Holding a subcomittee meeting would require that Obama actually show up for work.

Oh my gosh. What a contrived, political argument. The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs "oversees" NATO forces in Afghanistan?

Um, I don't think so. Nice try, you Republican weenie, but either learn how things work or stop being disingenuous.

And in general, Republicans should now run off and hide in shame for borrowing campaign attack ideas from Hillary Clinton.

McCain has laws named after him.

Obama has a subcommittee that he never shows up at.

And.........how many votes has McFossil missed since he began running for President? Another Teflon-John moment? There seems to too many to count these days.

I just watched future-President Obama give his foreign policy speech.

How can we fast track his Inauguration? We need a President NOW! :)

P.S. So let's be clear - does the surge working prove we didn't have enough troops to begin with - just like Gen. Eric K. Shinseki told Rumsfeld before he got fired?

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0228pentagoncontra.htm

So why does the Bush administration get kudos for letting 4,000 troops die before they decide to do what they should have done in the beginning? (Even though there should have been no beginning).

Isn't a big reason the surge worked because of giving Al Sadr alot of what he wanted too? Isn't that called diplomacy with people we don't like?

And now Obama is attacked for wanting to listen to the generals instead of being a knucklehead like Bush? What gives?

DeMint wants Obama to actually do his job? Doesn't DeMint know that Obama is the head of a huge movement whose mission is to save the planet? The man has things to do more important then show up at your little insignificant subcommittee meeting Senator DeMint!

Afghanistan has been the Central front on Terror since 911. However GWB & his goon's saw the world's attention span & took a U-turn for the OIL.Now we face an ever increasing threat from the Taliban & Al-quida, AGAIN. John McNothing has no idea what do to in Afghanistan(he never talks about it)&therefore is Unqualified as CIC.All you American's who voted for the Idiot in Chief are to blame for over 4100 American troop's lost in the Sandbox & untold thousands of innocent Iraqi's.Talk about gulible!!

As for McNothing trying to dictate to Barack when where what who & how, he 1st needs to learn that playing Defense in this election cycle is'nt getting him anywhere.Quinipiac poll out today with Barack leading by 9 point's.

GWB & McNothing doing the 2 step again today on Barack.GWB schedules a news avail @1030am & McNothing coming around noon.In between, Barack will be making both of them look like Dumb & Dumber.

GWB has shown again that everything he touches turns to Crap.The American & World economy is in shambles.Most Intelligent American's knew this back in 2000, however Most unintelligent voter's wanted to drink a beer with the Prez. Are ya happy now that Budwieser is becoming a foriegn enterprise under the Socalled leadership of the cowboy from  Texas?

Might as well build some submarines with screendoor's with the Gop way of thinking.

GOP (Gay Ole Party): several fries short of a happy Meal!!!

Following the Hillary tactic's will get you the same Result's. Your A$$ handed to You, keep up the gr888 work GOP.LMAO!!!!

How can the ranking member throw stones at any one.This beats all.

The reasons there are conditions and caveats placed on their service, sir, is the fact that the Bush Administration has run our nation's standing and good will in this world straight into the damn ground.......and you mr. demintia, are flying the banner of said administration.  Shut up and sit down

Simple answer to that .. Read Joe Biden's comments on the Foreign Relation's Committee !

Just watched Bush, Obama and now McCain on MSNBC uncensored and un-interrupted.

kudos to MSNBC, it seems that you litsened to my earlier post !Less analysts and more of the candidates !

credit is given where it's warranted.

Now if you could do something about Pat Buchanan !

So you think Joe Biden calles Obama 'Junior' at his Foreign Relations Committee meetings? Makes Barack run out to the local Dunkin Doughnuts to get coffee?

This is another D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N.

Why is it so important that this subcommittee meet? So George Bush can ignore their recommendations? What other committees have the Bush Administration listened too?

Do tell.

P.S. To Tinslie Robart-Jones - McCain has laws named for him that he says he doesn't support. Confused much?

Things are starting to get real boring.

"Holding a subcomittee meeting would require that Obama actually show up for work."

Yea, Barack Obama has missed 44% of votes lately. You know who's even worse? John McCain. McCain has missed 62% of votes, even worse than Tim Johnson who missed months of work with a BRAIN HEMORRHAGE and still showed up for 50% of the votes.

