Mike Gravel: People are dying, and they’re interested in the symbolic vote?
July 10th, 2007 by MarkLike many other Americans, I’ve been sorely disappointed with what the Democrats have done since regaining control of Congress in the 2006 elections. Bush hasn’t been impeached, violence in Iraq is increasing, and the illegal federal wiretapping program continues. Somewhat similarly to the Republican primaries, only one candidate in the Democratic primaries is speaking out against the war in Iraq- Mike Gravel.
Gravel: those presidential candidates that are standing up with me, they’ve got the power to end this war and they’re not doing anything about it. And that in my mind is immoral, because as we we’re talking then, as we’re talking now, George, human beings are dying
He was one of the first voices of dissent against the war in Vietnam, and at one point, he held a one-man filibuster against the draft. Though unpopular at the the time, it does add some weight to his denunciations of hypocrisy in the current Democratic elite. Unfortunately for Gravel, he is gaining little traction online, or off.
Stephanopoulos interviews the long-shots:
Mike Gravel’s interview starts at (7:58)
ABC News: This Week, July 8th
SEN. GRAVEL: (From tape.) We have to have a president who has moral judgment.
Most of the people on this stage with me do not have that judgment and have proven it by the simple fact of what they’ve done.
SEN. GRAVEL: It’s not their personal life I was talking about. I was talking about the fact that those presidential candidates that are standing up with me, they’ve got the power to end this war and they’re not doing anything about it. And that in my mind is immoral, because as we we’re talking then, as we’re talking now, George, human beings are dying and American soldiers are getting their bodies blown apart and we’re killing Iraqis, and there’s no reason for it. We can stop that. And so if they aspire to be president, they ought to show some leadership in the Congress right now to end it. And I’ve given them the tools to do this with, and they don’t pick up on it.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: The tools to do this with? You want to have the president criminally indicted.
SEN. GRAVEL: Oh, yes. Only if he doesn’t end the war. Well, stop and think now. They’ll say “well, Hillary is classic. Oh, we don’t have the votes.” What do you mean you don’t have the votes? You go get the votes by the scruff of the neck.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: They’re not there now.
SEN. GRAVEL: They are there now. They are there now, George. And how you get them is real simple. You turn around and you have a vote on cloture every single day, seven days a week. You cut out the August recess, and then when it comes back and the president vetoes this law, you turn around and have a veto override every single day -
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: The strategy does come from your own personal experience, doesn’t it?
SEN. GRAVEL: That’s right.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Vietnam.
SEN. GRAVEL: Vietnam, filibustering, being tough.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: You had a one-man filibuster against the draft.
SEN. GRAVEL: That’s right. Five months, and there’s no draft in the United States today, and I’m proud that George Bush does not have the boots on the ground to invade Iran.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: You also read the Pentagon papers into the Congressional record.
SEN. GRAVEL: (From tape.) The papers prove that for 20 years, and certainly for the last 10 years, we have been victims of our Southeast Asia policy, not masters of it.
SEN. GRAVEL: You didn’t think that I was treated like a skunk at the party back then? And of course, now we look back “well, my God, this person showed courage.” I could have gone to jail.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: It was an emotional time.
(Cross talk.)
SEN. GRAVEL: - show leadership, and the Lee Iacocca’s title for his book is “Where Have all the Leaders Gone.” Well, George, this leader is back, and I’m a tough leader and I’m going to hold all of these other people accountable. They want to be president? Let them show their bona fides to be president.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve said that no person who voted for the war is qualified to be president. That knocks out Hillary Clinton. That knocks out Joe Biden.
SEN. GRAVEL: That’s right.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: That knocks out Chris Dodd.
SEN. GRAVEL: That’s right.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: That knocks out John Edwards.
SEN. GRAVEL: That’s right. And it will knock out Obama if he doesn’t shape up and help end the war now, because if he wants to show he’s a leader, you do it in the Senate where he is. He’s got power.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: He voted against the funding.
