The Colbert Report does Sen. Dick Lugar: Profiles in Timing
By John Amato Sunday Jul 01, 2007 10:45am
Anne emailed me about Thursday's Colbert Report featuring Lugar. She did such a good job that I'm just going to post her email: "You might have missed this Colbert Show segment, "The Word – Profiles in Timing,' which aired this past Thursday night. It was, by far, one of the best — and most biting — segment I've seen on that show."
Colbert: We'll never lose in Iraq if we never leave Iraq.
Download | play 
Download | play
Colbert is scathing about Lugar's "courageous" stand, and pontificates about the perfect timing of Lugar's speech: though Lugar had come to the conclusion that the war was a disaster back in April and had spent two months writing his speech, he nevertheless voted to fund the war through September, never expressed any doubts about the war during the debate before that vote, and "courageously" waited to deliver his speech until it would have no impact.
Colbert asks the obvious question — why did Lugar wait so long to make his speech (that was delivered to an empty Senate chamber) — and goes on to describe Lugar's behavior as another example of "courageous waiting," or waiting until nothing can be done before expressing an opinion (similar to George Tenant waiting a couple of years to find the courage to express his doubts about the existence of WMDs in Iraq, way too late to change to change anything.) In Colbert's view: Lesson learned — "it's never too late to take a stand after it’s too late."
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This clip is one reason why I
This clip is one reason why I
I meant to say "This clip is one reason why I love Stephen Colbert!"
I'm a Democrat from Indiana, and I have been writing senator Lugar for the last year on a regular basis. Of all my representatives (the other two are Democrats), he is the ONLY one that wrote back each time to lay out what he thought of Iraq. His position on the war has been apparent to us that have been writing him for the last year now. The dude is a repbulican, but attacking him is not right -- he is a friend of Democrats -- and far from a partisan lackey. He has been against the war for a long time -- I have the letters he wrote back to prove it -- and he got my vote in the last election, hell the Indiana Democratic party didn't even bother running against him last election because "he's a good guy". Don't trash Dick Lugar.
When I first saw this segmented on the show last week I hoped that someone at C&L would pick up on it. This site and other liberal circles have been biting in Lugar's pandering hook, line, and sinker.
It's a reminder for all of us to look before we leap. Just as it was with Ron Paul- it's just plain lazy to start gushing with praise for someone without evaluating them critically simply because they're willing to criticize bush. Hell, who ISN'T these days?
Nicely done, Stephen. This gets right to the heart of why congressional approval ratings are so abysmal.
darnoc @ 3:
Oh, and his stand on the war is closely mirrored by Obama, the two are good friends in the senate. And Obama is getting my vote too.
J @ 4:
It's not pandering. I actually write my Representatives here in Indiana, like Mr. Lugar, and he has been consistent in his replies on this subject for at least the last year.
Profiles in porridge.
A conspiracy theorist would claim that Lugar is working with the WH to buy time. I think Lugar is one of the growing number of repugs that are realizing just how hard 2008 is gonna be for them and is honestly (desperately) looking for an escape hatch. I mean, it's not like they really give a shit about the Iraqis or anything like that.
Darnoc, I believe that the point of this isn't so much to attack the gent's position on things, but so much as to wag a finger at the manner in which he chose to employ his political weight.
Fellow might be the grandest thing to happen to the world since we decided to throw ice cream into a cone, but, hey, perhaps he would be receptive to a letter or two requesting that he perform a similar speech on his views to a full floor the next time a similar vote comes across.
Did you notice the following day, Lugar lambasted the Dems for not having a solution for Iraq. Typical of Lugar, Spector, et.al. They make strong statements on day one, only to quantify and obfuscate on day two!
I posted on Lugar last week.
My post and my opinion stand.
In the meantime, everything is going according to plan. Bush is re-living his past as Nero. Bush is taking violin lessons. "Nero fiddled while Rome burned."
darnoc @ 7:
Maybe you're right, but then it leaves me to wonder why he wouldn't have spoken up until now, if he's truly felt this way for so long. This is an issue where each day wasted costs lives. If he didn't believe our strategy was working months ago and he didn't speak up- I could only regard that as incredibly callous and calculating.
Actually, I'll shortly be living with the son of Senator Lugar's Chief of Staff. Maybe I'll see if I can get some inside information, and maybe you're right and I'm just being cynnical, but the timing just seems odd to me.
damoc, Colbert proves the point. You say Lugar is against the war, and has been all along? Well then, why hasn't he done anything about it?? No goddamn guts, that's why. Putting the Scumpublican Party above the interests of Americans, that's why. I have no use for that turd.
