Washington Whispers

Hoekstra: Bush Was More Bipartisan Than Obama on National Security

By Paul Bedard, Amanda Ruggeri

May 27, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Amanda Ruggeri, Washington Whispers

Bipartisanship? Not so much, says Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican who is running for governor of his state and is the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Hoekstra tells Whispers that he doesn't think Obama's election brought a new era of bipartisanship to the Hill. Rather, he says, the Bush administration actually one-upped the current administration in reaching out to the other side of the aisle on national security issues, at least at first. While the Bushies became "shellshocked" toward the end, "early on in the Bush administration, they did reach out a lot to Republicans and Democrats," Hoekstra tells Whispers. His best examples: the briefings on terrorist surveillance programs and enhanced interrogation techniques. "We're not seeing the same pattern of briefing or consultation with Congress on Guantánamo and other strategies that the president is laying out," he explains. "These are unilaterally coming from the president, without any consultation."

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Bipartisanship in the Bush II syndicate was just a long, fancy word that had little meaning. Now that he's building his own library W should make sure it has a dictionary that he and the rest of his mob can look up. Assuming they can read.

David Togo of MI 11:03AM May 28, 2009

It's like the GOP is creating a whole imaginary world in their little heads.

The only time Bush reached across the aisle was to send Cheney over to tell Patrick Leahy to eff himself.

jimatmadison of WI 7:49AM May 28, 2009

Let's face it, there has been no attempt by Mr Obama to even consider the Conservative opinion.

I stood with over 15,000 people on April 15th in Atlanta GA to voice OUR opinion, most of which had NEVER protested anything in their life. What did we and the THOUSANDS IN OTHER CITIES GET? A Homeland Security brief calling Conservatives terrorists AND a release stating Mr Obama "was not aware of the TeaParties".

Meanwhile Mr Obama has named yet another "Czar" to oversee cyberspace. You realize these "Czars" require no Congressional approval and answer ONLY to the White House? 15+ so far I think, lost count? I've yet to find any Constitutional Authority for "Czars". Probably a Chicago Attorney "loophole".

An un-elected "tax-cheat" runs the Treasury with the power to fire CEOs and seize PRIVATE BANKS, Gm and Chrysler are owned by the Government and the Unions (the very groups that put them out of business), Obama freely admits "the US is out of money" and yet insists that his Agenda Spending continue at a annual rate of 4 to 1 over his predecessor.

We're in deep trouble folks.

Check the Congression Budget Office or the US Treasury websites to see how bad. Don't believe the news. See for yourself.

THINK for a "change".

Chris Petty of GA 11:59PM May 27, 2009

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