Clark: GOP Agenda at Play in Debate

[bicentennial_baby]

Friday January 23, 2004 8:16 PM
By HOLLY RAMER

Associated Press

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - Presidential candidate Wesley Clark on Friday complained that one of the moderators in Thursday night's debate was carrying out a Republican agenda by questioning his Democratic credentials.

Brit Hume of Fox News Channel, who worked as both moderator and questioner during the two-hour debate with the seven candidates, pressed Clark about when he had first realized he was a Democrat.

Clark told reporters Friday, ``I looked at who was asking the questions, and I think that was part of the Republican agenda in the debate.''

Democrats have complained that Fox News Channel shows a Republican bias.

-snip-

``I think voters understand that I am a Democrat,'' Clark said Friday after an appearance at Rivier College in New Hampshire.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3660639,00.html

[bowens43]

1. Clark should know........

[maxr4clark]

4. So should every Democrat

[XNASA]

2. It was very obvious to all who watched.

Hume. What a shill.

I was thinking, as I watched, that it would be great if the 7 candidates just ignored Hume. When he asked a question, they should have responded with something like..."That's the most one-sided, biased, narrow-minded and distorted question I've ever been asked."

If they'd have all stuck together and shown their contempt for Hume and FAUX, it would have made for some very entertaining TV.

[kentuck]

3. this is one thing I like about Wesley Clark...

He responds in a very intelligent and relevant manner that hits them right in the gut. How many other candidates would think to challenge Brit Hume as part of a "Republican agenda"? Because it cuts right to the issue and it is the truth.

(edited spelling)

[krkaufman]

10. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...

General Clark should've voiced this comment in last night's debate. It would help him greatly with Democratic voters, if he were to take on Fox News -- on Fox.

Though, admittedly, his handlers have probably warned him against being too agressive -- worrying that it might turn off voters. It's tough to balance.

[Jerseycoa]

17. Welcome to DU, krkaufman

:hi:

[bearfartinthewoods]

18. to me, it smacks of whining

[laruemtt]

5. god i love this man!

:loveya:

[TexasSissy]

26. Me, too!!! Go, Wes! I lov'ya. And I'm voting for you &

encouraging others to do so, as well.

[DenverDem]

6. Was General Clark a Democrat

when he was serving as a "military analyst" apologist for the war on
CNN?

[TacticalPeek]

7. Sure, that's why Rove wanted him fired.

[VolcanoJen]

8. By that time, he'd voted for Clinton, Clinton and Gore, respectively.

Most Dems did, right?

[roguevalley]

9. yawn. What a consistent drum of misinformation. RV-lifelong dem

[DenverDem]

24. My first vote was for McGovern

so I've been fighting for peace and justice for my whole adult life.

Too bad "Democrats" like Clinton and Gore gave us a legacy of neo-liberal globalism, "free trade" and the 96 consolidation of the media act.

Did Clark, under the employ of Time Warner, dismiss the attack on Al-Jazera's offices and the Palestine Hotel that murdered journalists as "an accident" or not?

I'm not a Deaniac but I just don't understand the willingness to settle for "electability" when we need real change to survive as a country and a world. Of course, Clark is better than the headlong rush into the neo-fascist New World Order of the continuing control of the BFEE, but will he return the media to The People, will he reverse the corporatist control of the world economy,will he truthfully confront the cataclysmic realities of Peak Oil? Doubtful. He'll buy us a few years repite from the inevitable, but he's just the power elite's fall back position.

I will, however, dutifully vote for whoever the Democratic Party nominates.

(edited for typo)

[krkaufman]

14. Yes.

Yes.

He was a Democrat, and a patriot, when he was supporting the troops' efforts in a war they'd been ordered into by their Commander-in-Chief.

He was a Democrat, and a patriot, during his testimony to Congress, opposite and opposed to Richard Perle, when he highlighted that Saddam was a threat -- but not an immediate threat and certainly not warranting diversion of our focus from the war on global terrorism.

He was a patriot, and had voted Democratic, when he went around his Pentagon bosses directly to the White House, advocating action in Kosovo to prevent further genocide.

[Jerseycoa]

16. Welcome to DU, DenverDem

:hi:

[DenverDem]

25. Thanks, Jersycoa

I appreciate your hospitable reply.

[markus]

11. I'm sorry, but it he's just figured out that FNC shills for the GOP

then I once again have to question his Dem bona fides, and his basic street smarts.

Hell, if we really wanted to smack Brit Hume, he should have done it live on the debate. Unless, of course, FNC would have used their typical delay loop to allow for some interruption in programming.

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. Better to make your point on your own home ground

And that way control the message. Fox had control of the format and questions and response time during the debate. The counter attack Clark is making is best made on the campaign trail we has has control of the message he wants to send.

[Kolesar]

12. Most of those questions in the debate stunk

All this attention to "electability" and political nuance. I kept pounding on the sofa arm and saying to the tv: "when are you going to ask a question about the environment?". ok, I was not actually pounding the sofa arm.

[VolcanoJen]

22. I was wondering the same thing, SpikeTrees.

But I wasn't pounding the sofa arm; I was throwing popcorn at Chimpy's face. :-)

I think you'll like these, the latest from "Get Your War On:"

[Kolesar]

29. those 'toons were really "out there"

An office worker/body builder metamorph. I think I will go work out now.

[buff2]

13. Why do they all agree to go on faux?

Everyone knows their political agenda,why do they keep setting themselves up? Geez... :crazy:

[krkaufman]

15. Agreed. Dems foolish for working with Fox

Gotta say that the Democrats were fools for even having a debate organized by Fox.

[sangh0]

20. You can't win elections

by preaching to the choir.

It's widely recognized, at least on DU, that there are a lot of Republicans who are really pissed off at Bush*. Why not appeal to them?

If the candidates are afraid of a moderator, they have no business running out country

[pmbryant]

30. You can't win by preaching to the oppostion either

And if the primary purpose of the moderators is to embarrass the candidates, then it is arguable that such debates are counter-productive.

I didn't see it, so I don't know what this one was like. But I would much prefer if Dem candidates stuck to debates that were organized by more neutral organizations. That is hardly preaching to the choir, and would be more likely to allow them to get the true message out.

--Peter

[kentuck]

21. But the fact is that none of the candidates ever brought it up.....

We can't assume that "everybody" knows it..because they don't. It needs t be verbalized, and so far, Clark is the only one to verbalize it.

[Seldona]

23. It was more than one moderator. nt

[TexasSissy]

27. Well, SOMEONE had to say it! What was the Dem. leadership

thinking to have FAUX host the debate?

[Auntie Bush]

28. I donated yesterday

20324-1
Wooooowh! We are really chugging alone!

[tishaLA]

31. Christ. Now Drudge is running a pic of Clark

with a coissant and an eclaire at a lunch. I guess General Clark, after 34 years of service, is now "too French" for little Matty.

What a putz.

[maddezmom]

32. Brit Hume is

an ass...and Wes knew he was going to draw those stupid ass questions from him.

[TacticalPeek]

33. Hume is GHW Bush's ball boy.

Soon he will have another Democratic president to rail against. Be patient, Brit.