Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com

Revisiting the 2000 GOP Platform: 20 Outrageous Assertions, Shameless Lies and Broken Promises

by Maureen Farrell

Item 1: The 2000 GOP platform denounced rigged elections

"Gerrymandered congressional districts are an affront to democracy and an insult to the voters. We oppose that and any other attempt to rig the electoral process."

Update: May 16, 2004, The Washington Post: "GOP Set to Conquer Redivided Texas: Party Can Control State With One Win Over Democrats in Fall Contests"

"Republicans appear to have achieved exactly what they wanted: surgically redesigned districts that are jeopardizing the careers of five Democratic House members and significantly enhancing GOP hopes of keeping the House majority this fall and beyond." [Washington Post]

Update: May 28, 2004, CNN: "CNN asks Florida court for ineligible voters list"

"As Florida county election boards review a list of thousands of potentially ineligible voters -- including some who may be felons -- CNN is suing the state, claiming the public and media should also be able to review the list. . . The state Monday denied a CNN request for a copy of the list of up to 48,000 people.. . 'Florida's 2000 felon purge program resulted in over 50,000 legal voters being disenfranchised. . . '" [CNN]

Item 2: The 2000 GOP platform accused the Clinton administration of alienating America's allies

"The arrogance, inconsistency, and unreliability of the administration's diplomacy have undermined American alliances, alienated friends, and emboldened our adversaries."

Update: April 2, 2001, Handelsblatt: "Bush's Unilateralism Risks Alienating America's Allies"

". . . even Washington's European allies are losing confidence in cooperation with the United States.. . an alliance is a two-way street. The new Bush team needs to learn this before it is too late. " [Brook.edu]

Update: March 3, 2003, The Los Angeles Times: "The World Casts a Critical Eye on Bush's Style of Diplomacy"

"The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and China, all nations Bush hoped to count as allies in the confrontation with Iraq, have joined to resist the president's drive toward war, with complaints over what they see as American highhandedness. Even staunch allies such as prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain have sent word to Bush that some U.S. bravado -- like Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's dismissal of 'Old Europe' -- has done more harm than good." [CommonDreams.org]

Update: May 8, 2004, The Age (Originally in the New York Times, by Thomas L. Friedman): "America is losing the war - and more"

"I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today. . . The Bush Administration needs to conduct a total overhaul of its Iraq policy; otherwise it is courting a total disaster for all Americans." [TheAge.com.au]

Item 3: The 2000 GOP platform chided the Clinton administration for not supporting the Iraqi National Congress, headed by Ahmad Chalabi

"The [Clinton] administration has used an arsenal of dilatory tactics to block any serious support to the Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella organization reflecting a broad and representative group of Iraqis who wish to free their country from the scourge of Saddam Hussein's regime."

Update: May 25, 2004, The Guardian: "US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war; Inquiry into Tehran's role in starting conflict; Top Pentagon ally Chalabi accused"

"An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. . . Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: 'When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy.'" [The Guardian]

Item 4: The 2000 GOP platform asserted that the removal of Saddam Hussein was necessary for peace and stability in the Middle East

"We support the full implementation of the Iraq Liberation Act, which should be regarded as a starting point in a comprehensive plan for the removal of Saddam Hussein. . . Republicans recognize that peace and stability in the Persian Gulf is impossible as long as Saddam Hussein rules Iraq."

Update: Aug. 15, 2002, The New York Times: "Top Republicans Break With Bush on Iraq Strategy" [Cite concern over 'creating greater instability in the Middle East']

"Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying the administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made the case that it is needed.. . .some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests." [Truthout.org]

Item 5: The 2000 GOP platform blamed the Clinton administration for America’s low standing in the Middle East -- and for high gas prices

"What happened? Eight years ago, the nation was energy confident. Our standing in the Middle East was at its zenith. The oil cartel was in retreat; gasoline was affordable, even as automotive progress reduced emissions from cars. Today, gas prices have skyrocketed, and oil imports are at all-time highs."

Update: April 20, 2004, Reuters: "Arab hostility towards America worse than ever," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Says

"Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever. . . ‘Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before in the region,’ [Mubarak] said. [UniversalRights.net]

Update: May 27, 2004, Salon.com: "The truth about soaring gas prices: How the Bush White House remains a veritable full-service fueling station for Big Oil"

"Drivers, start your engines -- and empty your wallets! As we gear up for the biggest driving weekend of the year, vacationers all across America are coming face to face with the highest average gas prices in history -- up 42 cents a gallon since 2001. . . " [Salon.com]

Item 6: The 2000 GOP platform vowed that the Bush administration would honor America’s intelligence community

"Nor should the intelligence community be made the scapegoat for political misjudgments."

