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7 Best Moments From Sunday Talk
Pat Buchanan says Bush may be prosecuted, Ahmadinejad supports a two-state solution, and Larry Summers discusses his sleep issues. Watch the best moments from Sunday’s talk shows.
Buchanan: Bush Prosecuted for War Crimes?
Is he having Watergate flashbacks or is he on to something? Pat Buchanan tells John McLaughlin that the investigation into Bush-era interrogation policies could lead to the prosecution of the man at the very top, a scenario with which Mr. Buchanan is quite familiar.
Guess Who’s “Fine” with an Israeli-Palestinian Two-State Solution?
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have said he wants to see Israel wiped off the map, but in this remarkable moment with George Stephanopoulos, he says he’s also ready to accept a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
McCain: Torture Is Wrong, Let’s Move On
He’s probably the only Republican to have the credibility to make this argument a convincing one to Democrats: Sen. John McCain, appearing on Face the Nation, tells Bob Schieffer that it’s dangerous to get caught up in criminalizing the "bad advice" given to CIA ops, and that it’s just time to “move on” as a nation.
Summers Blames Credit-Card Companies for Sleep Problems
We’ve seen him yawning, we’ve seen him sleeping, now, finally, you can see Fox News ask him about it. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, assures Chris Wallace that the president is not the cause.
100 Days? Who Cares?
Talk about a lost opportunity. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, appearing on Meet the Press, shrugs off the importance of Obama’s first 100 days, calling it a “Hallmark holiday” on which the president would want the public to reflect for “eight to 10 seconds.”
Gladwell Stretches Thesis to Solve America’s Education Crisis
Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell tells Fareed Zakaria that one of the reasons we have such poor student performance in the United States is that we don’t embrace the value Asian cultures prize so much more highly than we do: hard work.
Woodward: Will Afghanistan Undo Obama?
Forget the economy, ignore the brouhaha over torture memos. Bob Woodward, appearing on Face the Nation with The Daily Beast’s editor in chief Tina Brown, says that of the “137 decisions or proposals” made by President Obama since his inauguration, the most critical is “doubling down” on Afghanistan.
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Banjo1
Bob Dole had the decency to retire to obscurity when he lost, why not McCain? He is not more the voice of the Republican Party than his air-headed daughter.
missbike
Mr. McCain is still in public service in the Senate, and would make a much better de facto head of the Republican Party than the fourth grade schoolyard bully Rush Limbaugh. Be grateful that the GOP actually has someone with some brain cells actively involved in government to finally stand up and demonstrate some sanity. We have enough press on the antics of the Palins off in Alaska to keep us howling with laughter with out Rushbo and that other frightening buffoon Bobby Jindal. Who has taken to inserting the Catholic Church into the affairs of the State of Louisiana and a lot of other scary Bush style American Pinochet behavior. Be thankfull for Senator McCain.
And I seem to remember that Mr Dole had given up his place in the Senate. Viagra ads and lobbying aren't exactly a fade away. Just a tackier way to stay in the public eye...
vis-veritas
Can't disagree about Dole, but McCain was the GOP candidate and will be the party leader until he leaves the Senate. Flush Limbaugh is indeed an empty headed schoolyard bully, and does not reflect the position of real Republicans anywhere. They could start their own Limbaugh party where they could gather and venerate Timothy McVeigh and other Limbaugh lemmings.
EonCrusher
Thank you, Thank you vis. Even as an independent(for lack of a better fitting party) I agree. I think that the moderate and right-of-center republican party has several very good ideas that need to be heard, and that "Flush" (that's so cool!) and the others that are trying to "Purify" the party need to be relegated to the same ranks as the John Birch society. In short, the embarrassing barely-remembered part of our history.
TotalRecall9
It was nice that Tina Brown took her lips off of Obama's butt long enough to appear on TV. My God, you could have said at least one thing critical about the Administration. You must not even read the articles from your own website!
And John McCain is an idiot!!! He sat there and defended against prosecuting the Bush Administration. Then right after that, he said that other countries will not torture because of threats of retribution. My God, he should be voted out. That kind of logic is criminal!! Hey McCain, if someone murders your family are you just going to say "Let's move forward" or the court of "public opinion" is good enough?!?!?
thehummerl
Hurray! Thank you for saying what I have been thinking since this whole thing started. If we don't hold the people responsible for desecrating our Constitution, what's to stop the next elected official from doing likewise? We, the people, need to demonstrate that this is our government, not the republicans nor the democrats. If torture was the only way to go, why wasn't it done in the light of day?
bluehawaii
If blowjobs were the issue instead of torture, would the Republicans be so eager to move on?
farser
nuff said. so true.
