Another Republican for Kerry

[Spence]

Statement by William G. Milliken
October 17, 2004

As a lifelong Republican, I have had mounting concern watching this year's presidential campaign.

I have always been proud to be a Republican. My Republican Party is a broad-based party, that seeks to bring a wide spectrum of people under its umbrella and that seeks to protect and provide opportunity for the most vulnerable among us.

Sadly, that is not the Republican Party that I see at the national level today.

My Republican Party has always been a party that stood for fiscal responsibility. Today, under George W. Bush, we have the largest deficit in the history of our country - a deficit that jeopardizes economic growth that is so desperately needed in a nation that has lost 2.6 million jobs since he took office.

To make matters even worse, this president inherited a surplus, but squandered it with huge tax cuts structured primarily to benefit the wealthy and powerful.

My Republican Party is the party of Michigan Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg who helped forge a bipartisan foreign policy that served this nation well and produced strong alliances across the globe. This president has, in a highly partisan, unilateral way rushed us into a tragic and unnecessary war that has cost the lives of more than 1,000 of our young men and women. In this arrogant rush to war, he has alienated this nation from much of the world.

What's worse, the basic premises upon which we were taken to war proved to be false. Now, we find ourselves in the midst of an occupation that was largely unplanned and has become a disaster from which we cannot easily extricate ourselves.

My Republican Party is the party of Theodore Roosevelt, who fought to preserve our natural resources and environment. This president has pursued policies that will cause irreparable damage to our environmental laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the public lands we share with future generations.

My Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, who freed an enslaved people. This president fought in the courts to strike down policies designed to provide opportunity and access to our own University of Michigan for minority students.

My Republican Party is the party of Eisenhower, who warned us to beware of the dangers of a military-industrial complex. This president has pursued policies skewed to favor large corporations in the defense and oil industry and has gone so far as to let those industries help write government policies.

My Republican Party is a party that respects and works with the men and women of the law enforcement community who put their lives on the line for us every day. This president ignored the pleas of law enforcement agencies across America and failed to lift a finger to renew the assault weapons ban that they strongly supported as an essential safeguard for public safety.

My Republican Party is a party that values the pursuit of knowledge. But this president stands in the way of meaningful embryonic stem-cell research that holds so much promise for those who suffer from diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries and other conditions.

My Republican Party is the party of Gerald R. Ford, Michigan's only president, who reached across partisan lines to become a unifying force during a time of great turmoil in our nation's history. This president has pursued policies pandering to the extreme right wing across a wide variety of issues and has exacerbated the polarization and the strident, uncivil tone of much of what passes for political discourse in this country today.

Women's rights, civil liberties, the separation of church and state, the funding of family planning efforts world-wide - all have suffered grievously under this president and his administration.

The truth is that President George W. Bush does not speak for me or for many other moderate Republicans on a very broad cross section of issues.
Sen. John Kerry, on the other hand, has put forth a coherent, responsible platform of progressive initiatives that I believe would serve this country well. He wants to balance the budget, step up environmental protection efforts, rebuild our international relationships, support stem-cell research, protect choice and pursue a number of other progressive initiatives that moderates from both parties can support.

As a result, despite my long record of active involvement in the Republican Party, and my intention still to stay in the Republican Party, when I cast my ballot November 2, I will be voting for John Kerry for President.Mr Milliken was the Republican Governor of Michigan for 14 years.

Source (http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/oct/18mil2.htm)

[Jimreaper007]

Excellent....

Gotta love those late kicks to the boys from your own party....

I am sure the righties will be here in seconds talking about how they never liked milliken in the first place.

[GibbsRules!]

In the end, wisdom and prudence will prevail (one can only hope). Do we have a running total of defectors? I read where AHNOLD is backing stem cell research. He said he is a republican, but more towards the center, speaking to a reporter who questioned his deviance from the Republican Party on this issue. It's funny, but I can understand his deep accent much better than I can understand Ol GW.

[CamLwalk]

Courageous. I wish more politicians put the welfare of the country ahead of the welfare of their party.

[RedskinsDave]

I never liked him in the first place. ;)

[Spence]

Jeebus, it just never ends. Still another Republican who won't vote for Bush, but will, instead, support John F. Kerry. This one comes from a former GOP Senator from the state of Kentucky:A FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR FOR KERRY
'Frightened to death' of Bush

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Marlow W. Cook
Special to The Courier-Journal I shall cast my vote for John Kerry come Nov 2.

I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White House, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions. I fall in the category of good conservative thinkers, like George F. Will, for instance, who wrote: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and having thought, to have second thoughts."

I say, well done George Will, or, even better, from the mouth of the numero uno of conservatives, William F. Buckley Jr.: "If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war."

First, let's talk about George Bush's moral standards.

In 2000, to defeat Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — a man who was shot down in Vietnam and imprisoned for over five years — they used Carl Rove's "East Texas special." They started the rumor that he was gay, saying he had spent too much time in the Hanoi Hilton. They said he was crazy. They said his wife was on drugs. Then, to top it off, they spread pictures of his adopted daughter, who was born in Bangladesh and thus dark skinned, to the sons and daughters of the Confederacy in rural South Carolina.

To show he was not just picking on Republicans, he went after Sen. Max Cleland from Georgia, a Democrat seeking re-election. Bush henchmen said he wasn't patriotic because Cleland did not agree 100 percent on how to handle homeland security. They published his picture along with Cuba's Castro, questioning Cleland's patriotism and commitment to America's security. Never mind that his Republican challenger was a Vietnam deferment case and Cleland, who had served in Vietnam, came home in a wheel chair having lost three limbs fighting for his country. Anyone who wants to win an election and control of the legislative body that badly has no moral character at all.

We know his father got him in the Texas Air National Guard so he would not have to go to Vietnam. The religious right can have him with those moral standards. We also have Vice President Dick Cheney, who deferred his way out of Vietnam because, as he says, he "had more important things to do."

I have just turned 78. During my lifetime, we have sent 31,377,741 Americans to war, not including whatever will be the final figures for the Iraq fiasco. Of those, 502,722 died and 928,980 came home without legs, arms or what have you.

Those wars were to defend freedom throughout the free world from communism, dictators and tyrants. Now Americans are the aggressors — we start the wars, we blow up all the infrastructure in those countries, and then turn around and spend tax dollars denying our nation an excellent education system, medical and drug programs, and the list goes on. ...

I hope you all have noticed the Bush administration's style in the campaign so far. All negative, trashing Sen. John Kerry, Sen. John Edwards and Democrats in general. Not once have they said what they have done right, what they have done wrong or what they have not done at all.

Lyndon Johnson said America could have guns and butter at the same time. This administration says you can have guns, butter and no taxes at the same time. God help us if we are not smart enough to know that is wrong, and we live by it to our peril. We in this nation have a serious problem. Its almost worse than terrorism: We are broke. Our government is borrowing a billion dollars a day. They are now borrowing from the government pension program, for apparently they have gotten as much out of the Social Security Trust as it can take. Our House and Senate announce weekly grants for every kind of favorite local programs to save legislative seats, and it's all borrowed money.

If you listened to the President confirming the value of our war with Iraq, you heard him say, "If no weapons of mass destruction were found, at least we know we have stopped his future distribution of same to terrorists." If that is his justification, then, if he is re-elected our next war will be against Iran and at the same time North Korea, for indeed they have weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, which they have readily admitted. Those wars will require a draft of men and women. ...


I am not enamored with John Kerry, but I am frightened to death of George Bush. I fear a secret government. I abhor a government that refuses to supply the Congress with requested information. I am against a government that refuses to tell the country with whom the leaders of our country sat down and determined our energy policy, and to prove how much they want to keep that secret, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court.


Those of you who are fiscal conservatives and abhor our staggering debt, tell your conservative friends, "Vote for Kerry," because without Bush to control the Congress, the first thing lawmakers will demand Kerry do is balance the budget.


The wonderful thing about this country is its gift of citizenship, then it's freedom to register as one sees fit. For me, as a Republican, I feel that when my party gives me a dangerous leader who flouts the truth, takes the country into an undeclared war and then adds a war on terrorism to it without debate by the Congress, we have a duty to rid ourselves of those who are taking our country on a perilous ride in the wrong direction.

If we are indeed the party of Lincoln (I paraphrase his words), a president who deems to have the right to declare war at will without the consent of the Congress is a president who far exceeds his power under our Constitution.

I will take John Kerry for four years to put our country on the right path.

The writer, a Republican formerly of Louisville, was Jefferson County judge from 1962-1968 and U.S. senator from Kentucky from 1968-1975.Source (http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/editorials/2004/10/20/oped-marlow1020-8060.html)

[Minnesota Mike]

Former Republican Governor of Minnesota

Elmer L. Andersen: Why this Republican ex-governor will be voting for Kerry
Elmer L. Andersen
October 13, 2004

Throughout my tenure and beyond as the 30th governor of this state, I have been steadfastly aligned -- and until recently, proudly so -- with the Minnesota Republican Party.

