Thursday, June 07, 2007
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Trent Lott, Unplugged: "Are We Men Or Mice?" (Bumped With Audio)
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
7:10 PM
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UPDATE: Here is the audio file of the Trent Lott comments listed below.
06-07Lott
Trent Lott's floor remarks in the Senate this morning were not certainly designed to asssure Republicans that their concerns on border security and illegal immigrants from countries with jihadist networks were being addressed in a serious fashion. There is also an unfortunate, and probably unintentional tone of condescension which just doesn't play with the voters that GOP senators seeking re-election need to help them in that effort. The backdrop to the current debate is not only the immigration bill, but also six years of Democratic obstruction and the loss of a 55-45 seat majority, a loss that is at least in part --I believe in large part-- owed to the non-confrontational approach of Senate Republicans to that obstruction, and to the pervasive air of indifference to key conservative goals from judicial nominations, to John Bolton, earmarks and absurd spending, and of course the war. What Senator Lott is voicing in a strong echo of those years is a belief in an institution that many conservatives have lost faith in because Democratic ruthlessness in the use of the filibuster. Now that the GOP has only the filibuster with which to work, the leadership is not replicating the tactics of the Democrats when the Denmocrats werte in opposition, but is in fact seen to be caving on a major issue. Having been hamstrung for most of the past four years, it is simply galling to hear the Republican Whip promise Harry Reid a vote in the spirit of getting something done.
Senator Lott: If anybody in America likes where we are with illegal immigration and legal immigration, if they think what we've got now is good or tolerable, fair or responsible, then fine. Let's try and kill this bill. Kill it with amendments. Kill it with the debate. Vote it down. I don't think that is respobnsible. This is one of the biggest issues facing this country and the question is do we have the courage, tenacity and the ability to get anything done anymore. If we can't do this, we ought to vote to dissolve the Congress and go home and wait for the next election...
Can we do anything anymore? I don't like a lot of these amendments. I don't like a lot of what is in the bill. I was in and out of the meetigs, but I was not one of the people that worked in the so-called Grand Bargain. Some people are acting now like it was a sinister operation. I don't believe so. Everybody knew there was an effort underway. Republicans were involved. Democrats were involved. The Adminstration was involved. Conservatives, liberals, agriculture, everybody. Now we are going to pick it to death. I just don't think this is responsible. I am getting calls, but I would say to my constituents, "Do you ahve no faith in me after 35 years? That I'm just going to buy a pig in a poke here? Or be for something that's bad?..."
Last year I voted against what we came up with because I didn't think it got better. It got worse. But we have an obligation to try and we should not get all in a twit because we made one mistake or we don't get the one we wanted. Look I voted for amendments that passed and amendments that failed. I voted for bills Bush...get over all of that. This is a big issue. This is the United States Senate, the great deliberative body. Are we going to belie that description, or are we going to step up to this challenge and try and get it done right? We should vote down cloture now.. Cloture shouldn't have been filed. You can't ram the Senate. You can't ram the minority around here. This won't work. All it does is make people get madder and it takes longer...
So we're going to have a vote on cloture and we're going to defeat cloture becaue more amendments are legitimately pending. But I'm serving notice that I'm going to be a part of trying to help to find a way to get to a conclusion, to a vote. Vote it up. Vote it down. But to try and kill it with all these amendments, you know, that are being thrown up here for the purpose of killing it to me is not an appropriate way to proceed....
This is time where we are going to see whether we are a United States Senate anymore. Are we men or mice? Are we going to slither away from this issue and hope for some epiphany to happen? No. Let's, let's let's legislate. Let's vote. I think the majority leader has a right to expect at some point we end it. Try and cover as many objections with as many amendments as we can. But at some point we have got to get this done....
Senator Kennedy, I appreciate the legislative leadership you have been providing. I know it is not easy, you know, and your own colleagues and those of us over here have been beating you up. I mean, your a nice poster child. Thank you very much for what you do. But I'll tell you one thing I have learned the hard way. When it comes to legislating, when you are dealing with Senator Kennedy, you had better bring your lunch, because you are going to get educated, you are going to learn a lot, and you are going to get a result. Hopefully it is going to be a good one. Good luck, senator from Massachusetts. I yield the floor.
Sen. Kennedy: And the senator too. I thank my friend from Mississippi, and I commend him for a constructive and a positive attitude.
