GOP channels Hillary Clinton argument

Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:12 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: Security

From NBC's Mark Murray
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.

VIDEO: In a speech delivered in advance of an overseas trip, Sen. Barack Obama says President Bush and Sen. John McCain are failing to focus on the threats beyond Iraq's borders.

Obama chairs the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs, which oversees NATO and its role in Afghanistan. DeMint is the subcommittee's ranking member.

"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. "I trust you will become well acquainted with these issues. The Bush Administration has worked hard to maintain and increase the level of forces our European allies have committed to the fight. However, despite these successes, I am concerned our Subcommittee has not held any hearings on these issues over the last two years."

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."

EMAIL THIS

Comments

Clara, DK, Dough, and the rest of you: McCain and his surrogates and supporters are getting increasingly desperate. It is not going well for you. Between now and November you will continue to spin the old arguments, trying to chip away at Barack Obama's lead. But the fundamentals, for a change, are going the other way. Latest electoral college projections, with 270 needed to win:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Obama 255 McCain 163 Toss-ups 120

This poll uncludes the leaning states:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
Obama 320 McCain 204 Ties 14

President Barack H. Obama. Get used to the way that sounds.

Charlie Tallahassee (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:05 PM)

The only way that I would even consider voting for Obama is if Hilary is on the Ticket...Period.

Sara McAtee (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:07 PM)

All this is is a distraction from the speech. McCain slams Obama on the Kyle/ Liebermann bill to declare the Iraqi Home guard as terroists but he failed to show up to vote. He is taking credit for the New GI Bill that he was against. If you report this offset it by McCain's own lack of actions. If we look into his VAST experience in the Senate we can find a lot more discrepencies. It is amazing how the Republicans are like the Dark Age Catholic Church. They preached that happiness existed only in Heaven( the recession is psycological is my Republican example). The Church knew there was none in those troubled times for the peasant clas. Yet, they took in the treasures and contolled who would get into heaven. Sounds like the Republican talking points.

Terry, Great Plains (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:07 PM)

re the use of "nicknames" i.e. McFossil...

Seems strange to avid Hillary supporter reading this blog that many Obama supporters have no trouble calling McCain names, r/t his age or otherwise but became unglued at the New Yorker satire. As if he is off limits to anything but praise.

Name calling is so childish, and while I know that Obama has a large youth base, you are all old enough to vote, therefore one would expect that you have a vocabulary extensive enough to prevent name calling.

This country is in real trouble, can we please just focus on the issues and where the candidates stand? Agreeing or disagreeing should not require calling names.

Obama supporters bashed Hillary for weeks...it is so distasteful, and makes many of us reluctant to come over to your side.

You may not realize it, but many of you have adopted Bush's "you are either with us or against us" attitude.

Lisa, NY (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:08 PM)

maybe it's a trend... I've noticed some pretty dumb republican voters try to intertwine "McCain and change" in the same sentence, yet Gov Sanford, SC, couldn't provide a single McCain policy that differs from George Bushs'.... NOT ONE!! If you like the way this country is headed, vote McCain. If you want real change... vote Obama.

Some have mentioned that Obama has a knack to call things out and have solutions for them well in advance...

1. Pakistan
2. Afghanistan
3. Iraq and a timetable

McCain is clueless when it comes to Afghanistan... you think he was bad with Shites and Sunnis... wait until he talks about Al-Queda and the Taliban!

ya know (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:10 PM)

While those running for President should get a bit of a pass when it comes to showing up for votes (it takes a LOT of work and time to campaign in a country of this size), especially if it's clear which way it's going to go if they are there or not (for the huge stuff they should be there and Obama has been) McCain has no ground to call anyone out for not showing up.

Orlando in Pennsylvania (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:15 PM)

OK, Obama's subcommittee doesn't do this sort of thing. And the subcomittee hasn't met for two years.

But I'll bet it's on Obama's extensive and glowing resume` of community service, experience and qualifications to be commander-in-chief.

Richard, Washington State (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:15 PM)

Once again the republicans are trying to distract the American people with "bright shiny objects". If Demint wants a committee hearing he needs to write a letter to Joe Biden, not Obama. Its amazing that the media sets the bar so low for McCain that a toy poodle can jump over it but when it comes to Obama, he has to be able to jump a skyscraper! Obama's speech was clear and filled with specifics and instead of reading about his Iraq speech we get Sen. DeMint's letter requesting a subcommittee hearing!!!?? What the heck is wrong with you all at FR???

Heather, WA (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:17 PM)

McCain has laws named after him.

Obama has a subcommittee that he never shows up at.
Tinslie Robart-Jones, Kentucky (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:23 PM)
--------------

so does Jim Crow.... does that make him better then everyone else?

Kahn,MD (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:20 PM)

Thanks to Jim Demint for pointing out that Obama's chairing of that sub-committee is meaningless and thanks to Joe Biden for confirming it.

Richard, Washington State (Sent Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:21 PM)

<< Previous

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.):

Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private) Remember me?

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=1199844