It dismays me, therefore, to have to publicly disagree with the national Republican agenda and the national Republican candidate but, this year, I must.

The two "Say No to Bush" signs in my yard say it all.

The present Republican president has led us into an unjustified war -- based on misguided and blatantly false misrepresentations of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The terror seat was Afghanistan. Iraq had no connection to these acts of terror and was not a serious threat to the United States, as this president claimed, and there was no relation, it's now obvious, to any serious weaponry. Although Saddam Hussein is a frightful tyrant, he posed no threat to the United States when we entered the war. George W. Bush's arrogant actions to jump into Iraq when he had no plan how to get out have alienated the United States from our most trusted allies and weakened us immeasurably around the world.

Also, if there as well had been proper and careful coordination of services and intelligence on Sept. 11, 2001, that horrific disaster might also have been averted. But it was a separate event from this brutal mess of a war, and the disingenuous linking of the wholly unrelated situation in Iraq to 9/11 by this administration is not supported by the facts.

Sen. John Kerry was correct when he said that seemingly it is only Bush and Dick Cheney who still believe their own spin. Both men spew outright untruths with evangelistic fervor. For Bush -- a man who chose to have his father help him duck service in the military during the Vietnam War -- to disparage and cast doubt on the medals Kerry won bravely and legitimately in the conflict of battle is a travesty.

For Cheney to tell the hand-picked, like-minded Republican crowds in Des Moines last month that to vote for John Kerry could mean another attack like that of 9/11 is reprehensible. Moreover, such false statements encourage more terrorist attacks rather than prevent them.

A far smaller transgression, but one typical of his stop-at-nothing tactics, was Cheney's assertion in last Wednesday's vice-presidential debate that he'd never met Sen. John Edwards until that night. The next day -- and the media must stay ever-vigilant at fact-checking the lies of this ticket -- news reports, to the contrary, showed four video clips of Edwards and Cheney sitting next to each other during the past five years.

In both presidential debates, Kerry has shown himself to be of far superior intellect and character than Bush. He speaks honestly to the American people, his ethics are unimpeachable and, clearly, with 20 respected years in the Senate, he has far better credentials to lead the country than did Bush when he was elected four years ago. And a far greater depth of understanding of domestic and foreign affairs to do it now.

Not that the sitting president has ever really been at the helm.

I am more fearful for the state of this nation than I have ever been -- because this country is in the hands of an evil man: Dick Cheney. It is eminently clear that it is he who is running the country, not George W. Bush.

Bush's phony posturing as cocksure leader of the free world -- symbolized by his victory symbol on the aircraft carrier and "mission accomplished" statement -- leave me speechless. The mission had barely been started, let alone finished, and 18 months later it still rages on. His ongoing "no-regrets," no-mistakes stance and untruths on the war -- as well as on the floundering economy and Bush administration joblessness -- also disappoint and worry me.

Liberal Republicans of my era and mind-set used to have a humane and reasonable platform. We advocated the importance of higher education, health care for all, programs for children at risk, energy conservation and environmental protection. Today, Bush and Cheney give us clever public relations names for programs -- need I say "No Child Left Behind? -- but a lack of funding to support them. Early childhood education programs and overall health care are woefully underfunded. We have not only the largest number ever of medically uninsured in this nation, our infant mortality rates, once among the lowest in the world, have worsened to 27th.

As taxes for the wealthy are being cut, jobs are being outsourced if not lost and children are homeless and uninsured, this administration is running up the biggest deficit in U.S. history -- bound to be a terrible burden for future generations.

This imperialistic, stubborn adherence to wrongful policies and known untruths by the Cheney-Bush administration -- and that's the accurate order -- has simply become more than I can stand.

Although I am a longtime Republican, it is time to make a statement, and it is this: Vote for Kerry-Edwards, I implore you, on Nov. 2.



Source (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5029512.html)

[GibbsRules!]

Thanks for the links MM and Spence. I am a registered republican who will be heeding the advice of these elder statesmen! With age brings wisdom, and these guys see something beyond the surface.

