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[q]Obama won't join Belafonte's chorus
Pans likening security agency to Gestapo, calling Bush terrorist
By Jeff Zeleny
Washington Bureau
Published January 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday gently criticized two comments by civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in which he called the Department of Homeland Security a "new Gestapo" and referred to President Bush as "the greatest terrorist in the world."
"I never use Nazi analogies because I think that those were unique," Obama (D-Ill.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press." But he added: "I think people are rightly concerned that we strike the right balance between our concerns for civil liberties and the uniform concern that all of us have about protecting ourselves from terrorism."
As for the remark about the president, Obama said: "I don't think it's appropriate. That's not language that I would use, but keep in mind one of the great things about the United States is all of our citizens have the right to speak our minds about what's going on politically."
In his first appearance on the high-profile Sunday talk show since being sworn into office, Obama also was asked to respond an assertion last week by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) that the Bush administration "will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."
While he criticized the response to Hurricane Katrina and its Iraq policy, Obama disagreed with Clinton's assessment of Bush.
"That's a tough standard to meet," Obama said. "We've had some pretty bad ones, so I don't prognosticate in terms of where George Bush will place in American history."
Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) chastised Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, for declaring late last week that Republicans would maintain their hold over Congress because Democrats hold weak positions on the war on terrorism and have questioned the administration's eavesdropping program and the USA Patriot Act.
"Karl Rove is just trying to exploit what he considers a fear factor in American politics to try to overlook the obvious," Durbin said, adding, "There is bipartisan support for America's national security."
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jzeleny@tribune.com
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune [/q]
Pans likening security agency to Gestapo, calling Bush terrorist
By Jeff Zeleny
Washington Bureau
Published January 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday gently criticized two comments by civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in which he called the Department of Homeland Security a "new Gestapo" and referred to President Bush as "the greatest terrorist in the world."
"I never use Nazi analogies because I think that those were unique," Obama (D-Ill.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press." But he added: "I think people are rightly concerned that we strike the right balance between our concerns for civil liberties and the uniform concern that all of us have about protecting ourselves from terrorism."
As for the remark about the president, Obama said: "I don't think it's appropriate. That's not language that I would use, but keep in mind one of the great things about the United States is all of our citizens have the right to speak our minds about what's going on politically."
In his first appearance on the high-profile Sunday talk show since being sworn into office, Obama also was asked to respond an assertion last week by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) that the Bush administration "will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."
While he criticized the response to Hurricane Katrina and its Iraq policy, Obama disagreed with Clinton's assessment of Bush.
"That's a tough standard to meet," Obama said. "We've had some pretty bad ones, so I don't prognosticate in terms of where George Bush will place in American history."
Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) chastised Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, for declaring late last week that Republicans would maintain their hold over Congress because Democrats hold weak positions on the war on terrorism and have questioned the administration's eavesdropping program and the USA Patriot Act.
"Karl Rove is just trying to exploit what he considers a fear factor in American politics to try to overlook the obvious," Durbin said, adding, "There is bipartisan support for America's national security."
----------
jzeleny@tribune.com
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune [/q]
