Right accuses Dem lawmaker of ‘inciting al Qaeda’

June 28, 2008

The right continues to find odd things to get excited about. The latest hullabaloo is over this exchange from the House Judiciary Committee hearing the other day, between Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington.

To briefly summarize, Delahunt brought up Addington’s legal advice to the administration regarding waterboarding. Addington explained he wouldn’t talk about “particular techniques,” in large part because “al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN,” and hear his comments.

Delahunt responded, “Right. Well, I’m sure they are watching, and I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington.” To which Addington replied, “Yeah, I’m sure you’re pleased.”

While the initial emphasis was on Addington’s excuses for not answering legitimate questions, conservatives have latched onto Delahunt’s remark about being “glad” that al Qaeda got a chance to see Addington.

Various far-right activists went berserk, and yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) insisted that Delahunt was “inciting al-Qaida to violence” against a top Bush administration official. (thanks to Zeitgeist for the tip)

Oh my.

But Delahunt said in an interview with The Des Moines Register that “in no way” did he mean terrorists should cause harm to chief of staff David Addington, and he was just trying to say he was pleased that Addington had agreed to appear.

“I misspoke and I just hope I have another opportunity to see Mr. Addington,” he said.

King, however, said that he doesn’t believe Delahunt because of the “level of contempt” shown by Democrats during the three-hour “witch hunt” of a hearing. “You can’t misunderstand his intent,” he said.

Yes, to hear King tell it, a member of Congress not only wants terrorists to attack Dick Cheney’s top aide, he’s even willing to admit it publicly, on national television.

To be sure, there was no real reason for Delahunt to make the comment. I suspect he was making light of the fact that Addington is overly secretive and unwilling to answer questions, and ended up with a joke that wasn’t especially funny, and probably warrants an apology. Delahunt admits that he misspoke.

But the response has been so over the top, conservatives gave up the high ground to manufacture a scandal that doesn’t exist.

Iowa’s Steve King insisted that, in light of Delahunt’s comments, “Addington and his family will need protection until the war on terror is over. I wonder if Bill Delahunt is ready to guard Mr. Addington’s home and family.”

It’s likely King doesn’t realize this, but Addington was not exactly in hiding before the hearing. He and other administration officials responsible for U.S. torture policy have been in the news for years. Their pictures are all over the Internet and broadcast television. John Cole even found a photo of Addington on the White House website. If al Qaeda wanted to know what Addington looks like, they wouldn’t need to watch a C-SPAN exchange between him and Delahunt; they’d need about four seconds on Google or Wikipedia.

If the right wants to criticize Delahunt for making a dumb comment, that’s coherent. When the right argues that Delahunt has literally put Addington’s life in danger, that’s insane.

Zeitgeist, you’re still here? I MISS YOU!!!!!!

These frigging wingers are nothing but a bunch of WATB’s. I don’t recall seeing this level of hypocrisy in politics before. It’s stunning.

  • So, what’s the stupidity level (i.e., how much of the electorate is registered Republican) in King’s district? any chance of sweeping him out with the rest of the garbage in November?

    This is, after all, the moron who still thinks Joe McCarthy was doing a good job.

    What a halfwit. Actually, that’s an insult to halfwits. What a tenth-wit.

  • When you’re talking political berserkers, no need to go further than King, who at various times in recent years has said that “Joe McCarthy was a great American” and “It’s safer to walk in Baghdad than Washington, D.C.” I used to call him Iowa’s Embarrassment, but he seems to have progressed to the level of Disgrace.

    It’s pretty apparent, to everyone but King, who views the world through his own special lenses, where the contempt was in last week’s hearings: with Addington and Yoo, who’ve remained hidden in the bowels of the White House far too long. They wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes in front of a real judge. Delahunt, who’s hardly a liberal, spoke out of frustration and disgust.

  • Oh, and if al Qaeda wants to target someone, while Addington would be a fine choice, could they start with King? He is one of the more loony loonies.

