facts?"

I'm Sorry Is Not Enough

What we heard from Democrat liberals about Durbin's execrable remarks was a deafening silence. Not one of them came to the fore in the service of defending our military, supporting our troops, citing his historical ignorance or deploring his verbal attack while our country is at war.

Not one liberal Democrat disagreed with, condemned or recommended censure of Durbin's statement.

NOT ONE! Including born-again "moderate" and presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton.

For a full week, Senator Durbin arrogantly refused to apologize for his devastating defamation of our American military forces, who are risking their lives every minute of every day to make our country safer by fighting the fanatical terrorists – yes, they are terrorists and not "insurgents" – to insure that the democratic form of government that eight million Iraqis voted for under threat of death is allowed to prevail.

In fact, both Durbin and his spokespeople said he would never apologize.

But after the deluge of protesting letters, faxes, emails and phone calls Durbin received and his "friend," Chicago mayor Richard Daley (okay, that's one Democrat!) called his charges "a disgrace" – and probably after he read the respected Rasmussen poll that found only 14 percent of the American public agreed with his egregious comparison of prisoner treatment at Gitmo to Nazi tactics – Durbin finally shed a few crocodile tears as he puled out that: "'I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood."

Some apology! The senator who fancied that his statement was based on ideological grounds was not so ideological after all! When he realized that he might not get the money he needs for his reelection and that his slander might result in even more losses for his party in 2006 and 2008, he choked out a mea culpa worth nothing at all: "I have come to understand that was a very poor choice of words…"

Aha! So the problem is his phrasing and also the misinterpretation of his remarks by a public that liberals like him consider so stupid. He then went on to praise America's fighting forces that, not days before, he had slandered by associating them with the most savage and murderous regimes in world history.

Continuing his canned apologia, Durbin said: "I sincerely regret if what I said causes anybody to misunderstand my true feelings."

There, in a nutshell is the liberal Democrats' raison-d'être – their feelings!

After he had inflicted his damage and dishonored our country and our fighting forces, Durbin wanted the American public to honor …what? Not his patriotism, to be sure. Not his integrity or his ideology or his commitment to our country – but his feelings!

As Weekly Standard editor William Kristol has written: "[Durbin] apparently still believes there could be a proper use and understanding of an `historical parallel' between American soldiers and Nazis."

Significantly, at a Democrat Party fundraiser several hours after he "apologized," the spineless Mr. Durbin was introduced – to wild applause – as a man who "has a backbone and tells it like it is."

Birds of a Feather

Durbin is not alone among liberal Democrats in shooting from the hip with anti-American statements and then – after the damage is done – "apologizing" for their intemperate or treasonous pronouncements.

Think House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DNC Chairman Howard foot-in-mouth Dean (who called Durbin a man of "great courage"), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Senators Ted Kennedy, Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, former Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd, whose reputedly high intelligence led him to join the murder-the-blacks marauders of the Ku Klux Klan "because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."

Not to be left out of this sorry mix is former president Bill Clinton, who announced that Gitmo should be shut down or cleaned up because "it's an embarrassment to the United States."

His voice "carries a lot of weight," said political commentator Argus Hamilton, "because who knows more about embarrassing the United States than Bill Clinton."

As Fiore has noted: "…absent the selling of their souls, some Democrats instead eagerly sell their country. Armed with an obsessive hatred for Bush, no statement is out of bounds, and no attempted coup to retain power is too destructive."

None Dare Call It Treason

In writing about Durbin's ignorant and inexcusable statement, intenational journalist Mark Steyn quotes liberal Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who thinks Gitmo should be closed down because "…Guantanamo has drained our leadership, our credibility, and the world's good will for America at alarming rates."

But "not in 2004," Steyn says, "when Abu Ghraib was the atrocity du jour." And not in 2003, when liberals were harping on "America's `war for oil.'" And not in 2002, when liberals protested plans to "end the benign reign of good King Saddam." And not the weekend before 9/11, "when the human rights grandees of the U.N. `anti-racism' conference met in South Africa to demand America pay reparations for the Rwandan genocide and to cheer Robert Mugabe to the rafters for calling on Britain and America to `apologize unreservedly for their crimes against humanity.'"

"If you close Gitmo tomorrow," Steyn continues, "the world's anti-Americans will look around and within 48 hours alight on something else for Gulag of the Week."

This is the time, Steyn concludes, "to question Durbin's patriotism. Around the planet, folks naturally figure that, if only 100 people out of nearly 300 million get to be senators, the position must be a big deal. Yes, folks, American soldiers are Nazis and American prison camps are gulags: don't take our word for it, Senator Bigshot says so."

What else can you call it when a U.S. senator effectively aids and abets our enemies? After all, what is the definition of treason? Disloyalty to our troops, treachery that helps our enemies, and subversion that, in Durbin's case, cloaks itself in the mantle of the U.S. Senate.

Durbin's shameless liberal colleagues and our own reflexively-leftwing media hacks may forgive him and urge that his detractors "move on."

But I don't and I won't. And I suspect that the public that cherishes our fighting forces – both historically and today – believes they owe those brave men and women a debt of immeasurable gratitude for defending and protecting our magnificent country.

And that they don't and won't forgive Durbin either!