Obama the inept one.  He is just like Pelosi...all talk and no action. It is hard to believe that some folks want Obama to be president.  He is just not qualified.  If he cannot hold a committee meeting, then he just isn't orgainize nor committed.

VOTE MCCAIN...FOR SOLUTIONS NOT SPEECHES

Back to Hillary again. Once again, we don't need her or her followers anymore! Step aside, there's a real man at work to better this country!

Obama 08/12

Len, he manages to show up to vote, at least.  More than we can say for McCain.

Yeah, but when McCain attaches his name to some bills, he then doesn't deem it necessary to show up and vote for it.  Or, backs completely away from it during the campaign (immigration).  

Wow. John McCain is trying to call someone out for not showing up to work?  Mac hasn't showed up since April. Even Sen. Kennedy showed up to vote and he's one person that should get a pass.  It is amazing that McCain is trying to recycle failed portions of Hillary's campaign.  It didn't work for Clinton and she's 10x the candidate McCain is so he's definitely out of luck.

There is a lot to be learned by this rebuttal.  McCain can't attack any of the main points of Obama's speech because McCain's position is shortsighted and wrong.  With Obama making all of this sense, the GOP has to find a scurrilous angle of attack.  I think that the Republicans have underestimated the intelligence of the American people once again and this time they will be punished.

Senator Obama is right on target.  Now watch the media tear everything he said this mortning, apart.  I think McCreep is just too boring to follow and the media expects less than nothing from him.

So what's the budget for the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs? Seeing it never meets, we can pull that budget, right?

The discussion requested would not take place in the sub-committee that Obama chairs.  It would be within the pervue of the Foreign Relations Committee that Sen. Biden chairs.

It's just a cheap political shot, with no basis in fact.  Typical of McCains camp incompetence, they have gotten their facts wrong and stepped on their own message.  

By the way, Obama has shown up for all sgnificant votes since his candidacy began.  McCain didn't even bother to show up for a vote on the new GI Bill of Rights vote he opposed but has since taken credit for.  He was at a fund raiser.

McCain has also introduced legislation that he will not vote for.  Not vote for his own legislation because he has flip-flopped since the legislation was introduced.

Oh yeah, and then McCain also takes credit for bills he had nothing to do with and outright opposed (Webb's GI Bill)

Is Biden still all hot to trot and invade the oil rich Muslim country of Sudan that's in the middle of a 14 side civil war? The way poll numbers sway so many we won't fall for the "we gotta do something crowd" again.

Len Holmes

McCain has to have someone "Google" a map for him on the rare occasions he decides to go to the Senate.

on the drive in to work this morning I was able to catch a good portion of Obama's Iraq speech while listening to POTUS 08.

As usual, Obama's intelligence, intellect and measured thinking come shining through.

How did we, as a nation, get through these past 7+ years with that bumbling, stumbling idiot Bush?  Why would anyone with a brain vote for 4 more years of a stumbling, bumbling McCain??

I really don't think the world can survive another Bush term of Iraq policies, war-mongering, lies and moronic thinking.  

Which allies are sending large contingents of troops to afghanistan senator demint? and why didn't the subcommittee do anything when you were large and in charge of congress senator? Just wondering

On the very day that Obama is speaking on Afghanistan, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R) has penned a letter to Obama, noting that the Illinois senator has yet to hold a subcommittee hearing on Afghanistan -- which repeats a charge Hillary Clinton made against Obama during the primaries......

-First Read

One of the posters commented this morning that the media is mostly responsible for 'The New Yorker' cover, and the continued problems the 'Muslim' rumor is causing Senator Obama's campaign.

My thoughts turned immediately to Hillary Clinton! She started all this when her team leaked the photo of Obama, (in the Kenyan robes of his ancestors), in order to bring upon him another false, and divisive line of attack.  

********************************************

Doreen wrote:

Identity -- what to heck does that mean?  Bill Clinton has gotten so that no one can really understand what he is saying.
Doreen Augusta Maine (Sent Saturday, July 12, 2008 8:22 PM)

********************************************

Doreen,

Bill is a master at slinging digs, between the lines. The interview he gave about Mandela recently,
was  full of negative innuendo. He kept comparing Mandela’s true greatness, against the shallowness of  charisma, and opportunism, etc.