  • I realize the wingnuts are trying to manufacture a scandal here, but that was my initial reaction to “I’m glad they can finally see you.” too. It sounded like Delahunt was saying he was glad al quaida could get a look at Addington, the torturer. A Freudian slip perhaps?

  • Addington wouldn’t be in “danger” if he hadn’t done the things that constitute his being in danger in the first place. Blaming Delahunt for the stupid things that he (Addington) did himself—and the people he (again, Addington) chose to associate with, and enable—is a typical ReThug cop-out.

    And Delahunt ought not to be apologizing—to Addington or to the denizens of WingNuttia.

    Hit them hard, and when they react—hit them again.

    Harder.

  • These Republicans really need to learn about the Google. I had no problem finding a home address for a David Addington with the same year of birth and wife’s name in a DC suburb. Could be a coincidence.

  • Next thing you know, some al-Q sympathizing, pinko, hippie Congressional Dem is going to out a CIA operative just to get revenge and the terrorists will take that as a sign to behead your dog.

  • Cleaver: I wish. At the last reapportionment (and Iowa actually does a somewhat better job than most of the rest of the country, leaving it to a “bipartisan” commission) the commission simply whacked off the thinly populated western half of the state and King took advantage of it. There are some good Democrats along the Missouri River, particularly in Sioux City, but most of the rest of the district adheres to the philosophy of the recent Iowa Republican Party platform, which endorses “teacher or student led prayer in public schools,” “the use of the Bible as a textbook,” and closing the IRS, the departments of Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security and Energy, and ending minimum wage laws, Social Socurity and Medicare. (From Des Moines’ Cityview.)

    This explains why Iowa is sometimes seen as a red state, sometimes as blue. As evidenced by their partisanship for Obama and Edwards in the caucuses (Clinton finished a dismal third), a good part of the state is enthusiastically progressive liberal in the Henry Wallace tradition; the rest is just this side of a sundown town, with not much inbetween. The tide for the moment is with the progressives, although it won’t make any difference to King’s district until the next reapportionment, and who knows what will happen then. Iowa, despite an increase in population, is widely expected to lose yet another district. On the other hand, Iowa’s youth, who turned out heavily for Obama, are decidedly more liberal than their parents.

    King was expected to run against Tom Harkin for the Senate this year but chickened out, and the nomination went to a complete unknown, a sign that KIng doesn’t have much confidence in his pulling power outside his district and a tribute to Harkin’s popularity. Harkin was one of the fifteen who voted against cloture on the FISA bill this week; in a state like Iowa, it doesn’t necessarily help him, but he’s always there and apparently too much for a weasel like KIng.

  • “Addington and his family will need protection until the war on terror is over.”

    Isn’t that something like “until Hell freezes over”? The “war on terror” is war without end.

  • Doesn’t Addington have two handguns in his home for every member of his family? If not what kind of conservative is he? We know that he’s not a Christian values (old definition) rule of law conservative.

    And about John Cole-since Mr Benen keeps linking to him I want to remind everyone to read his opinions with this in mind: John Cole was an enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq. Of course he has changed his mind now, but unfortunately the maimed and dead will never be made whole.
    The only son of a guy I work with was killed in Iraq. Whoops! eh Mr Cole. And another guy I work with who is near retirement from the National Guard, he’s in his fifties, served a tour in Iraq and is being treated for PTSD; now the Bushies want to send him back for another tour. And, if like so many other Iraq war vets, he kills himself? Cole, and the Bushies and Hillary and Addington and Jenna and Laura can all go Whoops!

    There are more good liberal bloggers out there to read than you have time to get to. Fuck John Cole!!

  • ericfree was so close, but missed on a few details.

    1) The real key with reapportionment in Iowa is not a bipartisan commission, it is a computer. The value-neutral computer is given certain parameters – evenness of population, compactness in size, working in increments of whole counties, etc. The computer kicks out a proposal and it goes to the legislature for an up or down vote – no modifications. The legislature can request up to three, but it must take one of the three. (And of course if you reject #1, for all you know you may dislike #2 even more – unlike with humans, lobbying wont get you an advance idea of what #2 might look like).

