If Republicans want candidates to be responsible for remarks made by their supporters, Bush has a lot of things to explain.

By Mick Youther

Posted August 8, 2004

I can’t believe the fuss Republicans have made over Whoopi Goldberg’s off-color remarks at the Kerry Fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in July. They act like Kerry is personally responsible for every word spoken by any of his supporters. I wonder if President Bush would like to be held to the same standard. Maybe he would like to explain these supporters’ comments:

• “I fixed the election in Florida for George Bush.”-- Former Sec. of State James Baker, as reported to Greg Palast by colleagues at BBC television, TomPaine.com, 12/8/03

• “I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?”-- Rush Limbaugh, commenting on the abuses in Abu Ghraib Prison, 5/4/04

• “This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack.... We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”-- Ann Coulter, New York Daily News, 9/12/01

• “I want you just to let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.”-- Randall Terry, founder of anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 8/16/93

• “They're not kids, they're ghetto slime.”-- Commentator Michael Savage, describing children killed by guns, 5/15/00

• “I AM the federal government.”-- House Majority Leader Tom Delay, when told it was against a federal law to smoke his cigar in a no-smoking area, Washington Post, May 2003

• ”Men in the pro-choice movement are either men trapped in women's bodies...or younger guys who are like camp followers looking for easy sex.”-- Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA)

• “[Planned Parenthood] is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism--everything that the Bible condemns.”-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 4/9/91

• “The long term goal [is] the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them. If we argue that abortion is murder, then we must call for the death penalty.”-- Gary DeMar, Ruler of the Nations, 1987

• “We should just turn the sheriff loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line.”-- U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Valdosta Daily Times, 11/20/01

• “Environmentalists are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democratic Party. I'm proud to say that they are my enemy. They are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans.”-- Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Alaska Public Radio, 08/19/96

• “Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.”-- Jerry Falwell, on CNN's Crossfire, 5/17/97

• “That's treason, not patriotism. They ought to be run out of our country and not allowed back.”-- Tennessee State Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), commenting about people who publicly opposed the Iraq war, Knoxville News Sentinel,, 4/28/03

• “With all due respect to those dear people, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”-- Bailey Smith, Founding Father of the Christian Coalition, St. Petersburg Times, 6/26/94

No one holds Bush responsible for these statements, so why are some politicians trying to make a federal case out of some remarks made at a Kerry fundraiser? Evidently, the Republicans believe that investigating potty-talk at Democratic fundraisers is their top priority in the War Against Terror. Don’t be surprised if one of them proposes a Constitutional amendment to ban swearing, or at least confine it to the Senate floor, where it belongs.

When the Republicans demanded the videotape of the fundraiser where the offensive remarks were made, the Kerry Campaign’s response was perfect.

• “[W]e find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced…. we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed… the President's military records… correspondence between the Defense Department and the White House regarding the no-bid contracts that have gone to Halliburton…documents detailing ‘what lobbyists and special interests wrote the White House energy policy’…correspondence between the pharmaceutical industry and the Administration regarding the Medicare Bill…documents ‘regarding the White House's involvement in laying the legal foundation for the interrogation methods that were used in Iraq.’”-- from a letter from Kerry Campaign Manager Mary Beth Cahill, quoted by CNSNews.com Morning Editor, 7/14/04

Which do you think is more important—what Whoopi Goldberg says, or how our government is being run?

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