Base-closing plan angers Republicans

[Judi Lynn]

Base-closing plan angers Republicans
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
Fri Aug 26, 6:27 AM ET


A Defense Department plan to close hundreds of facilities that it says are obsolete has infuriated prominent Republican lawmakers at a time when their support for President Bush's Iraq strategy could be more critical than ever.

"I think they are going to have trouble with some of us," says Rep. Ray LaHood (news, bio, voting record), a veteran Illinois Republican fighting to save a National Guard base. A protégé of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., LaHood called the base closing process being finalized this week "as bush league as I have ever seen."

The president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "should have paid a lot more attention to those of us who supported them in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to answer specific charges about the base-closing list. He defended it, saying the base closure process "was designed in a way specifically to remove many of the political concerns that surround it. We support that process."
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050826/ts_usatoday/baseclosingplanangersrepublicans

[Solly Mack]

1. ah, the sounds of an election year quickly approaching...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. Except that's what happened last time

Cheney slated all sorts of bases for closure and we heard for eight years how Clinton decimated the military.

[Solly Mack]

9. candidates will embrace outrage now and blame

the next President later...whatever gets votes.


Exampled by:
Cheney said that if he (Cheney )made a mistake in 89 (draw down) then Clinton should have fixed it - so it's Clinton's fault. (was the excuse Cheney used)

I just don't buy Republican outrage over base closures...and see it as nothing more than noise for votes.

[hadrons]

2. please, those repuke jackass will happily grease up for the Chimp ....

[sam sarrha]

3. they are closing the bases and sending the soldiers to Iraq and balancing

the budget at the same time.. now THAT is Fiscal responsibility !!!

[liberal N proud]

5. Balanced budget? No way, it will just free up more money for the Oil Gods

[MADem]

4. Jeez, they have the House, the Senate, the WH, and the Supremes

...and STILL, STILL they bitch, whinge, and sob!!! They are a sick cross between the Boy Who Cried Wolf and Chicken Little!

Obviously, if they cannot get their way when they have all the power, perhaps it's time to let a party that can get things done take over. Sheesh, what a bunch of WHINERS!

[thereismore]

7. What they don't have are Federal judges. Honestly,

I heard a freep on radio whine about how Federal judges must be changed!! They are insane.

[MADem]

10. Yeah, all those clowns who have worked their way up the system

...from appointments that range as far back as Reagan and Poppy. Ole Clinton, who was stymied at every turn, didn't have the juice to barely keep pace with those appointments!

I guess what they are REALLY saying is that the activist judges were nominated in many cases by their own Pretzledunces....gee, whiz!

It would be funny, if it were not so dead serious and sick!

[Demonaut]

6. damn, I never knew that our soldiers only came from red states

don't you love the irony