Update: Oct. 9, 2002, The Guardian: "White House 'exaggerating Iraqi threat'; Bush's televised address attacked by US intelligence"

"'Basically, cooked information is working its way into high-level pronouncements and there's a lot of unhappiness about it in intelligence, especially among analysts at the CIA,’ said Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former head of counter-intelligence." [The Guardian]

Update: Oct. 2, 2003, New York Daily News: "She's the Perfect Spy"

"Even as they accused Democrats of playing politics with intelligence matters, White House officials privately expected one or more staffers to lose their jobs for blowing the cover of a CIA officer, Bush administration sources said yesterday." [New York Daily News]

Item 7: The 2000 GOP platform accused the Clinton administration of engaging in stonewalling, evasion, deceit and cover-ups

"The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice."

Update: Feb. 3, 2002, Time: "Time’s Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin scrutinize Vice President Cheney's stonewalling of the GAO"

"Dick Cheney has taken a hard line against the General Accounting Office, refusing its efforts to get information on meetings held by his energy task force. Critics suspect that Cheney is stonewalling to conceal the Administration's links with bankrupt energy giant Enron. But Cheney may be hiding more than that." [Time]

Update: July 26, 2002, Judicial Watch: "Bush-Cheney White House Obstructs Halliburton Law Suit"

"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes public corruption, today reported that security staff at The White House threatened a process server with arrest over his attempt to serve Vice President Cheney with a complaint filed against him by Judicial Watch on behalf of shareholders of Halliburton. It is a crime to interfere with service of process." [Judicial Watch]

Update: June 18, 2003, Salon.com: "Bush's 9/11 coverup? Family members of victims of the terror attacks say the White House has smothered every attempt to get to the bottom of the outrageous intelligence failures that took place on its watch."

"Last year, when Cheney called Daschle to urge him to limit any hearings into 9/11, the V.P. argued it would drain sources away from the war on terrorism. By contrast, just 11 days after Japanese bombers hit the U.S. with a sneak attack killing nearly 3,000 people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating a commission. . . ." [Salon.com]

Update: May 21, 2004, ABC News: "Continuing the Cover-Up? Military Takes Action Against Key Witness in Abu Ghraib Abuse Scandal"

"A witness who told ABC NEWS he believed the military was covering up the extent of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was today stripped of his security clearance and told he may face prosecution. . . ‘I see it as an effort to intimidate Sgt. Provance and any other soldier whose conscience is bothering him, and who wants to come forward and tell what really happened at Abu Ghraib,’ said his attorney Scott Horton." [ABC News]

Item 8: The 2000 GOP platform promised a new era of honor, purpose and accountability

"As idle indulgence gives way to a new Republican president in the coming new 'period of consequences,' the United States can again regain the hope it lost eight years ago. We can restore our country’s sense of international purpose and national honor."

Update: Aug. 25, 2003, The New York Observer: "Four 9/11 Moms Battle Bush"

"This is a stonewalling job of far greater importance than Watergate. This concerns the refusal of the country’s leadership to be held accountable for the failure to execute its most fundamental responsibility: to protect its citizens against foreign attack." [New York Observer]

Update: Sept. 28, 2003, CBS News: "White House Probed Over Leak"

"The alleged motive for outing the [CIA] agent, may have been revenge against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. . . . Wilson says, "For an administration that came to Washington promising to restore honor and dignity to the White House, this kind of low blow, even in a bare knuckled town like Washington, was neither honorable nor dignified." [CBS News]

Update: Jan 31, 2004, The New York Times "Where’s the Honor and Integrity?"

"As far as I can tell, nobody in the Bush administration has ever paid a price for being wrong. Instead, people are severely punished for telling inconvenient truths." [International Herald Tribune]

Update: March 31, 2004, Salon.com: "Creepier than Nixon: The man who brought down Richard Nixon says Bush and ‘co-president’ Cheney are an even greater threat to the country"

"In his new book, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, [John] Dean warns the country that the Bush administration is even more secretive and authoritarian than Nixon's -- in fact, he writes, it's "the most secretive presidency of my lifetime." [Salon.com]

Update: May 6, 2004, The Guardian: This is the new gulag: Bush has created a global network of extra-legal and secret US prisons with thousands of inmates

"The Senate armed services committee was briefed behind closed doors for the first time not only about Abu Ghraib, but about military and CIA prisons in Afghanistan. . . Many of them, Democratic and Republican, were infuriated that there was no accountability and no punishment and demanded a special investigation, but the Republican leadership quashed it." [The Guardian]

Item 9: The 2000 GOP platform asserted that the Clinton administration was sending soldiers on back-to-back deployments and jeopardizing retention rates and morale. It also criticized the administration for equipment shortages and soldiers’ inadequate training

"When presidents fail to make hard choices, those who serve must make them instead. Soldiers must choose whether to stay with their families or to stay in the armed forces at all. Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale. Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness."

