Friday, September 15, 2006

Mary Landrieu Slaps Senate GOP -- Hard!

While I'm very often not the biggest fan of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) -- she votes way too often with the Republicans for my tastes -- she definitely stepped up to the plate yesterday and lashed a couple of her GOP colleagues after they went on a rant about Democrats allegedly not understanding the terror threat facing the country.

"The unfortunate truth is that when it comes to securing America's homeland, the Democrats are dangerously naive. They think if we pull out of Iraq, the terrorists will leave us alone," said Jim DeMint (R-SC), despite the fact that no Congressional Democrat has ever said that. "Now Democrats would have us return to the Clinton status quo--a pre-September 11, head-in-the-sand philosophy of 'don't listen, don't track, don't challenge.'"

Landrieu, who had actually stepped to the podium to address another issue, let them have it with both barrels. Here's what she said:
"In light of the rantings that went on for the last 30 minutes in the Chamber from my two colleagues on the other side, I would like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism. America is tired of the wrong-headed and bone-headed leadership of the Republican Party that has sent $6.5 billion a month to Iraq, when the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

"America is tired of leadership which led this country to attack Saddam Hussein when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden, and which captured a man who did not attack the country and left loose a man who did.

"Americans are tired of bone-headed Republican leadership that alienates our allies when we need them the most. And Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that, despite documented mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake--and even their own party admitting mistakes--never admits that they do anything wrong. That is the kind of leadership Americans are tired of.

"I didn't come to the Senate to have partisan rantings on the floor, but I most certainly am not going to sit here as a Democrat and let the Republican leadership come to the floor and talk about how Democrats are not making us safe. They are the ones who are in charge, and Osama bin Laden is still loose."
And here's the video:



I don't know what the hell suddenly got into Senator Landrieu -- but I hope it stays there.