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Grundy
What is it with you Democrats and Clintons BJ's - jealous?
DeaconDrJones
We're not the fetishists that trotted out the whole sordid affair.
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mmennonno
I'm with bluehawaii on this one.
Grundy
More jealousy?
markburn
How old are you, Grundy? 12?
Antometrios
The caption for Gladwell's clip is just a little confused, taking his quote out of context. Obviously "hard work" is a mantra of the American dream, but he's not incorrect: our school systems judge students according to aptitude, which doesn't improve a population but instead subdivides it--and usually along socio-economic lines. Just what he said.
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EonCrusher
I know very rich people who's kids wind up bankrupt and poor waiting for mommy and daddy to die so they can inherit their lifestyle. I also know very very poor who work their lives away to make others rich without being able to take care of themselves much at all. I myself have an IQ of 127 and was entirely left behind in public education because I have several learning disorders and had to struggle to learn how to survive on my own because of it. If that's not a brilliant shining example of desperately needing to reform our education system I don't know what is. Also my mother worked for public education when No Child Left Behind came out and watched as teachers were pressured by school districts to pass kids that wouldn't be able to otherwise just so that the schools could continue to get money. You wonder why our illiteracy rates among High School grads are so high?
How do you figure hard work being a learned ethic? I've yet to actually see that idea fit the real world.
VinnyB
Let's be honest. Those who want to prosecute the past administration on the "torture" issue are really diverting their anger because of the Bush administration's decision to go into Iraq. You can't prosecute a bad decision that cost over 3,000 American lives and thousands of wounded veterans (though we'd like to), but you can go after the legal decisions leading to the use of "advanced interrogation." The real question is if you thought water-boarding made us less safe, don't you think exposing ALL our interrogation methods and having public trials will only cement hatred of the U.S. for generations to come? What, really, would we gain as a nation.
ibisko
do you like yerbe matte?
ask some folks who have been or had there family tortured.
recipe for making a martyr or heroe: persecute unjustly.
mccain's own claim to fame is that he is a torture survivor.
recipe for tyranny.. make actors unaccountable.
and at the risk of weakening our national security ,
the secret torture recipe that wasn't effective anyway:
if you don't pay your bookie, they may bludgeon,break or burn parts of your body. big secret.
thehummerl
Justice for all?
EonCrusher
Anything you wouldn't want the police to do you should allow your intelligence community to do. As a matter of history, the more these kinds of things are done for "National Security" the more likely they are to be done to the people as well for the same given reason.
Also we lose face when we say that it's not ok for Americans to be treated this way but cover up the fact that we were doing it after the world knows, that we did it. That's when the worse violence breaks out, when we admit that we were breaking our own ethics, then refuse to do anything about it.
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EonCrusher
Lets also not forget that following WW2 much of the resistance to creating a Jewish state in the middle east was because small Jewish groups were doing the same thing that other militants are doing now, and that even the Israeli government is doing now to Palestinians.
hammer
While we are on this witch hunt maybe we should also:
Prosecute Paul Bremer for giving the wrong advice on the occupation of Iraq that led to tens of thousands of needless deaths.
We should prosecute Dick Cheney for forcefully encouraging invasion of Iraq and the deaths of 4500 troops.
We should look into prosecuting Donald Rumsfeld for not having enough troops to occupy Iraq.
We should prosecute Alan Greenspan of keeping interest rate too low and encouraging asset bubbles in housing, equities and commodities that have cost investors $20 trillion in 2008.
We should prosecute Chris Cox for his faulty regulation of thieves like Bernie Madoff, Paul Greenwood and Paul Stanford.
We should prosecute Hank Paulson for arbitrarily letting Bear Stearns survive and letting Lehman fail.
Do Barney Frank and Chris Dodd deserve to be prosecuted for their hand in supporting Fannie and Freddie in every endeavor?
When is giving advice even when it is faulty a crime? Its is time to move on. These advisors will never work in this town again and their names will always have an asterisks against them.