Update: Jan. 5, 2003 Associated Press: "Army Trying to Keep Troops From Leaving"

"The Army is expanding what it calls a ‘stop loss’ order to keep soldiers in uniform - even those who have met their contractual service obligation or are scheduled to retire. . . Critics say it is because the Army has too few soldiers and too many overseas commitments." [Truthout.org]

Update: July 7, 2003, The Christian Science Monitor: "Troop morale in Iraq hits 'rock bottom' Soldiers stress is a key concern as the Army ponders whether to send more forces"

"US troops facing extended deployments amid the danger, heat, and uncertainty of an Iraq occupation are suffering from low morale that has in some cases hit ‘rock bottom.’ . . " [Christian Science Monitor]

Update: Aug. 24, 2003, USA Today: "Army foresees doubling up tours"

"For the first time since the all-volunteer Army began in 1973, significant numbers of U.S. combat soldiers may have to start serving back-to-back overseas tours. . . " [USA Today]

Update: Feb. 7, 2004, ABC News: "Armor From Home: Amid Shortage of Gear, Some U.S. Soldiers Must Equip Themselves"

"Despite efforts to produce more vests with the armored plates, the Pentagon says there still aren't enough, especially among guardsmen and reservists. . ." [ABC News]

Update: May 5, 2004, CBS News: "Abuse at Abu Ghraib [reveals lack of solider training]"

"The Army investigation confirms that soldiers at Abu Ghraib were not trained at all in Geneva Convention rules. And most were reservists, part-time soldiers who didn't get the kind of specialized prisoner of war training given to regular Army members." [CBS News]

Update: May 29, 2004, New York Times: "With 2 Wars, U.S. Need of Munitions Is Soaring"

"With the United States fighting protracted wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, its military faces a shortage of a basic necessity: ammunition. [New York Times]

Item 10: The 2000 GOP platform asserted that Republicans are opposed to reinstating the draft

"The Republican party created the all-volunteer force and opposes reinstitution of the draft, whether directly or through compulsory national service"

Update: Nov. 3, 2003, Salon.com: "Oiling up the draft machine? The Pentagon is quietly moving to fill draft board vacancies nationwide. While officials say there's no cause to worry, some experts aren't so sure."

"Increasingly, however, military experts and even some influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to consider a draft to fully staff the nation's military in a time of global instability." [Salon.com]

Update: April 20, 2004, World Net Daily: "Republican senator: Bring back the draft; Nebraska's Chuck Hagel says 'all of our citizens' should 'pay some price' for U.S. Iraqi operation"

"Libertarian commentators claim the government is getting things prepared so if the draft is re-instated, conscription can begin as quickly as possible." [WorldNetDaily.com]

Item 11: The 2000 GOP platform criticized the Clinton administration's record on troops' health care and veterans’ benefits

"When it comes to military health, the administration is not providing an adequate military health care system for active-duty service members and their families and for retired service members and their dependents. The nation is failing to fulfill its ethical, and legal health care obligations to those that are serving or have honorably served in the Armed Forces of the United States. "

Update: Sept. 12, 2003, Stars and Stripes: "Congressman: Wounded troops shouldn't be billed for hospital meals"

"Troops wounded in combat in the nation’s war on terrorism are being handed more than just discharge papers when they leave military hospitals — some also are getting a bill. At a daily rate of $8.10, hospitalized troops, including those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being charged for their meals." [Estripes.com]

Update: Nov. 26, 2003, In These Times: "Dishonorable Discharge: Bush administration slashes veteran’s benefits"

"Even more than his father, and Ronald Reagan before him, Bush is cutting budgets for myriad programs intended to protect or improve the lives of veterans and active-duty soldiers." [In These Times]

Update: May 27, 2004, Associated Press: "Bush Plan Eyes Cuts for Schools, Veterans"

"The Bush administration has told officials who oversee federal education, domestic security, veterans and other programs to prepare preliminary 2006 budgets that would cut spending after the presidential election, according to White House documents.. . .the Veterans Affairs Department would fall 3.4 percent from $29.7 billion in 2005 to $28.7 billion. . ." [The Guardian]

Item 12: The 2000 GOP platform promised to build an international coalition to jointly deal with Saddam Hussein

"A new Republican administration will patiently rebuild an international coalition opposed to Saddam Hussein and committed to joint action."