Colbert: We’ll never lose in Iraq if we never leave Iraq.
As long as I never sell my shares of Enron, I will never lose my money.
And Obama is just as bad. A worthless, religious-nut empty suit. We don't need any more of those.
The gist of this is spot on. Wait until it's too late to do something about a problem and then try to solve it.
PNAAC Minister @ 9:
Not really, Lugar is not up for reelection. He was probably one of the few republicans in 2006 that didn't have anyone run against him. It was shown as a token by the Indiana Democrats, this is probably his last 6 years in office.
This guy has been my senator for years, but he is a republican (and I'm hard-core liberal), but there is way too much knee jerk vitriol against people like Lugar -- he's not a bug-eyed, lying, wing nut -- he's a senior senator that has represented Indiana very well -- not some wacked-out neo-con towing some K street agenda.
He's one of the good guys in the capital -- even if he is a republican.
Personally, I hope Obama chooses him for his running mate -- maybe Indiana would go Democrat for once.
me @ 15:
[Deleted. Try to make your point without insults and namecalling]
me @ 15:
Lugar has been there a long time. He doesn't make his politics by hogging cameras and making stupid statements. He's been busy behind the scene to change things. I told you his politics on this issue have been clear for some time to those of us that write our representatives. Too bad that's not good enough for you -- panhandling in semantics.
darnoc @ 19:
One of the reasons why we are where we are today is because a lot of "good guys" stood by and let W and his neocon cronies run amok. It's just not enough anymore to have good intentions - our leaders have to start standing for something more than special interests and the so-called "doing of the people's business".
So answer the question. If Lugar is and has been against the war, WHY THE HELL HAS HE *NEVER* DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT??
I mean, answer the question instead of hurling personal insults against the questioner.
rICHARD CHENEY: Ex-millionaire adapts to prison life
By PHILL MONTAGUE
Published on: 07/02/2012
As a millionaire, investor and murder-for-hire suspect Richard 'Birdshot' Cheney once enjoyed pricey Washington sunshine from his 13-room East Wing coquina stone sanctuary with mahogany floors, a large dining room and a tunnel to the Potomac.
As a fugitive, Cheney's comfortable living continued in exotic locales — Costa Rica, Paraguay and the coast of Thailand, where he enjoyed opening the heads of small boys, eating their brains and leaving the 'rest' for Rush Limbaugh to savor with some oxycontin.
Cheney, sometimes referred to as "the Dick", dodged the death penalty but got life in prison, with no parole.
Five years ago today, the comfortable life vanished when FBI agents and Thai police arrested him as he returned to his condominium after a walk on the beach at the resort community of Chai-Am.
The officers were armed with a warrant from the District of Columbia for the 2002 contract murder of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in a "get-rich-quick" scheme involving Iraqi oil, the U.S. Treasury, and a few corporations and military contractors.
According to the FBI, Cheney had been living in Thailand since the spring of 2008 with Chongwattana "Nana" Reynolds, a Thai native and Florida divorcee.
His arrest followed a tip from a person in Thailand who saw the case on "America's Most Wanted."
Convicted and sentenced to life without parole on March 14, 2006, of arranging so much death to avoid a costly retirement, Cheney observed his 106th birthday in April in a 7 1/2-foot-5-foot single cell in the 1930s-vintage, maximum security Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his days attached to an external heart-monitor/power-supply.
PNAAC Minister @ 22:
I absolutely agree. But it frightens me that some people seem to think that standing for something is only spelled d-e-m-o-c-r-a-t. I don't follow Rove's politics or his Tactics.
It's not fair to characterize Lugar as a coward or a crony. As my senator, I watch Lugar, and he has not been on TV or otherwise spouting non-sense like "just give the surge a chance" like the rest of the republican "critics" of the war have (like Lindsey Graham or Warner.)
darnoc @ 19:
J @ 4:
I believe you point out a very serious problem with the knee-jerk 'liberal' reporting. too often, the context of remarks are left out as well as the remarker. as far as I am concerned, any republican opposition to bush is now exactly what it has always been - a ploy to publicly present pretend verbal opposition to boosh and/or his policies while all action, both currently and historically, indicates that the remarker is still just a repug and only pretending, for political expediency, to oppose boosh.
me @ 23:
Bullshit. Every time a group of senators goes to the Whitehouse to try and talk some sense into bush, it has been led by Lugar. . .look, if you don't think that's public enough, so be it. . .but don't expect a republican to act like a democrat. He's been trying to do something. . but in Washington, pandering to the anti-war base of the opposition party may not be the best way to move forward -- ask liberaman how he's doing with a tactic similar to that.
Liberal AND Proud @ 27:
darnoc @ 29:
Please factcheck his voting record. It would be good to post facts to support your 'good guy' supposition.
darnoc,
You claim to be a liberal but support Lugar. Review his record here:
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Richard_Lugar_SenateMatch.htm
then come back and tell us how good of a job he's doing.
Liberal AND Proud @ 27:
darnoc @ 3:
Bullshit. He told you exactly what you wanted to hear and you swallowed it... hook, line and sinker. All the time, he was doing something else behind your back.
This Colbert Report segment proved he is capable of just such an action. Privately decrying the war to individual voters and then voting to support it.
PNAAC Minister @ 32:
Ah? I claim nothing for myself that is not true. I'll get back to you on the record, but don't demean my argument by suggesting I'm a wing-nut in disguise.
darnoc @ 33:
No, it's not public enough. Nor is it effective enough.
I'm not complaining because he's not a Democrat. I dislike half the Democrats anyway. I'm complaining because he votes like a Republican.
Lugar may not quite as bad as the typical Republican. But the typical republican these days is of the Ann Coulter - Mike Savage - Sean Hannity variety, so that is faint praise indeed.
Frankly, if these assholes in Congress would have to go to the funerals of our dead soldiers perhaps they would have some quicker statements of disapproval of the status quo. If they are brave enough to send young people to war then they should have to talk to the families forever changed at each funeral in their state.
And BTW, I don't consider being against the conservatives' war to be "pandering to the anti-war base". That's really an insulting statement. I consider it to be pro-American as well as pro-world.
Impeach Bush/Cheney @ 38:
Ronald Reagan attended memorial services on several occasions for American soldiers. In 1983 he attended a service at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in connection with the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which cost the lives of 241 people. In 1987 he attended a service at Mayport Naval Station in Florida for the sailors killed on the USS Stark.
President George Herbert Walker Bush does not appear to have attended any funerals for American soldiers. (The NYT, citing Marlin Fitzwater as a source, indicated that the president did attend several such funerals. But no details were provided.)
Bill Clinton attended a service in October 2000 in memory of the 17 sailors killed in the attack on the USS Cole.
After the terrorist bombing the Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City he publicly grieved with the families of the victims at an event that was regarded at the time as a turning point in his presidency
You don't have to look very hard to see what separates REAL men from whimps like the Bushes. I may not have liked Ronald Reagan, but at least he had the BALLS to go.
Zenrage @ 34:
No one is supporting a cut off for funds -- not the Democratic leadership nor our presidential candidates (at least that have any credibility in winning). Personally I do, and tell my representatives so, but that doesn't change anything. Luger represents his constituents on this -- and his support is going a long way to ending this mess in the middle east. Lugar is admired by both Democrats and republicans in Indiana. His positions have helped erode support for this stupid occupation with people that will never listen to you or me because of our ideological leanings. He is not the enemy.
Brilliant exposure by Colbert. Anyone who bites down on Lugar's Dick is going to get a big surprise.
I'm appalled at the lack of courage in general these days by our 'leaders.' Lugar is trying to save his own skin by doing this in the middle of the summer.... Colbert's got it dead on. Why not argue these points WHEN THERE'S SOMETHING TO VOTE ON?
Captain America @ 42:
Because Dick Lugar like all the others that voted for...and then spewed nonsense about how they are against...are COWARDS.
Liberal AND Proud @ 40:
meh, reagan also put a known solider in the "tomb of the unknown soldier" to capitalize on public sentiments -- I find that particularly distasteful. But in all, your argument is solid -- leaders, and the country at large, pays little respect to the fighting men and women that are forced to carry out wars -- especially bad when they are illegal wars of aggression.
Captain America @ 42:
What skin? He's not up for reelection, and this is probably his last term.
Yeah, Dick Lugie, how are those military personnel deaths weighing on your conscience you doddering toadie?
This Guy @ 10:
I expect him to do as much. He clearly has lost patience with back door politics. I welcome his "coming out" as it were, although that's not entirely genuine as I have already stated. But he is an ally against the war.
"The capacity of people like you to resort to verbal attack and character assassination when faced with reality, never ceases to amaze me."
People like me eh? I'm sorry, I didn't know that reality came in the form of baseless hyperbole. Clearly you and Grover Norquist need to get together so you can work out each other's "permanent solutions".
While some of you may find it to be an attack to go after Lugar, I rather think it is a perfectly valid (and responsible) reaction to ask "where were you when these opinions counted?"... similarly I think that if his response was that he's been trying to change the course of the ship in other ways, I might not like it... but it would be his response. We could hear and it then ask for examples. After all, this is how we judge people to be credible in every other walk of life, right?
What I think we need to consider, and be very vigilant about at this point in time are politicians who see the tide shift and all of a sudden feel free to jump on board. Liberal, conservative... whatever. We elect these people to go run the country, and we hope they make the right decisions WHEN THEY COUNT.
If you find this to be so appalling, consider the degree to which nearly all politicians today have wrapped themselves up in "supporting the troops", and have used that unassailable statement to justify almost any position, decision, or attack on an opponent. Shame mostly on the Republicans and the administration for this, but the Dems are not without stain either. We don't fight wars for the military's sake, we fight them in support of policy decisions or when they are unavoidable. I think the public needs to be reminded of this and demand clarity from our leaders on these 2 points... supporting the military seems to be a much easier proposition when these answers are clear.
I don't want to believe that Dick Lugar's motivations are purely political, nor do I want to believe that he hasn't done something in support of what he claims are his convictions... but the concern is still there (for me): What better good could have been served if he'd made this speech 2-3 months ago, when he seemed to already have this opinion?
And that, my friends, is why the Daily Show/Colbert Report block is the best 60 minutes you're likely to find on television.
But yeah, of course Lugar made a political decision to back away from this, just like the Democrats did.
darnoc
Unless his letter was handwritten, you can pretty much be assured that it was a staffer that wrote to you, and then signed the letter him/herself or used a stamp or autopen.
Rep. Patsy Mink was the only person on the hill that actually would write to constituents. Sorry.
marbotty @ 51:
Of freaking course. It was still substantive.
darnoc @ 20:
Amazing, I call the guy a 'scab' which is in the dictionary for 'A person regarded as contemptible' and I get my comment deleted while his diatribe about (goddamn guts, scumpublican, and turds) gets saved. Let freedom reign!
Brilliant clip. Lugar is just trying to cover all his bases, to make sure that when the wind blows in the other direction he can say that he mad a stand-this countries elected representatives disgust me. What would it take to get any of them to actually stand up for what they believe in?
I'm a Democrat from Indiana, and I just want to say that your website has nothing on Dick Lugar. Since well before the invasion even started, Lugar was an outspoken critic of post-war planning. Maybe you folks should do actual research rather than taking political talking points from a comedy show that's on before show about puppets making prank phone calls. Good day.
Dick "Johnny on the spot" Lugar.
ed @ 54:
A real bigcampaign contribution? Under the table money? A trip to Bangkok with all the frills? Pictures of them in de flagrante? Hot and cold running pages? Two extra months of vacation? Another pay raise? Expanded health benefits for Congressmen? Free limo for a year? Elimination of all campaign contribution controls? A night in the Lincoln bedroom with the Fox correspondent of their choice?
Brilliant on the part of Colbert and his writers. His show is becoming more on point as time goes on.
Has a way to go to best TDS, however, good job on the Report.
archerofloaf @ 16:
Good analogy.
How did it ever get this bad? The USA is run by a bunch or inept criminals. They have power; not brains.
Simultaneously very funny and heartbreaking. Hundreds of thousands are dead and injured. I am having a hard time dealing with it.
I really don't care what Lugar says. In my view what counts is his vote. It doesn't matter what he tells someone he is trying to get the vote of. What matters is the vote.
I haven't seen him voting to supply the troops fully with safety gear, I haven't seem him VOTE against the war. I have seen his vote line up with Bush whenever it is important. What makes his constituant think he is a friend to democrats. Not much evidence. Talk is cheap. Pork brought home doesn't count what I see with Lugar has been a typical Republican who can talk nice to people who might be sweet talked into voting for him. It does sound like he does have staff that write a nice letter, but is that a good reason to vote for him?
Unlike Indiana Senators Dick Lugar and Evan Bayh, our Congresslady Julia Carson of Indianapolis voted against the War on Iraq in 2002. She has remained consistently against that war ever since. Bayh at least has now said his original vote was wrong.
Dick Lugar was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for most of the war and sat by quietly and voted in support as the Administration pushed deeper and deeper into this quagmire. He was supposed to be a watchdog but that dog never barked. His reputation as a statesman is wrecked forever, just like Colin Powell. Pitiful!
[...] of policy. Not surprisingly, Stephen Colbert sums up the GOP “defections” best in his Profile in Timing of [...]
With "Democrats" like these Lugar-supporters, it's no wonder that Republicans have been able to win so many elections despite their disastrous policies and criminal governance. Far worse than worthless.
Darnoc is clearly another GOP sock pupet. another Lugar shill.
We should all realize that in DC, talk is cheap. And lugar's talk about the war: a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
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