Building Missiles vs Fighting Terrorism

[BOSSHOG]

Liberal oasis has an excellent synopsis today of editorials and comments from 2001 about the folly of bush spending on missile defense and the importance of putting a high priority on fighting terrorism. Black and white proof of where bush's priorities were. Proof that Clarke is telling the truth. Proof that rice is lying.

In a nutshell: Clinton good, Bush bad (and stupid)

www.liberaloasis.com

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Missile defense: $$$ for Bush's political donors.

Fighting terroism with good police work, good intelligence, and smart foreign policy: not a dime for donors.

Concern for protecting American people: none.

[IronLionZion]

3. Americans are blind to obvious corruption

Making Republican donors rich while cutting benefits for soldiers is patriotic!

[ArkDem]

2. Clinton was really good at decimating the Democratic Party

during Clinton's administration, the Democrats lost:
- 48 seats in the House
- 8 seats in the Senate
- 11 governorships
- 1,254 state legislative seats
- Control of 9 legislatures
In addition 439 elected Democrats had joined the Republican Party while only three Republican officeholders had gone the other way.
While Democrats had been losing state legislative seats on the state level for 25 years, the loss during the Clinton years was striking. In 1992, the Democrats controlled 17 more state legislatures than the Republicans. After November 2000, the Republicans controlled one more than the Democrats. It was the first time since 1954 that the GOP had controlled more state legislatures than the Democrats (they tied in 1968). Among other things, this gave the Republican more control over redistricting.
In fact, no Democratic president since the 19th century suffered such an electoral disintegration of his party as did Clinton.