Dying GOP Senator Apologizes To Muslims For Donald Trump

[cali]

Former GOP senator Bob Bennett lay partially paralyzed in his bed on the fourth floor of the George Washington University Hospital. He was dying.

<snip>

Between the hectic helter-skelter of nurses, doctors and well wishes from a long-cultivated community of friends and former aides, Bennett faced a quiet moment with his son Jim and his wife Joyce.

<snip>

Between the hectic helter-skelter of nurses, doctors and well wishes from a long-cultivated community of friends and former aides, Bennett faced a quiet moment with his son Jim and his wife Joyce.

“I’d love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump,” Bennett told his wife and son, both of whom relayed this story to The Daily Beast.

<snip>


He mentioned it briefly in a hospital interview with the Deseret News, a Utah news outlet. “There’s a lot of Muslims here in this area. I’m glad they’re here,” the former senator told the newspaper in April, describing them as “wonderful.”

“In the last days of his life this was an issue that was pressing in his mind… disgust for Donald Trump’s xenophobia,” Jim Bennett said. “At the end of his life he was preoccupied with getting things done that he had felt was left undone.”

<snip>
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/18/dying-gop-senator-apologizes-to-muslims-for-donald-trump.html

[Katashi_itto]

1. May you burn in Hell. You helped enable the GOPs slide to this state. The GOPs slide to extremism

dragged the Dem party to the right wing corporate travesty it is now.

If anyone thinks the climate change will be remotely address under either candidate they are delusional.

So we can also say the already underway, 6th great extinction is a byproduct of this enablers actions.

[cali]

2. Seriously? Ugh.

[msanthrope]

3. Ugly and nasty. nt

[BeyondGeography]

4. This is how our side gets labelled as "just as bad"

[Katashi_itto]

5. Got news for you. We already get labeled that regardless

It doesnt matter.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Your post is a turd

Thank you for planting a turd in my morning.

[MillennialDem]

31. I'm not sure I agree. For some people there is no redemption.

[BeyondGeography]

32. Hitler didn't die here

Get a grip.

[MillennialDem]

33. I didn't say I agreed for sure in this case. I just said some people are not worthy of redemption

Hitler of course applies, but even more mundane shitheads like my drug addicted brother.

[BeyondGeography]

35. Redemption isn't the issue

Just basic human decency. "Burn in hell," in response to an article that highlights a humane statement by a dying man is inappropriate at best, IMHO. I don't care if he was a powerful wingnut who supported a lot of bad things. This wasn't the place.

[MillennialDem]

36. kk

[cali]

7. Curious. Why specifically do you want Bennett to burn in hell?

[Dorian Gray]

8. This is an unncessesarily ugly

post.

At least Bennet showed some class and regret toward the end of his life.

We're all struggling with the reality of the world. He is dying, and he has regret for where the Republican party has headed. Your wishing him to burn in hell reads just as ugly and terrible as all the junk that spews out of Trump's mouth.

[LiberalElite]

11. He's having regrets near the end - I have to give him credit for that

better late than never. I bet some of them NEVER will regret the havoc they've wreaked.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. You're a tool.

[Katashi_itto]

16. A complement coming from you.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. Complement what? nt

[Katashi_itto]

21. Your statement is a complement, considering it's coming from you.

[Blue_Adept]

22. Perhaps you're missing the gentle sarcasm from them

as you keep typing complement instead of compliment.

[Katashi_itto]

23. Perhaps you are missing the not so gentle sarcasm in mine.

Meh, this early in the morning, I just don't care.

I hurt all over anyway.

[Blue_Adept]

24. It's easy to miss after the disgust of your original comment, so yes, I missed it as well.

[Katashi_itto]

25. Find a fainting couch.

[leftynyc]

15. Disgusting post

you may want to consider deleting.

[Blue_Adept]

19. No wonder the Democratic Party are losing people if you represent us

Or, perhaps, you're the type that has clamored on about having left already, in which case good riddance.

[JI7]

26. disgusting

[atreides1]

27. [phone]

Looking at his record, this man isn't worthy of forgiveness! Just like Emperor Constantine, Bennett was seeking to atone for his "sins" at the end of his life, and it has about as much meaning!

If not hell, he should at least spend his time in purgatory!!!

[truebrit71]

29. I agree. Death bed conversions/confessions are as trite as they are desperate....

If he was truly "sorry" he would have done something about it earlier, rather than just before the moment he thinks he's going to be judged for a lifetime of being a dick.

[cali]

34. There was no death bed confession

And he was one of 3 republican Senators who voted for immigration reform that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.

Lord knows he was horrible on most issues, but he was not, as far as I know, a xenophobe.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

39. I don't get that mindset at all.

So people who are foolish or bigoted for most of their lives must be condemned to hold those beliefs until their last breath?

True, there's a certain tragedy of someone coming to an epiphany late in life and realizing that what he or she wasted much of his/her life advocating for something that they shouldn't have, but at least there's that ultimate realization of right and wrong, no matter how delayed.

One of my favorite stories:

[gratuitous]

38. It's not mentioned in the Daily Beast article

But it might be a good idea for folks to familiarize themselves with the entirety of Mr. Bennett's career, particularly his work with the CIA, E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, and others involved in Watergate. It's amazing that a subverter of the country in the 1970s became the target of Tea Bagger outrage in 2010. How reactionary have the Republicans become that one of their infamous bagmen from the days of Nixon transformed into a respected elder statesman a few decades later?

[TacoD]

40. Just Katashi_itto being Katashi_itto

You should see him when cops get killed.

[Fumesucker]

9. They never think about the consequences of their actions until the Reaper beckons

[hatrack]

12. Too bad, so sad, and way too late . . .

See also, "Atwater, Lee".

“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world — oh, woe is me! — and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

[RogueTrooper]

13. Indeed

I wish they would show compassion at the beginning of their career rather than the end. It's almost like they have always known what they did was wrong but never cared until they fear they are finally going to be held to account.

[valerief]

18. What about the fuckin' rest of the world who suffer at the hands of the GOP and their neoDem

counterparts every fuckin' day?

[mountain grammy]

20. Oh dear, haven't you heard?

The meek will inherit the earth, or some such nonsense. Problem is, thanks to politicians like Bennett, they won't have an earth worth inheriting.. but it's ok cause he's "sorry."

[corkhead]

28. From the article title it isn't clear whether "dying" is a modifier for Senator or GOP

could be taken either way

[tenderfoot]

30. Too bad he didn't live long enough to apologize for the Isamaphobes here on DU

eom

[JEB]

37. I wonder if Kissinger will apologise ever?

[TacoD]

41. I believe that had he survived to the GE he would have lined up solidly behind Trump. (nt)