Al Gore Called President Bush “Un-American” In 2002
So much for his having waited two years after being Vice President before criticizing the next administration. In September of 2002 Al Gore suggested President Bush’s handling of the war on terror “un-American.” Audio at the link. Here’s the text:
AL GORE: Vice President Cheney said after the war against terrorism began, “This war may last for the rest of our lives.” I kind of think I know what he meant by that, but the apprehensions in the world that I spoke of earlier are not calmed down any by this doctrine of preemption that they are now asserting. By now the Bush Administration may now be beginning realizing that national and international cohesion are indeed strategic assets. But it is a lesson long delayed and clearly not uniformly and consistently accepted by senior members of the cabinet. From the outset, the administration has operated in a manner calculated to please the portion of its base that occupies the far right, at the expense of solidarity among all of us as Americans and solidarity between our country and our allies. On the domestic front, the administration, having delayed for many months before conceding the need to pass Joe Lieberman’s bill and create an institution outside the White House to manage homeland defense, has actually been willing to see this legislation held up for the sake of an effort to coerce the Congress into stripping civil service protections from tens of thousands of federal employees. Now which is more important: passing the Homeland Security Act, or satisfying a relatively small yet powerful member of the right-wing coalition that has as its number-one priority dismantling labor unions? If that’s the most important priority in that legislation, that explains why they’re refusing to let the bipartisan consensus in favor of it go forward.
Far more damaging is the administration’s attack on fundamental constitutional rights that we ought to have and do have as American citizens. The very idea that an American citizen can be imprisoned without recourse to judicial process or remedies, and that this can be done on the sole say-so of the president of the United States or those acting in his name, is beyond the pale and un-American and it ought to be stopped.
And this wasn’t just some isolated incident that might have slipped Gore’s mind. Here’s Gore criticizing Bush for, uh, ignoring Iraq’s ties to terrorism, also in September 2002:
And here’s Gore criticizing the Bush administration’s economic policies in December of 2002:
Of course, all this posturing on the left about how inappropriate it is that Cheney criticize Obama (or, more accurately, defend himself and the administration he was a member of from Obama’s blame game) is more and obfuscating what Cheney is actually saying. They don’t want to respond on substance, so they suggest that the simple act of his speaking out is somehow illegitimate.
Well, Cheney’s criticism of Obama is no more illegitimate than Gore’s criticism of Bush was. Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics
