Former President George H.W. Bush told CBS News that President Obama ‘is entitled to civil treatment and intellectual honesty when it comes to critics.’
Referring to the tone of national discourse he said, ‘I don’t like it. The cables (TV) have a lot to do with it.’
Very interesting.
Hey George H.W. Bush, shut up.
GHWB voted against the Civil Rights Act. He hearts the civility of killing Arabs as well
George HW Bush calls for civility. Oliver’s response: “Shut up”
Quelle surprise!
Watch the video Franky boy, GHWB ceded the high ground on this issue decades ago.
Wait a minute here—cables?…I thought TV and the internets that Al Gore invented go through tubes.
Puzzled…
Was that sex mutant/ratfucker emeritus Roger Stone in the bowtie in that clip (the Google suggests that it probably was; Stone was Atwater’s business partner)?
That someone as amorally partisan as Stone found the Willie Horton campaign over the top tells you something, though that Stone is a yankee and Atwater a southerner doubtless explains much of the difference.
Think Progress has more:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/17/maddow-olby-sick-puppies/
“While he said he does not believe in personal name-calling,…”
Unless it’s done by him. Former President Bush seems to be suffering from BORD (Bill O’Reilly
Disease, where the “sufferer” who decries personal attacks engages in personal attacks).
“The way they treat my son and anyone who’s opposed to their point of view is just horrible,” Mr. Bush said.
Whiner.
The Willie Horton ad began during the Democratic Primaries. so they found it and distributed first.
As for Lee Atwater, he did not initiate the virulent discourse that characterized the Bush years. You could twist and turn til Doomsday, but you will never evade your responsibility.
The Willie Horton ad began during the Democratic Primaries. so they found it and distributed first.
Incorrect.
As for Lee Atwater, he did not initiate the virulent discourse that characterized the Bush years.
Partially correct. Some of the blame belongs to Rush Limbaugh.
Incorrect
No, you’re incorrect.
Partially correct. Some of the blame belongs to Rush Limbaugh.
Totally incorrect. The blame begins with James Carville, and the “War Room”.
Incorrect
No, you’re incorrect.
No, you’re really, really incorrect:
The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Al Gore….Gore took issue with the furlough program. However, he did not specifically mention the Horton incident or even mention Horton’s name….
Republicans picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush’s campaign manager, Lee Atwater, predicted that “by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name.” Media consultant Roger Ailes remarked “the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”
Partially correct. Some of the blame belongs to Rush Limbaugh.
Totally incorrect. The blame begins with James Carville, and the “War Room”.
1988: Rush Limbaugh takes his campaign of sweet sweet love for commie-libs and feminazis national
1988: Lee Atwater Hortonizes the presidential campaign
1992: James Carville signs on with the Clinton campaign
Last time I checked 1992 was after 1988, and I bet you can’t name a thing Carville did to rival the Willie Horton thing in sleaziness.
C’mon Frank, pick it up.
So what was really wrong with the Willie Horton ads? It’s not like it wasn’t true, that it didn’t happen, that Dukakis didn’t veto the bill that the Massachusetts legislators passed to keep murderers like Horton who was sentenced to life without parole from getting weekend furloughs. The real hero is the Judge who wouldn’t send him back to Massachusetts. Horton is a textbook example of the effectiveness of capital punishment.
I think you actually have to kill a guy before claiming he’s an example of ‘capital punishment’. Pretty sure Horton’s still alive. I’m not even sure that he was on death row to start with.
You miss the point, if he’d been executed the first time he murdered someone this would have all been a moot point. In liberal land, life sentence without parole doesn’t really mean what it sounds like.
I don’t think I did – you made a mistake, and I corrected it. You’re welcome.
As for the thread – Bush the Elder, like all the former GOP men of yore, calling for civility is pretty funny, but he could have done a lot worse. The worst in my mind came later, when the class of 94 hit the Hill. Bush could have reined in the nasty, but his campaign was floundering and he needed some cheap points. I doubt he ever regretted making them.
What ever abanterer,
Horton is a text book example of the effectiveness of capital punishment. It was not used on him, he was sentenced to life without parole and then released for the weekend. Life without parole was not effective, capital punishment would have been.
So, Cameron Todd Willingham’s fate is acceptable to you?
See, here’s the thing. I agree that Horton should have not been granted furlough. I think that was a serious mistake. I also think that capital punishment must reach a level of certainty beyond ‘reasonable doubt’, before making that leap. I don’t know why he got Life and not CP, but Horton got the sentence that he got. Due process isn’t convenient, but it’s necessary.
It’s cute when Republicans think they have any moral highground to stand on after making torture a part of our foreign policy under George W. Bush.
Horton is a text book example of the
effectiveness of capital punishmentSouthern Strategy.The Massachusetts furlough program that Republicans raked Dukakis over the coals for was started by his REPUBLICAN predecessor by the way, Francis Sargent. Yeah, it would have been legit to criticize Dukakis for not ending it, but listening to GOP rhetoric during the 1988 campaign, you would have thought that Dukakis was the one who came up with the furlough idea. Not ending a horrible policy is not quite as bad as initiating the horrible policy in the first place.
but listening to GOP rhetoric during the 1988 campaign, you would have thought that Dukakis was
the one who came up with the furlough ideapersonally responsible for the Lindbergh kidnapping.abanterer,
Although it makes a nice retort Willingham’s case is quite irrelevant here. All prosecutions should be done correctly, prosecutors do literally get away with murder from time to time and should be held accountable.
Horton was a convicted murderer who was sentenced to life without parole. His case illustrates that even a sentence like that is not enough to protect society from a guy like him. Had he been executed for his crime society would have safe from the misguided notions of liberal clemency.
Rotter,
Dukakis vetoed the bill that had been passed to keep people safe from the judicial activism that gutted the sentence of life without parole that Horton was serving.
It wasn’t that Dukakis didn’t end it, it was that he personally chose to continue it. But then you knew that.
I think Willingham is part of this issue as well. CP is not something you can appeal. I don’t know the intricacies of Horton’s trial, but I do know that deals get made to get the case moving. A life w/o parole may have been as good a deal as the defense could manage, and the DA, who are typically overworked as it is, could get in a reasonable time. Pushing for an injection requires a longer trial, and likely a harder case, including a higher standard of proof.
And that’s as it should be. It should be hard before you condemn a person to death. You should be sure, totally sure, and able to present it. If we make it something less difficult, then you’re just going to have cases fought harder, last longer, and with more desperate men involved.
“Horton was a convicted murderer who was sentenced to life without parole. His case illustrates that even a sentence like that is not enough to protect society from a guy like him.”
“Dukakis vetoed the bill that had been passed to keep people safe from the judicial activism that gutted the sentence of life without parole that Horton was serving.”
So, AO, do you believe that life without possibility of parole for the Willie Hortons of this country is a good thing or a bad thing? If Horton’s case illustrates that LWPOP “is not enough to protect society from a guy like him,” why should it matter if Dukakis vetoed a bill to end such a supposedly ineffectual sentence?
Yikes, should have been “why should it matter if Dukakis vetoed a bill to end the gutting of such a supposedly ineffectual sentence?”
abanterer,
I’m sure someone will be happy to correct me if I am wrong but I believe that the standard of proof is the same regardless of the penalty. Prosecutorial misconduct seems to be the common denominator for the wrongful convictions that have been overturned, primarily through the use of DNA by the project innocence people. I don’t believe prosecutors are held responsible enough for willful misconduct.
I don’t think capital punishment is used enough, I have little sympathy for murderers, most child molesters and most rapists. Their transgressions have crossed a line that puts their right to life in forfeit.
But that is neither here nor there. What Horton’s case illustrates perfectly is that given liberal politicians and activist judges, society can not trust that a murderer serving a life sentence without parole will actually serve such a sentence. Capital punishment precludes that uncertainty.
Rotter,
To answer your question I would execute far more of the Willie Hortons if it were my choice but it is suitable for some. You are just being arguementative with your second point. Life without parole is ineffective specifically because of Dukakis’s actions not despite them.
The furlough program itself was a perfectly legitimate issue. It was even legitimate to mention the Horton incident to dramatize the kind of hardened criminals that were getting apparently unsupervised weekend passes.
Plastering the mugshot all over the TV and using it for print flyers was what took the appeal from the legitimate criticism of a candidate’s policy in office to a disgraceful appeal to racial fear. If the furlough-abusing perp had been a white preppy-looking guy like Ted Bundy, it’s a certainty that the mugshot would not have been used (because it would have no effect on the latent racial fears of the voters Atwater was trying to reach).
On September 2, 1944. Bush’s aircraft was hit by flak[7] and his engine caught on fire.[1] Despite his plane being on fire, Bush completed his attack and released bombs over his target, scoring several damaging hits. Through 1944, he flew 58 combat missions[7] for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Totally incorrect. The blame begins with James Carville, and the “War Room”.
Kind of hard to do when Carville had nothing of any consequence to do with the 1988 Presidential election.
So what was really wrong with the Willie Horton ads?</i.
Ladies and gentlemen: The Modern Republican Party.