I continue to urge readers and listeners to contact Republican Leader McConnell, Repoublican Whip Lott and NRSC Chair Ensign via the Hill switchboard at 202-225-3121 to urge the bill be fixed to mandate full and immediate construction of the fence prior to the grant of probationary benefits, a robust expansion of the Border Patrol and other federal agencies being tasked with the adminsitration of the background check and employment verification systems, and a separate treatment of illegal immigrants from countries of special interest in the war which would confer no rights to employment or travel until a positive showing of loyalty is made.
Senator Lott would gather greater support for the idea of trying to fix the legislation if he would, in consultation with the caucus, set some minimum reforms without which cloture would not be agreed to. But his remarks today suggest just the opposite is unfolding: a charade intended to present the appearance of reform of the compromise leading to a gentle but no less final jam down.
I expect the cloture vote that looms to pass given Senator Lott's remarks, and when it does, the Senate GOP is going to see blowback that it will not recover from in time for '08. Political insanity of the first order, orchestrated by leadership that seems not to have grasped that it is just as easy to go from 49 to 39 as it was from 55 to 49.
UPDATE: A typical e-mail:
Hugh:
I've sent Senator Lott an e-mail suggesting that he take the rest of
the year off.
His speech embodies all that I DETEST about Republicans in the Senate.
I don't care what McConnell or Kyl say, they are just as culpable as
Lott in the meltdown of the party.
I am leaving the party, Hugh.
I will follow the "blow-back" on your blog.
Dave W.
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Senator Lott needs to remember from whence he came and who he represents because we the people in Mississippi will remember in the next election. It is time sir for you to come on home! |
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“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” |
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The arrogance of Lott is on display for all to see, and frankly, I really truly hope that the Republican ‘leadership’ continues to act in such a public manner. Given the choice between both parties and their arrogant elites who see us as unruly children to be governed by their ‘wiser’ minds, maybe more people will either revolt and demand serious reform in their party leadership, or abandon this godawful two-party system altogether where we’re perpetually stuck between voting for the lesser of two evil arrogant SOBs.
And as a disenchanted former Republican voter, I can honestly say the only Republican I’ve voted for since 2000 has been principled conservative Tom McClintock out here on the Left Coast.
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I think this is more of a commentary on Lott and the entire corrupt clique of Good Ol' Boy RINOs who currently have a hammerlock on the GOP Congressional delegation than on immigration. I didn't even bother shaking my head in disgust last November when I heard the news - that fresh from a violent shellacking on Election Day, the GOP "leadership" had decided to reanimate Trent Lott, that caricature of the endlessly-corrupt, principles-devoid career bureaucrat, and install him in the position of Senate Minority Whip.
This crony desperately needs to be returned to private life, but unfortunately only the fine people of Mississippi are empowered to do so.
The sharpest satirist could not have come up with anything that more perfectly nails the spiritual essence, that fetid intellectual dry rot, that amoral pragmatic slop that passes for policy among the RINO wing of the GOP, than the unintentionally-comedic phrase:
"LET'S LEGISLATE!"
A creature so devoid of ethics as to believe the application of principle to legislation should be subordinated to the *action* of legislating, is a creature that by all rational standards has forfeited his justification for continued involvement in the government of the United States of America.
Trent Lott's continued presence in the United States Congress sickens me almost more than that of Ted "Hold my drink MaryJo while I drive across this bridge" Kennedy. Please, Mississippi! Put him out to pasture already! |
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Lott brings up a valid question..as I have wondered many times regarding the Republicans in Congress: Are they "men or mice"?
Yet, some the Senate's usual Bushbots seem to have grown a strong backbone as they stand up with Ted Kennedy and La Raza against their own Republican base, and the sovereighty of America.
NO bill is still better than this bill, S.
1348.
Please check out Senator Jeff Sessions comprehensive list of 20 Loopholes in the current amnesty Big Lie bill. |
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My problems with the bill are mine alone.
I don't speak for the Conservative movement on ALL of the many problems inherent in this bill.
The RAW NUMBERS involved with this bill are enough, MORE than enough to trigger anxiety in a conservative, who is naturally cautious about sweeping social legislation that involves a great deal of social experimentation.
So I don't know what your beef is with that, and what's more, I don't much care.
"Define what exactly are" those aspects of America and Americana that immigrants should subscribe to and adhere to.
I've a better idea.
Why don't you go research for yourself, instead of relying upon me to rectify your reading deficiencies, exactly what Justice Louis Brandeis said, and what's more, what he meant when he spoke about the obligations that immigrants have when coming to this country.
Why don't you go do that? Instead of being a pathetic, little snot.
Why the hell should I be inconvenienced to go do the research and the reading that you should be doing on your own.
"Show me" the evidence that Mexicans maintain a moral claim upon the territorial jurisdiction of this country?