His reference to 'identity' is quintessential Bill. He's griping because AA's voted 90 plus percent for Obama over Hillary, because they ‘identified’ with him.

I suppose He thinks Black folks should forever be the wind beneath the Clinton wings. Why? Well, Maya was invited, and recited; while Ron Brown et al were hired, which inspired; Tony Morrison to declare, Bill, 'The First Black Heir'! (I mean the first black President).

Here's the thing that should in all fairness be remembered.

AAs helped Bill land his 'dream job' first. Black voters supported the Clintons to realize their aspirations, before the Clintons began to return the favor, on some level, so to speak.

Hillary, and Bill could never repay Black folks for helping them to two terms of the Presidency, if that‘s
the game they want to play. I hate tit for tat , but they, and some of their supporters are incapable of regarding Blacks as anything other than an asset to be mined for their benefit, it would seem. Hence Bill’s ‘identity’ point above,  and people here asking, “how could AA’s turn their backs on the Clintons after all they’ve done for them“?

Maybe I've got Bill all wrong. Maybe his chiding 'identity' criticism, was aimed at Hillary for her statement after the IN, and NC primaries that she had the 'hard working white people' vote.

What kind of ranking member doesn't even know how his own committee works?  DeMint just proved his own complete ignorance, just like Bush/McCain.  Stupid.

"'There are concerns about the imbalance between some European nations, their level of commitment to the fight in Afghanistan, and caveats these nations place on their forces in theater,' DeMint writes in a letter released by the McCain campaign."

It's good to see Senator DeMint's office cannot release the letter on their own. They need grandpa John to do it for them. Blatantly a cheap political stunt. Biden is right: important hearings like that are held at the full committee level, not subcommittee.

Once again the repuks use another lip mover or in this case they have gotten more sophiaticated(they wrote a letter).You canadate has missed more votes in the senate then anyone else.Like the one he chose not to even show up for,you know the one that was desined to help out our vets,bomber wants the vets to support him but he didn't think it was inportant to vote for them!I don;t think most vets will be fooled by this kind of pandering!

Len Holmes and Tinslie Robart-Jones wow to really hard thinkers there. Look up who has been the most absent Senator in the past 5 years. More so than even a few that have medical ailments. Yup That's right you guy John McBush oops That is George McCain no I menat John McCain. The only thing that is sad is that I used to like John McCain the Maverick . Then he just slowly melded into that stunch Repubickant like the rest as he began seeking the office of the President. Now he has become so hard to tell the difference that even his own surrogate got stuck trying to point out the differences between him and Bush.

WOW, and how many times has McCain missed votes in the senate. Typical republicans calling the kettle black. Can you losers come up with any coherent policy or is it always about atacking your opponet. Why do republicans hate to talk about issues and only attack their opponets personally. repukes will go to your church, yous family, your job, and so on. They do not care about policy, all republicans care about is atttacking their opponet. Forget about facts they get in the way. It is all about personal attacks and of course the republican bloggers just confirmed my points. Why do republicans run on hate? Why do you hate people that disagree with you? Why can't republicans use facts and highlight all the good things they have done for america instead of personally attacking anyone that disagrees with you. So sad, when republicans only have war and tax breaks for the rich and ultra rich as your basic plank. You have to attack their opponets, their policies suck and they can not run on them.

Who the heck is DeMint.  He sounds pretty dumb for a member of the subcommittee if he doesn't even understand the protocol.

Like the rest of the McCain surrogates, don't bother with "facts".  

Bush has wasted so much time and money and lives in Iraq, he is a complete moron and all his administration and republicans can not see straight. January can not come fast enough. Senator Obama is right on target.

<<even worse than Tim Johnson who missed months of work with a BRAIN HEMORRHAGE >>

Seems to be a lot of that going around for the Dems lately. Throw in Robert Byrd, and the brain damaged power of the Dems is about 8 bricks shy of a full load.

Demint is channeling? didn't we have enough of this 'magic' stuff with nancy reagan.