Update: Sept. 13, 2002, CNN: "Bush: U.S. will move on Iraq if U.N. won't"

"Bush told the U.N. General Assembly his administration will work with the U.N. Security Council, but made clear the United States would move against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on its own if the council fails to act." [CNN]

Update: Jan. 24, 2004, The Globe and Mail: "It's Just Wrong What We're Doing'; In an exclusive interview, repentant Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara breaks his silence on Iraq: The United States, he says, is making the same mistakes all over again."

"And if we can't persuade other nations with comparable values and comparable interests of the merit of our course, we should reconsider the course, and very likely change it. And if we'd followed that rule, we wouldn't have been in Vietnam, because there wasn't one single major ally, not France or Britain or Germany or Japan, that agreed with our course or stood beside us there. And we wouldn't be in Iraq." [GlobalPolicy.org]

Item 13: The GOP platform promised that Republicans would defend the First Amendment

"The First Amendment enshrines in our Constitution and guarantees indispensable democratic freedoms of speech, press, and association, and, the right to petition our government. The Republican party affirms that any regulation of the political process must not infringe upon the rights of the people to full participation in the political process."

Update: Sept. 5, 2003, Fox News: "ACLU: Anti-Bush Protesters Exiled to Distant Zones." Supporters can stand near President Bush and loyally wave their signs, but demonstrators opposing the president's policies are exiled to protest zones in isolated areas, the American Civil Liberties Union has alleged in recent court filings

"‘A favorite tactic of the Bush administration has been to herd protestors at presidential appearances into ‘designated protest zones,’ out of sight of [the president's] motorcade, and to arrest people who refuse to be moved.' [FoxNews.com]

Update: Jan, 2004, Global Journalist.org: "Casualty of War: The Bush Administration's Assault on a Free Press"

"A president who purports to believe in democracy has acted anti-democratically again and again, [David] Dadge says, as he leads or condones assaults on the First Amendment freedom." [GlobalJournalist.org]

Update: March 15, 2004, The Nation: "An Indecent Proposal" (Only one Republican in the House Defends the First Amendment)

"We are moving in the direction of undermining the First Amendment," said US Representative Ron Paul, the maverick Texan who was the only Republican member of the House to oppose the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004. . . Marvin Johnson, an American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel, said "the very notion (of the legislation) runs counter to everything prescribed in the First Amendment." [CommonDreams.org]

Item 14: The 2000 GOP platform criticized Vice President Al Gore for wanting America to act as a ‘global social worker’

"Vice President Gore’s 'new security agenda' that adds disease, climate, and all the world’s ethnic or religious conflicts to an undiminished set of existing American responsibilities. If there is some limit to candidate Gore’s new agenda for America as global social worker, he has yet to define it."

Update: April 28, 2004, World Net Daily: 'He weareth the Christian down'

"Pressed as to what we are fighting for, the president – again and again – invoked Wilsonian ideals. . . ‘We have an obligation to work toward a more free world. That's our obligation. That's what we have been called to do, as far as I'm concerned.’ ’And my job as president is to lead this nation into making this world a better place’. . . . " [WorldNetDaily.com]

Item 15: The 2000 GOP platform promised to punish countries that sponsor terrorism

"[We] will isolate, pressure, and punish the state sponsors of terrorism."

Update: July 29, 2003, CBS News: "Bush Won't Reveal Saudi 9/11 Info"

"President Bush refused on Tuesday to release a congressional report alleging possible links between Saudi Arabian officials and the Sept. 11 hijackers. . . Sources tell CBS the redacted section lays out a money trail between Saudi Arabia and supporters of al Qaeda. . ." [CBS News]

Update: April 22, 2004, Newsday: "Open 28 secret pages on Saudis"

"The president has refused congressional pleas to declassify a chapter ‘suggesting specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.’ The specific source of foreign support by all accounts is the Saudi government. . . At the moment, federal investigators are probing Riggs Bank an esteemed Washington institution that was, until last month, chief banker for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia.. ." [Newsday]

[Note: George W. Bush’s uncle Jonathan Bush is an executive at Rigg’s Bank]

Item 16: The 2000 GOP platform criticized nation building

"A humanitarian intervention in Somalia was escalated thoughtlessly into nation-building at the cost of the lives of courageous Americans."