Perhaps you've never heard of that group that Bustamonte, former Democrat candidate for the Governorship of California was involved in. A group that I'm not even going to bother naming, simply because I don't much like you, and am not about to humour you.
Why don't you go do some research on that, why don't you go read what the statements of that particular group was, what their positions were and are.
Why don't you go remind yourself why Bustamonte had to distance himself from them during his run against Arnold.
Why should I have to recall such things to your memory?
But you're a nasty piece of work, aren't you?
So you know what you can do.
Usually I don't take notice of someone individually, and just try to address the substance of their remarks. But for you, I've made an exception.
And now that brief exception is over.
And thus this exchange is over and out.
Nasty creatures like you don't warrant being noticed by men like me. |
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I live in Mississippi and have become more and more disillusioned with Sen. Lott with every passing month. His job as majority leader was very unremarkable.
I e-mailed his office last night in opposition to the immigration bill. My one comment was 95% of the time I do not agree with Ted Kennedy and this immigration bill falls with the 95%.
The sad thing is I have no idea what it would take for Sen. Lott to lose an election. He does a good job with earmarks and pork barrel projects and that seems to make people happy. I would prefer to have more money in my pocket to spend than more pork barrel projects. |
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In the states where primaries are open, or just Pub with 1/3 of the Senate up for election in '08, vote for conservs running against the voters for amnesty. You can do it in the House races too if a primary opponent can be funded. Why leave the Party? You only elect Dems ala Perot. But, now that we know that Talk Radio, the Net, bloggers can pressure these Beltway loons, do the same thing in primaries. I emailed 15 Senators. I contacted many House Pub reps because I have worked with them. It is not like listening to a Phillies' game my friend. As a lifelong Philly fan, tonight they are actually beating the Mets, I still have faith in the likely voters that can defeat pacifist socialist Dems nationally. If one can watch the Philly teams from 1947 as I have, one can change the ways of the GOP because in reality , not 3rd Party will ever win nationally. That just is an electoral fact. Emotionally, of course, one can always dream of John Doe, or Jimmy Stewart in a Capra film overturning all election facts but not in reality. |
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Why is it that when people talk about national sovereignty, border control and security issues, or taxes and spending and nannystate issues, the response is--
Racist! You're a RACIST! racistracistracistracist....
The next guy who calls me a racist is gonna get a mouthful of knuckles.. God help us if he happens to have "brown skin", I'll probably go to jail for 10,000 years.. but I am sick and d@mn tired of being called a racist. The concerns that people have about taxation and government spending and security against terrorism and crime and sovereignty and all the rest, these concerns are REAL and fair and legitimate.
If it were Canada to the south of us, and canadians were sneaking across the border by the millions, I'd feel exactly the same way. Lay off the 'brown skin' garbage. |
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and his voice mail box was full. GOODBYE.. that's all it said.
IMHO that speech he gave proves beyond a doubt that he knows the bill can't stand on its merits, is thoroughly flawed, and represents a betrayal by him and his colleagues of the principles which the voters THOUGHT they had in common with him.
But hey, at least he didn't call us racists, like the WSJ editors did.
Seriously, that Lott speech was a masterpiece of adlibbed gas. I'm surprised he didn't burst into tears for effect. He tried everything else.
Everything, that is, but addressing the details of the bill, point by point, and overcoming the objections of conservatives by calm and rational dialog. That, obviously, is a nonstarter.
And what is that junk about how if we kill this bill then we must be happy with the status quo? We've been demanding that Lott and his cronies do something substantive about this problem for years... and now that they've got up some momentum for doing it, the "it" turns out to be betrayal, abandonment of principle and condemning of the next generation to Euro-style tax rates and burdens. Not to mention a permanent relegation of the Republican party to minority status, courtesy of the 12-20 million new voters the Dems just legalized.
But I can't just blame it on Dems, can I? The morons on our side are chipping in...
Gawd, I thought I'd punch the television when Bush told me that I must not want what's good for America. I backed that man, defended him for years, voted for him twice, and he repays me by insulting me for not going along with this craziness.
signed,
dismayed and deflated in Dallas |
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Here in SoCal it is easy to see that the number of illegals has to be closer to 20 Mil.
2 Million a year is 5.5K a day - that is easy with our borders as porous as they are.
52 Million passengers crossed the border north at San Diego in 1999 - those are through border crossings, and does not include those that entered illegally at other spots or hidden in vehicles and not counted. Why would it be so hard to think that just 1-2% of those overstayed their visa? - that would be half of the 2 Mil - I am sorry, if you live in a border state you see it - on the roads, in the schools and in the streets.
