MR. RUSSERT: Your Democratic colleague Dick Durbin of Illinois set off a firestorm when he compared the actions of Americans at Guantanamo to Nazis, Soviet Gulags and Pol Pot. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that Senator Durbin should be censured by the Senate for those comments.
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I think that Senator Durbin owes not only the Senate an apology—I don't know if censure would be in order--but an apology because it does a great disservice to men and women who suffered in the gulag and in Pol Pot's killing fields. Dick Durbin should be required to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" and I think that he would--may have a better understanding that there's no comparison whatsoever. And it does a great disservice to the majority of men and women who are serving in Guantanamo who are doing the job that they're told to do and they're doing it in a humane fashion. To tar the American servicemen and women with a brush that applies to the gulag or the killing fields is a great disservice to the men and women in the military who are serving honorably down there.
MR. RUSSERT: Should he formally apologize?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I don't know what a formal--but he should certainly apologize.
MR. RUSSERT: Will the Senate take any action against him?
SEN. McCAIN: I predict to you that by the time this program is shown next Sunday that Mr. Durbin will have apologized.
I just heard the same prediction from the panel on fox news. By the end of the week, we'll see an apology. Not enough for me.. he at least deserve's Tent Lott's fate.
4 comments:
McCain commented on Durbin yesterday on Meet The Press. I will try to hunt down the transcript for you. Generally, he denounced the comment.
From Meet The Press:
MR. RUSSERT: Your Democratic colleague Dick Durbin of Illinois set off a firestorm when he compared the actions of Americans at Guantanamo to Nazis, Soviet Gulags and Pol Pot. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that Senator Durbin should be censured by the Senate for those comments.
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I think that Senator Durbin owes not only the Senate an apology—I don't know if censure would be in order--but an apology because it does a great disservice to men and women who suffered in the gulag and in Pol Pot's killing fields. Dick Durbin should be required to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" and I think that he would--may have a better understanding that there's no comparison whatsoever. And it does a great disservice to the majority of men and women who are serving in Guantanamo who are doing the job that they're told to do and they're doing it in a humane fashion. To tar the American servicemen and women with a brush that applies to the gulag or the killing fields is a great disservice to the men and women in the military who are serving honorably down there.
MR. RUSSERT: Should he formally apologize?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I don't know what a formal--but he should certainly apologize.
MR. RUSSERT: Will the Senate take any action against him?
SEN. McCAIN: I predict to you that by the time this program is shown next Sunday that Mr. Durbin will have apologized.
I just heard the same prediction from the panel on fox news. By the end of the week, we'll see an apology. Not enough for me.. he at least deserve's Tent Lott's fate.
Bill, thanks for posting a link to my blog post about this issue.
Durbin's non-apology apology is not even close to being good enough to make up for what he said.
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