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RockyRob
Giving advice is not a crime, but heeding that advice may be, especially when the advice is "to commit a crime."
The issue here is that the advice "to commit a crime" was requested, (by the Bush Admin.), and heeded.
If I told you to run into oncoming traffic that is not a crime. If I forced you to, that probably is. And just because I might not be able to get a job in a certain town doesn't mean that I don't deserve to be punished for breaking the law.
It is kind of funny that Republicans are endorsing "move on" though.
vintageperkins
You're right and giving advise makes you part of a conspiracy.
EricLightborn
I love how pursuing justice is a 'witch hunt' when you talk to a conservative.
You fools want to try to claim that the other party is dirty and needs reform when your party broke the law and defied the Constitution.
You all disgust those of us who love this country more than we love our political party.
EonCrusher
It's called "Conspiracy to Commit" and it is a crime to give out advice that leads to the commiting of... a crime.
And lets look at the list you've generated hammer. Conspiracy, War Crimes, Fraud, Price-Fixing, Insider Trading.... yup all punishable crimes. Let me ask you hammer, is prosecuting someone for a committed crime still a witch-hunt?
octavio
April/26/2009
From:
octavio
To:
Everybody,
Leaders should always be prosecuted.E,g; when
George W. Bush lied to the public ( about Sadam's weapons
of mass destruction.Or when it became obvious that George
W.Bush gave orders to TORTURE individuals.Or allowing
personal vedettas ( because the problems Sadam Husein
had with George H.Bush ) and spend trillions of the tax
payer's money just to capture Sadam Husein.After so much
waste of taxpayer's money.The new president ( Barac Obama )
is going to spend the next 8 years correcting Geroge W.
Bush's mistakes,etc,etc.
END!
byline
You give bad advice, you take your lumps. You act on that advice, you're held accountable. I may advise you that shooting your neighbor is the best course of action. You do so and you go to the gallows.
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DeaconDrJones
???
EonCrusher
Please site references before putting on the tinfoil hat there Portmanteau. If you want to really site lies to get elected, neither Bush nor Cheney gave up control of their companies in order to become president and vice. It's actually in their published corporate minutes. They made billions off of the wars they started. That's not only a conflict of interest, it's corruption.
BobGeezer
McCains logic is faulty, as is typical with republicans. He stresses "Logic" provided by the attornies as "faulty", as tho that exceuse any transgressions on national policy, Geneva Conventions, American moral values, etc. is forgived because some lawyers gave "bad advise". BS. The FBI saw that the "advise" was condoning illegal activity: why didn't the officers of other branches of the Smerican forces refuse? Because they tazke "advise" as legal cover to do anything, even though they suspect it's illegqal and wrong.McCain is BS'ing the Amereican public who doesn't use their brains, as usual..
Sandras
I wouldn't take the word of Ahmadinejad to be the truth. From his past words and behaviour, he appears wily, deceitful and spiteful. If he is serious, he will stop the games and the rhetoric and get down to business.
felixsama
Are you so sure that's not Americaninjihad you're not referring to?
xbainx
Please the only similarities between Nixon and Bush are that they are both Republicans.
Oh my God. It all makes sense now.
EricLightborn
Try again. Both broke the law in office. Both lied to the public. Both decided that the truth is not as important and the only thing that matters is power.
RockyRob
John McCain does not have credibility on this current issue of "torture." If the issue were prosecution of Vietnamese war criminals for their treatment of U.S. POW during the Vietnam War than yes, John McCain would have credibility, but as demonstrated by his presidential campaign and his recent behavior it is obvious that he will say and do anything to score political points.
I'm not sure what the ATTORNEY GENERAL should do, but to "move on" before the lessons have been learned would be irresponsible and dangerous.
(Shoot, a lot of Americans still haven't learned that the pursuit of frivolous politics such as the attempted impeachment of the head of our government for lying about recent extra-marital fellatio during testimony into a past real estate scandal was disproportionately harmful to our country and resulted in 9/11.)
At least the Republicans haven't accused Obama of "wagging the dog" yet.
revhatchell
let that be a lesson to you kids, it's okay to torture if you get a lawyer to say so.
it's too much trouble to prosecute people that simply mistakenly ordered torture because, well they were real busy and it was for our own good.
john mccain torture victim and apologist.
Thank you.
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