Hillary Clinton hurt Barack Obama big time, after she more or less lost the nomination.

Has President Bush vetoed the Medicare bill yet? If not, any minute now.

Anheusers stock price opened at $67.55 today, almost a 50% gain over the near $47 price in February when the possibility of a deal was made public. Cashing out could leave the McCains with hefty capital gains, which would be taxed at a rate of 15% under the Bush tax cuts that John McCain opposed and now supports. (Barack Obama has proposed raising the capital gains tax.)

John McCain, I would assume you okayed this deal, right? You would have had to.

I'm just wondering. Since so many Republicans want to keep government out of our lives, why are you running for President of the United States?

It seems to me it's to keep government out of our lives so you and your republican pals can make hefty profits.

Anheuser Bush more or less made their own rules along the way as well. Just like most other corporations in this country.

Who needs government when you can get rich fifty times over exploiting American workers.

It's the new American Dream, right?

Silly Senator DeMint, Obama doesn't need to bother with such things.   Why hold a meeting of substance related to your day job when the solution to all things is to just give a grand speech?  

If Karl Rove can ignore a congressional subpoena, I kind of think Osama bin Laden ain't going to show up either.  

Nerve I say Nerve. They know fully well that hearings would come before the full committee. And to the person that said Obama has no laws named after him go to the Congressional website. You will find that you are wrong. Obama has produced in the short time he has been in teh senate more significant legislation then either Hillary or McCain. don't be fooled by the rhetoric.

>> I just watched future-President Obama give his foreign policy speech. <<

President?!? Of what? His sub-division? And did Barack again point on the map to Minnesota when he was talking about Iraq?

Coming up on 100 days since McCain last did his job and actually voted in the Senate!

The Republicans have resorted to schoolyard taunts.  They have no plan, a weak candidate and a complicit MSM who desires, more than anything else, a close race.

Steve NewYork NY

CNN covers many of the speeches live at

http://www.cnn.com/live/

check the schedule several times a day.  Be patient - they often start late.

For all of you that did not pay attention, including my father: no one said the subcommittee did not meet, the subcommittee did not hold a hearing on Afghanistan.  Visit some of the fact checking sites before you start spouting 'facts'.

Even in his short time in the Senate Obama has co-sponored important legislation.  On ethics reform he tried to work in a bipartisan way with McCain.  Unfortunately, McCain's supersized ego got in the way (I guess that is why McCain needs to put his name on so many bills).  No worries, Obama found more reasonable people to work with on ethics reform.

Oh yeah, and then McCain also takes credit for bills he had nothing to do with and outright opposed (Webb's GI Bill)
-----------------------------------------
Clara in Kansas City, while I admire your blind love and devotion to your lame candidate, please do your research before spouting the false liberal talking points.  McCain opposed the bill in its original form.  The amended bill he supported.  Thanks to him, those benefits can transfer to a spouse or child of a servicemember.  

DeMint adds, "The success of Afghanistan is critical to the future of NATO and vital to our efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban. As the situation in Afghanistan grows more tense, it is time for us to hold a hearing on the mission there. I look forward to working with you to schedule this hearing."

However, the Obama campaign counters that oversight hearings regarding NATO’s role in Afghanistan would be held before the full Foreign Relations Committee, not Obama’s subcommittee.

As Joe Biden, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said last month on Meet the Press: "The reason Obama didn't hold a hearing on NATO, I chair the committee. Every one of those committee hearings are held at full committee."
--------------------------

So we are to gather from his letter that the "Ranking" Republican on this sub-committee does not understand how the Foriegn Relations Committee is actually structured with respect to procedure!!

Did any of the Republicans notice how much great "traction" Hillary's campaign got out of this one??!! Now the Republicans are repeating the failed tactics of even some Democrats!!

The really bad part is that if they did schedule these "hearings" and the Republicans had to listen to how much our European "Allies" dislike our Afganistan policies; they would even further regret this stupid line of 'puesdo attack' that is simply being generated by a party that has NOTHING positive to offer!!

Terry In - Who the heck is Demint.[sic][?]

US Senator from South Carolina, a state Olame will not win this fall. I see you're from Indiana. Yet another state Olame will not win.

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