    2) Clinton did not finish a “dismal third” – arguably, she didn’t finish third at all, given that she actually took more caucus night delegates than Edwards (by 1), and that the uncertainties of reporting counting, calculating, and reporting caucus numbers means that an edge as small as Edwards had — well under 1 county convention delegate per precinct — cannot be said with certainty to be anything but a tie.

    3) While it is true that King’s district are about 90% whacko wingers, give Council Bluffs some props along with Sioux City for having some good D’s like Senate Majority Leader Gronstal, and for that matter the Carroll/Coon Rapids/Jefferson area produced notables like John Chrystal, Holmes Foster, and the Garsts. (Also, for much of my lifetime King’s district was actually represented by a Democrat, Berkley Bedell).

  • Too bad so much blog time is spent dignifiying the wingnut crowd. The Democrats showed contempt for Addington? Really? Contempt and condescention flowed out of every dirty pore of Addington’s body as he could barely hide his resentment and disdain at having to lower himself to appear before the committee. As usual the nutcases have the shoe on the wrong foot.

  • “There are more good liberal bloggers out there to read than you have time to get to. Fuck John Cole!!”

    WTF?

    Yeah, John Cole was one of the Wingnut Brigade. He voted for Bush (twice), supported the invasion of Iraq, etc etc. But through it all his blog was the place to go if you wanted to see liberals, and conservatives) real and Cheeto-stained) going head-to-head in no-holds-barred, frequently hillarious, debate, because Cole – almost uniquely – never banned anyone, never deleted a comment, and just let his commentariat get on with it. You can still see it all because he’s kept a record of the whole period in his archives, even though they make him look like a total wanker.

    And you know what happened? The liberals won the argument. A core of long-term, genuinely progressive Democratic posters wiped the floor with their Klutzwaffen opponents so often and so undeniably on issue after issue after issue that the sad fucks just stopped coming back for another beating. Nowdays the only wingnuts you get there are (very funny) spoofs or the occasional manic troll absolutely furious that Balloon Juice has morphed into one of the very best ‘liberal’ blogs on the Net.

    And Cole himself? West Virginian Gulf-War veteran who, in his own words, sucked on the Kool-Aid tit with gusto for most of his adult life? He left the GOP, joined the Democratic Party, and is working as an unpaid volunteer for the Obama campaign in his home state. Hell of a volte-face, and brave for a guy who still counts many of the wingnut bloogers he now argues with as personal friends.

    Seriously, I started reading Balloon Juice around the time Cole began his conversion, and seeing a right-wing blogger come up hard against the fact that he agreed with the Dirty Fucking Hippies more often than he agreed with his own friends, and then actually acting on that realisation by blogging about how fucking stupid he’d been for the last few years; it was a big deal.

    Shorter version: John Cole’s okay in my book. He’s still often wrong, but he’s on the side of the angels, and his blog should be on your Favourites list.

  • Addington is safe, at least for now. He’s too valuable to knock off. W/o this ass hole alive who would the terrorists have to use as a tool to do their business of showing how decrepit a nation we have become? How would they be able to point out how we torture people, use their holy books for target practice and toilet paper, invade middle eastern countries for their resources, and carpet bomb innocent bystanders? Nope. Addington is worth much more alive than dead to these terrorists.

  • I wish Delahunt hadn’t said he misspoke. I wish he’d said “What is wrong with you people? That is a ridiculous interpretation of my comment and you need to get a grip.”