[BSMKF]

Republican rebuttal to Mr. Milliken.
One million of those jobs were lost within 3 months after 9/11. Unemployment is lower than it was under the Clinton years.
The surplus was within 2 fiscal years. That 20 million + suplus they love to talk about was a projection over time.
I can't believe he's even going there saying tax cuts only benefit the wealthy. First of all, they pay the majority of the taxes so they would benefit most. The lower end got as much as possible without taking us off the rolls and yes I'm in the 10% bracket myself.
You can't have strong alliances w/ countries that are selling you out for $$. You are aware of the Oil for Food scandle aren't you?
What rush to war? Did you want to allow Saddam to continue to play his cat and mouse game with the inspectors as he has since 1991 and for us to continue going back and forth w/ the joke called the UN?
We are in a war right now so of course defense contractors are going to get a lot of government business. And i'm so sick of hearing about Halliburton. They have been doing business w/ the federal government since WWII and even got a huge no bid contract under the Clinton administration. To me it is pretty smart to have the experts in the private sector help write policy.
Well the assault weapons ban has been lifted and people aren't being gun down in the middle of the streets w/ Uzi's. Bottom line is if someone is going to use an assault weapon w/ a crime they didn't get that weapon legally in the first place.
Just because the federal government doesn't fund Stem Cell Research doesn't mean the research won't be done with private sector dollars and even state dollars. Republicans don't believe federal $$ should be used to finance embryonic stem cell research or abortions.
Bush is hardly right wing. Women have every right today that they have ever had, perhaps even more.
John Kerry is anything but coherent.
In my opinion we don't need or want the likes of Mr. Milliken in the Republican Party.

[thickskin]

Just because the federal government doesn't fund Stem Cell Research doesn't mean the research won't be done with private sector dollars and even state dollars.

Maybe I'm not following you, but this statement, which goes w/out saying in the first place, seems to imply that bc Maurice Green can still walk, it's ok that the fed gov hamstrung him instead of putting him on the barry bonds program. I wish people could understand that Maurice Green saves lives. I really do.

[Spence]

There are so many mistakes in the above post by BSMKF, but this one stands out as particularly hilarious.Unemployment is lower than it was under the Clinton years.That is false, of course. When President Clinton ran for re-election in 1996, the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, marginally better than it is right now. However, the unemployment rate had fallen by 30% since President Clinton had taken office in January 1993, while unemployment has risen 29% since Mr Bush has taken office. There were two million more unemployed people when President Clinton took office than when he ran for re-election. There are now two million more unemployed people than when Mr Bush took office in January 2001. In President Clinton's first four years in office, 10.4 million jobs were created. In Mr Bush's first four years in office, one million jobs have been lost. This Bush administration is the first in 72 years to preside over a net loss of jobs in the United States. It is the worst employment record since the Great Depression.

U.S. unemployment in September 2004. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm)

[akhhorus]

Republican rebuttal to Mr. Milliken.
One million of those jobs were lost within 3 months after 9/11. Unemployment is lower than it was under the Clinton years.

Gonna have to throw the BS flag here:
http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS14000000

from the Government. At the lowest, the unemployment rate under Clinton was under 4%, the lowest under Bush is what it is now: 5.4%.

What rush to war? Did you want to allow Saddam to continue to play his cat and mouse game with the inspectors as he has since 1991 and for us to continue going back and forth w/ the joke called the UN?

Kinda looks like the UN was right. I was all for the war to get rid of WMDs, but very little was found and nothing like what was promised. There was nothing like what we were told would be found in IRaq.

We are in a war right now so of course defense contractors are going to get a lot of government business. And i'm so sick of hearing about Halliburton. They have been doing business w/ the federal government since WWII and even got a huge no bid contract under the Clinton administration.

Well, actually they were getting contracts from Woodrow Wilson. Clinton's DOD gave them one in 1997(but no-one is saying for how much other than it was for minor logistical work) with the understanding that they would have to open it up to competition in early 1999.

[GibbsRules!]

Gonna have to throw the BS flag here:


Not the dreaded BS flag...

[akhhorus]

Not the dreaded BS flag...

Its better than the complete feared..Grammar flag.

[GibbsRules!]

Its better than the complete feared..Grammar flag.
I see your point...

[BSMKF]

Scorecard on the economy

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/cda04-10.cfm

[akhhorus]

Scorecard on the economy

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/cda04-10.cfm

you're actually using the Heritage Foundation as a base for a balanced arguement? lol
They have an article saying that the Karzai victory is a win for Democracy. When there is a lot of allegations that the vote was rigged and the fact that Heritage Foundation is a very big supporter of Bush. I'm sure then dont have an agenda.

[Spence]

you're actually using the Heritage Foundation as a base for a balanced arguement? lolWhy not? He quotes David Horowitz at length. Repeatedly. He should check out what they think of Mr Bush over at the Cato Institute. Those poor saps learned their lesson.

[MrWiggles]

38 papers that endorsed Bush in 2000 are now endorsing Kerry. 6 papers that endorsed Gore in 2000 are now endorsing Bush.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000691982