Update: Aug. 15, 2003, The Boston Globe, "America’s Worst Side in Iraq."

"In the 2000 presidential debates, Bush said he would stop 'extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions.' Bush is now so obsessed with nation-building that he is blind to how killings of Iraqi civilians by US soldiers devalue Iraqis even as he claims to liberate them." [CommonDreams.org]

Item 17: The 2000 GOP platform promised that medical privacy would be protected

"The revolution in information and medical technology has created concerns about who has access to personal data — and how it might be used. Patients and their families should feel free to share all medical information with their doctor, but they will feel safe in doing so only if that information is protected"

Update: April 15, 2003, The Christian Science Monitor, "Medical privacy takes a hit with new rule"

"As of Monday, a new federal medical-privacy rule gives data-processing companies, insurers, doctors, hospitals, certain researchers, and others legal permission to share citizens' personal health information - including genetic information - without individuals' consent.. . " [Christian Science Monitor]

Update: Feb 12, 2004, The New York Times: Justice Dept. Seeks Hospitals' Records of Some Abortions.

"The Justice Department is demanding that at least six hospitals in New York City, Philadelphia and elsewhere turn over hundreds of patient medical records on certain abortions performed there. . . ‘This notion of John Ashcroft poring over medical records in a fairly unprecedented type of fishing expedition is exactly the type of privacy invasion that worries people,’ said David Seldin, a spokesman for Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights organization." [CommonDreams.org]

Item 18: The 2000 GOP platform promised that Republicans would better protect Americans against bioterrorism

"The current administration has left our public health system inadequate to respond to the threats of emerging infectious diseases and the possibility of bioterrorism. We pledge to ensure the ability of the public health service to detect, track, and prevent infectious outbreaks, whether natural or provoked by those who hate America. "

Update: June 7, 2002, Judicial Watch: "FBI & Bush Administration Sued Over Anthrax Documents"

"The American people deserve a full accounting from the Bush administration, the FBI, and other agencies concerning the anthrax attacks. The FBI’s investigation seems to have dead-ended, and frankly, that is not very reassuring given their performance with the September 11th hijackers," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman. "One doesn’t simply start taking a powerful antibiotic for no good reason. The American people are entitled to know what the White House staffers [who, along with President Bush began taking Cipro nearly a month before anthrax hit Capitol Hill] knew nine months ago. . ." [JudicialWatch.org]

Update: Feb. 2004, The Washington Times: "Anthrax attacks stump FBI, but remain priority"

"The FBI official in charge of the probe into the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings said the investigation still has top priority among the bureau's unsolved cases, but he acknowledged the anthrax sender may never be caught." [Washington Times]

Item 19: The 2000 GOP platform promised to make conservation a priority

"Today’s Republican party stands in the proud tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, the first president to stress the importance of environmental conservation. We approach both the national and individual stewardship of natural resources in the spirit of his maxim: ‘The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.’"

Update: League of Conservation Voters: "2004 Presidential Candidate Profiles: George W. Bush"

Summary: President Bush ’s environmental performance may be gauged by the fact that he received an "F " on his most recent LCV Presidential Report Card —the first failing grade given to a president in LCV ’s history. On issue after issue —public lands, clean air and water, toxics, energy, wildlife conservation —the Bush administration, at the behest of its corporate allies, has worked systematically to dismantle and subvert fundamental environmental protections while obscuring their actions with "green " rhetoric. The results have been nothing short of disastrous for America ’s natural resources and have made unseating President Bush LCV ’s primary goal for 2004. [LCV.org]

Item 20: The 2000 GOP platform vowed that the Bush administration would tighten "lax" immigration policies

"The administration’s lax enforcement of our borders has led to tragic exploitation of smuggled immigrants, and untold suffering, at the hands of law-breakers."

Update: Jan. 8 2004, The BBC: ‘US to overhaul immigration law’

"[Bush’s immigration program] rewards business over immigrants by providing them with a permanent pool of disenfranchised temporary workers who could easily be exploited," Democratic presidential hopeful Senator John Kerry said.

Also running for the Democratic nomination, Senator Joseph Lieberman said the president had made "an election-year conversion".

Mr. Bush has also come under fire from within his own party over the scheme. "I'm not for allowing illegals to stay in this country. I think they should have to go back... and get in line... and apply for a guest worker position," Republican representative Virgil Goode of Virginia said." [BBC]

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For further reference (and more broken promises) see: The 2000 GOP platform [CNN]