Quotes of the Morning: The New Era of Nonpartisanship

“The president wants to work with the new House leaders, said Snow, and was encouraged by several Democrats' calls ‘to get rid of partisanship.’
‘Bush wants to go back to the Texas model. He's always reached out. He's been trying over the last couple of years with limited success,’ Snow said.”
-CNN, November 8, 2006

“Good news Democrats! Fearless Leader has decided that now that you control both houses of Congress you are worthy of working with him. The whole age of partisanship is over now that the Republican Party can no longer just shove their agenda through as they have for the last six years. Still, our sitting Congress (you know, the one that CAN shove their agenda through) still has a few things left to do before the official beginning of this brave new age of compromise.”
-Skippy

“The White House said today that it would seek confirmation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s successor in the lame duck Congress that is about to reconvene, and that it would seek confirmation of United Nations Ambassador John R. Bolton as well.”
-New York Times, November 9, 2006

“That would be John ‘The Mustache’ Bolton. The man who made America proud as our U.N. Ambassador. The man who has done so much to change the world’s opinion of the United States. You know, this guy.”
-Skippy

“His nomination is likely to be seen by many at the UN headquarters in New York as an aggressive move by Washington. Mr Bolton has made clear he is no friend of the UN. He once said: ‘There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.’”
-The Times (UK), March 8, 2005

"We know that there are several hawks within the present U.S. administration but have not yet found out such rude human scum as Bolton. What he uttered is no more than rubbish which can be let loose only by a beastly man bereft of reason. […] such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks."
-North Korean Foreign Ministry, August 3, 2003

“Ah yes, just the kind of man who should be working with the United Nations to try to resolve the North Korean nuclear bomb issues. His partner in last minute nominations, Robert Gates, is another prime choice for office. As head of the Pentagon Mr. Gates will be responsible for fighting the War on Terra (which, as we all know, is actually America vs. the Arab terrorists). Luckily Mr. Gates has a lot of experience dealing with Arab terrorists.”
-Skippy

“In a speech in 1999, Mr Gates said that its most important role was in Afghanistan.
‘CIA had important successes in covert action. Perhaps the most consequential of all was Afghanistan where CIA, with its management, funnelled billions of dollars in supplies and weapons to the mujahideen, and the resistance was thus able to fight the vaunted Soviet army to a standoff and eventually force a political decision to withdraw,’ he said.”
-BBC News, November 9, 2006

“In fact, he funded them. In Afghanistan. In the 1980s. When Osama and the mujahideen were the main threat to Soviet control of Afghanistan. To put it simply, Mr. Gates is familiar with Osama bin Ladin because he was one of the people involved in getting Osama his early funding.”
-Skippy

“The CIA, ever mindful of the need to justify its ‘mission,’ had conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of the deepening crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet Union. The CIA, as its deputy director Robert Gates acknowledged under congressional questioning in 1992, had decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top advisors and instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and technological capabilities in its annual ‘Soviet Military Power’ report right up to 1990.
Given that context, a decision was made to provide America’s potential enemies with the arms, money - and most importantly - the knowledge of how to run a war of attrition violent and well-organized enough to humble a superpower.
That decision is coming home to roost.”
-MSNBC, August 24, 1998

“Hey, he not only funded the mujahideen in Afghanistan, he also lied to the President of the United States about the capabilities of America’s enemies! Sounds like such a wonderful idea to put him in charge of the Pentagon. I can’t wait for our pre-nonpartisan Congress to officially bless this union before oversight (and all of that dirty ‘compromise’) begins.”
-Skippy