SEN. GRAVEL: Hey. They voted four times. He and Hillary voted for this vote that meant nothing on the water bill. What does that mean? That means you’re standing there and this is a symbolic vote. Hypocrisy is what it is, George: hypocrisy. People are dying, and they’re interested in the symbolic vote? Give me a break.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: The strategy you followed in the 1970s did eventually end the war. You cut off funding, the war ended, but a lot of Democrats fear that the party paid a price. And it kept them out of the White House for years.
SEN. GRAVEL: Well George, you just put your finger on it. What’s more important? Getting office or doing the moral thing and stop people from dying? I’ll tell you, if that’s the sacrifice we’ve got to pay to stop these Americans from dying and killing these Iraqis, I’ll pay that sacrifice every day of the week.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: I’ve been watching you in these debates and you seem to be having the time of your life.
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July 10th, 2007 at 6:56 am
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July 12th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I’m stunned reading all these Ron Paul posts, Mark. If I had your complaints about the US government (war on terror, war on drugs, erosion of privacy, constitutional rights, etc.), I’d hold the party responsible for them, well… responsible for them.
Sounds like you just want/need a Republican you can believe in.
July 12th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
That last comment of mine is unfair to you and this site. I am surprised by the focus on Ron Paul though.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Here’s what I told Franc a few days ago:
I’m just a patriot who got tired of doing nothing. Countless people are dying in an ill-advised war abroad, citizens at home are being stripped of basic rights, and people are being detained and tortured without trial. This isn’t the kind of America I grew up loving, and it’s painful to watch.
Maybe it’s the 4th of July that gave me the final push to start writing. I don’t really want this to be a political blog, but each post does reach about 10,000 readers via RSS, I don’t think my conscience would sit too well with me if I didn’t do anything at all.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Gravel is a Democrat, not a Republican. However, many of his positions are similar to Ron Paul’s. Gravel has spoken out against the war, and against the war on drugs. That video includes Ron Paul only because I couldn’t find one with just Gravel’s half of that Stephanopoulos interview. I really do have quite a bit of respect for Mike Gravel. He speaks for what is right, even when he is a lonely voice against the crowd. He was right about Vietnam, and he’s right about Iraq. It really saddens me that he’s seen as “comedy” at the Democratic primary debates.
Both parties are responsible. The GOP lead the push for the war in Iraq, but many Democrats went along. Clinton abused the bill of rights with his Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, but many Republicans went along with it. Bush pushed the Patriot Act, but nearly all the Democrats supported it. Democrats have been especially supportive of Hollywood’s excesses, helping push legislation such as the DMCA and Republicans have fed the very industrial military complex Eisenhower warned us of. Major candidates from both parties have supported the ill-advised war on drugs.
I like Ron Paul, so much because he has spoken out (and voted against) the war, the war on drugs, the patriot act, torture, no-knock raids, and anything that violates the constitution. The same goes for Mike Gravel, to a degree.
For the record, I’ve voted for more Democrats than Republicans over my 11 years as a voter and I’ve never voted for a Republican for president. I’m not currently a Republican, but I am registering as one just to vote for Ron Paul.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I think the distinction with Clinton is at least he followed the political process to accomplish his goals. No one has accused him of breaking the law with regards to the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. It was duly passed by Congress, and his administration implemented it to the letter of the law.
Contrast that with George W. Bush, who has completely disregarded US law (FISA), and has illegally wiretapped US citizens without obtaining a warrant, as that law requires him to do.
Or his practice of bill-signing where he reserves the right to interpret or ignore or the law as he sees fit. (He has made over 800 bill-signing statements to this point.)
With these and other actions, he has made a thorough mockery of the US Constitution (see Article Two, Section Three)
I wont even go into his foreign policy; domestically alone his administration has proven to be the most criminally abusive in the nation’s history, even topping that of Richard Nixon.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Bush reminds me of Andrew Jackson, the guy that broke our treaty with the Cherokee, invaded their land, threatened to “fire” Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall, illegally invaded Florida, and somehow got away with it all.
Leaders that bad only come once a century… if that.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:26 am
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