If this bill passes, the influx will rise exponentially |
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two terms max for a senator - that is 4 more years than a President
4 for a congressman - same as the President.
35 years of talking to an empty room and meeting with Ted Kennedy has to cause damage to the brain.
Do we have faith in you after 35 years? Yes, we have faith that you want to please your "dear friends" on the other side of the isle more than honor your oath of office. You care more about what Ted Kennedy thinks or La Raza tells him to think than what your citizens think - no - demand of you.
A bad bill is much worse than no bill |
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I think this washington times post says it all:
"Writes Mr. Dinan: “Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona both went to check with Mr. Kennedy before casting their votes to match his. Soon after, (Arizona Republican Sen. Jon) Kyl also switched his vote to match Mr. Kennedy’s.”
The amendment was defeated.
All three of these Republicans proudly claim to be conservatives. Strange bedfellows indeed.
– Fran Coombs, managing editor, The Washington Times http://blogs.washingtontimes.com/insiderpolitics/?p=771
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When our own Republican Leaders must get their cue of how to vote from T. Kennedy, yeah let them go home, and let us vote for fresh Republican face come 08...
This is pathetic. Why vote Republican if they are getting their orders from the T. Kennedy, Democrat, doesn't matter our votes are not counting for much are they?
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Of hysteria and snottiness.
We're talking about legalizing 20 million people, who will be able to pull family members within the country inside an 8 year timespan.
So we could easily be looking at forty million in the next five years.
Easy.
AND THAT IS IN ADDITION to the two million illegal per annum that continues to arrive, AND THAT IS IN ADDITION to the LEGAL one million that continues to arrive yearly.
So NOT EVEN TAKING INTO ACCOUNT this new immigration bill, we are ALREADY looking at three million per annum, so THIRTY MILLION in a ten year time span.
So now when we take that thirty million, and we add on the twenty million, and then we throw in the family members that will be able to get dragged in as well, we're looking at CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATES of OVER fifty million people within the next ten years.
And A GOOD CHUNK of those people, represent a nationality unlike any we've ever had before. For the simple reason, that Mexico and Mexicans are the only immigrant group in our nation's history to maintain a territorial claim upon the jurisdiction of this country. Mexico and Mexicans still advance moral claims to the territory Southwest of the Red River Valley and south of the Colorado River.
Moreover, whereas before we had a melting pot, an understanding articulated by former Justice Louis Brandeis, who was an immigrant himself. And that fine Justice said that ALL immigrants have an obligation to take on American customs, American manners, American attitudes. That was the old idea of the melting pot, which worked.
BUT NOW, we have this idea that asking anyone to assume an American attitude is an encroachment upon them, something that is outrageous even to consider asking, let alone expecting.
So when we consider the numbers, when we consider the loss of cultural confidence in this country, that can't bring itself to demand that immigrants become Americans, or leave, when all of that is combined, together with the financial drain upon the overall national exchequer, it's brain dead to conclude to anything else, than this bill is a nightmare.
The actual details of the bill, wholly obnoxious, one doesn't even need to go into. One need only look at the numbers, to be cautious about this bill. One need only look at the numbers, at the timespan involved, to be reasonable conservative about this proposal.
Now for some, who prefer effeminate mockery to engaging on the merits, that's all too much bother. Why study the details of the legislation when it's so much easier to indulge in mockery and effeminate trivialization.
I understand that.
I understand where such creatures derive from.
But in the future, don't expect me to take notice of such creatures again.
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I used to think like Sen. Lott. I used to think that one side behaving according to tradition, refraining from trying to nuke the other side, could eventually turn the tide - and the clock - back. It could be like the old days.
When we got back the majorities, I wanted us to put an end to the bitterness and constant one-upsmanship.
"Back" is a place we cannot return to. Sadly, the Kossacks and the Moveon-ers have so fouled the air with their mad. bitter rage that words like Sen. Lott's invite the posse to jump him.
So we must fight on the terms that prevail in modern political warfare.
So the drive by media runs us down for being mean and vicious. So what if they call us brownshirts? They don't matter. If we win, that is what matters.
We need to keep at this immigration bill a while longer. The people in my state want a solution. They're tired of the hordes pouring over the border, leaving their filth and their dead in the greasewood bushes of the Sonoran Desert.
I reject the idea that fences don't work. Give me fences and more agents, and then let's get to work on a fair solution for those who are here. But first let's stop the bleeding!!! |
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I find myself ready to throw my hands in the air.
We can't quit the party. There are 22 seats up for primary challenges if we feel this way. If the emotions are all or nothing, let's get some challengers.
