May 18, 2008
Posted: 04:26 PM ET
From CNN's Peter Lanier
Gary Hart strongly defended Barack Obama, calling Bush's remarks hypocritical.
(CNN) — Former senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart became the latest Democratic elder to denounce President Bush’s remarks from Israel on Thursday, calling the president’s speech "incredibly hypocritical." "We all know that the administration has had contact with and is advocating contact with Hamas and other organizations,” Hart told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Late Edition. "So it was incredibly hypocritical." While speaking to the Israeli parliament at a celebration of Israel’s 60th Anniversary, President Bush said: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before.” Many Democrats took these comments to be a veiled attack on Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Former presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called the president’s comments “bulls**t“ and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said his actions were “beneath the dignity of the office of president.” Obama responded to Bush’s comments on Friday by saying that they were “the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from the world.”
Hart, who supports the Illinois senator, strongly defended Obama by comparing his position to that of some well-respected figures in American history. “Keep in mind that as early as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, they negotiated with the al Qaeda of their day, the Barbary pirates before finally attacking them,” Hart said. Despite primarily focusing his attacks on the Bush administration, the former senator from Colorado linked Bush’s comments to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. “John McCain's already attacked Barack Obama as saying he's the candidate from Hamas. And so I think this was all part of the McCain campaign.” Filed under: Barack Obama George Bush John McCain
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