  • thank you, Stacy6. you couldn’t be more correct. does context mean absolutely nothing anymore? Addington refused to provide certain information because “al Queda might be watching C-SPAN” (if they are, they are either asleep or reminded of why they oppose democracy). Delahunt simply got understandably snarky about two things (1) Addington’s long refusal to honor Congress’ requests for information and (2) the absurdity of his assertion of “what AQ might see on CSPAN” pseudo-privilege and rolled them into one: I’m glad AQ finally gets to see you. Meaning “nice of you to finally honor the role of Congress, Mr. Obstructionist, and geez your latest excuse for coming here but still saying nothing sure is lame.”

    Delahunt has nothing to apologize for. Addington is a traitor; King is a fool.

  • Awww…did baby Addington get scared and pee pee in his panties a lil’ bit? The man should have his face on the front page of every major newspaper for the next month, then be thrown in prison for the rest of his life under charges of Treason – preferably Guantanamo. He is a boil on the ass of America.

  • It was so bad that Keith Olbermann named Delahunt the ‘Worst Person in the World’ yesterday.

  • I say let the Right continue to foam at the mouth and continue to do the things that have garnered them so much displeasure with the majority of Americans. The longer they stay unhinged, the longer they stay out of power.

  • If a republican has said this about HUSSEIN Obama, you left-wing douchebags would be up in arms.

  • Zeitgeist, you’re still here? I MISS YOU!!!!!! — MsJoanne, @1

    I think she (he?) is. First as Mark Pencil, now as -daze.

  • I wish Delahunt just would have said, “I’m glad they get to see you, to see just what type of personalities are responsible for setting up policies that approve of and encourage torture. Maybe they would come to understand that it is not America doing this but a small group of men who managed to get into power and have been operating in secret. And it is this secrecy we are attempting to expose to the American people that they may see just what has been going on here. Your appearance here I hope will encourage understanding for any group watching, Mr Addington because your personality alone reveals much already.”

  • Why in the world would OSB or al Qaeda wish to harm one of their best allies?

    And the same is true for David Addington – why would he want to actually capture OSB and stop al Qaeda?

    Each has significantly benefited from the actions of their so called “opponents” .

    ITts either that or David Addington is an incompetent boob when it comes to actually protecting America – Dave can take his pick.

  • “It was so bad that Keith Olbermann named Delahunt the Worst Person in the World yesterday.”

    You conveniently left out that a. Delahunt shared the “award” with Addington himself and b. Olbermann, while taking Delahunt to task for his comment, criticized KIng’s “Delahunt wants Al-Qaeda to kill Addington” interpretation of it.

  • Hi Kids,

    I have to add my comment about Steve King.

    I live in Eastern Iowa. King represents the Western part of Iowa. I went to college with a number of King’s supporters. These people think he’s great. Most of the people I know from that part of the state thought Bush was a pussy because he didn’t personally strangle Sadam Hussien when we captured him. Most of these guys are the local yokels you think about. They spend most of their time reliving high school and thinking about how they were cheated. The few with brains generally leave and find there is more to the world than beer and guns.

    King is an embarassment to Iowa, but his supporters still love him.

  • “King is an embarassment to Iowa, but his supporters still love him.”

    Well, at least his novels rock (hee hee).

  • Well, it’s easy to agree that Rep. King of Iowa is a few bricks shy of a load. You can’t excuse the implication in Delahunt’s exasperated riposte but I can’t imagine that that interpretation was his intent. So the interpretation is a projection of the listener. We could probably all agree that Addledton propably did more than any single American since 9/11 to support and encourage Al Khaida so why in the world would anyone suppose that group would wish him harm? He’s their golden goose.

  • Stupid.

    Delahunt might easily have meant not that Al-Queda would want to harm Addington. They would like to gaze upon the face that caused the abuse at Al Ghirab, a superb recruiting tool for their ranks, Allah be praised.

    HARM Addington?
    If they could figure out how to make him President, they would!

    It won’t surprise me if Osama endorses Obama in October to try to get knee jerk Americans to vote in John McCain who will continue the Bush practices that have bogged us down in Iraq to the tune of 1 trillion dollars. Is reverse psychology so deep a concept to conservatives?

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