Leaving the ballpark isn't going to help the game's results.
I feel like I'm at a Phillies game here. |
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As for Trent Lott's comments, I'm reminded of another congressman.
He was a very engaging gentleman. He possessed a tremendous wit, could tell a joke like no one else and was generally the most entertaining fellow in his club.
His name was Robert H. Michel , Republican minority leader forever...
Lott is an embarassment with his praise of Kennedy. He needs to go back home and retire from public office, as did Michel. |
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What will they do?
Allow me to inform all of you.
They won't vote.
They won't contribute money.
They'll make bitter, cynical comments about their party in family gatherings and around the water cooler.
They'll ooze cynicism and bitterness about party politics and Washington to anyone and everyone, sometimes without prompting.
They won't argue in favour of Republican positions.
Since they've removed themselves from politics, other than the occasional bitter diatribe, they'll stop following national affairs, they'll stop following foreign affairs, domestic affairs. Which means they'll slowly become an uninformed citizenry, able to do nothing more than ooze the cynicism and the bitterness they acquired during this battle royale.
That, just for starters, is some of the things they'll do.
NO PARTY can inflict so demoralizing a defeat upon their most ardent of supporters, and long remain nationally competitive.
Lott, Graham, McCain, Spectre, especially that little snot Voinovich, they are all trying to ram through a vision of America where "senior statesmen" govern, and govern without the oversight of the yahoo outside the Beltway.
They are ramming through a Europeanization of American governance, not to mention a Latinification of America's culture.
That's what they're doing.
Right now, whether many Americans are aware of it or not, THEIR FUTURE, THE FUTURE OF THEIR COUNTRY is being decided.
This legislative battle is MORE important than Midway.
It's more important than the Bulge.
It's more important than Overlord.
It's more important than "the Mighty 8TH's" air offensive against the Third Reich.
THE ONLY BATTLE that is remotely similar to this one we're are engaged in up to our neck, is Gettysburg itself. For at Gettysburg, the very future of the country, the nation, and the continuity thereof was at stake.
Sometimes I wonder if all of you truly understand what's at stake here.
This isn't simply about amnesty.
This about sovereignty.
This is about American Exceptionalism.
This is about who CONTROLS the fate of our country.
Let us not do anything that in any way demonstrates that we don't understand the stakes of this conflict.
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Sometimes, you need to decide who to trust on an issue.
I don't trust your judgment on this, Hugh. I have more trust in Michael Chertoff, who's pointed out that there are a lot of moving parts to what they're going to do with the Z-visa database. Z-visas are not forever. They can be cancelled at any instant. They only really exist in the database. The plastic card that individuals get is only as good as the database says it is today, this minute.
Hugh, I think you're technologically illiterate on this, but Chertoff doesn't have any excuses, and I think he knows what he's talking about.
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You automatic Republicans who vote Republican like zombies, have fun with President Hillary when she wins with 35% of the vote. We conservatives are busy repopulating Congress with conservative Republicans and Democrats to drive the mindless zombies of both parties crazy while we get what we want and your parties are just spending money trying to get our votes. |
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Call them up.
Leave some messages.
And make sure they know you're livid, and you're not going to put up with any more of their nonsense, their deals, their fetish of bipartisanism.
Unleash and unload.
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There's lots of traction among us conservative unaffiliated independents. It costs money to get us to vote and we aren't accused of violating Reagan's 11th commandment. We are probably the fastest growing "party". |
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Now that the Senate staffs are out, and their offices closed, I've started to call West Coast GOP State Committees. And I've told them to get the hell on the phone, and unleash on their peers in Washington, who are moving heaven and earth to throw the GOP over the cliff.
I must confess my comments were not always measured.
I must confess in fact that I went off on several of those phone calls.
But EVERY REPUBLICAN with authority, if he's no more than a dog catcher, needs to feel the heat burning down upon him, the heat and the anger of an aroused Republican party.
I called especially the GOP in Mississippi.
I suggest that all of you do the same.
The numbers can be found over at the RNC's website.
Just do a search on RNC.
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Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
If you're not willing to allow for a debate on the issues within our party, if you're going to take a "my way or the highway" attitude toward government, and you're not willing to do the work to persuade elected officials and fellow Republicans to your point of view, then, please, take your ball and go home.
Our team needs people who will play, not whiners who quit if they don't get their way right away.
So buh-bye, Dave and the other bandwagon Republicans. I'm sure we'll see you again when President Giuliani has a 70% approval rating, and we'll be polite and not mention your temper tantrum. Until then, have fun shirking your civic duty and calling yourself patriotic.
Buh-bye... buh-bye now... |
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