This just brought a smile to my face. I was telling a co-worker that Tieki Rae had text’d me the following message today from Washington DC:
Madam speaker just made the first anti-Iraq war statement. She got booed ha ha
I wondered to myself, “Was Tieki Rae the only one booing?”
Turns out, I guess not. I know booing can be considered as being rude, but when you bash our military and call them losers, well, I think you deserve to be booed.
March 13, 2007 Members of the main pro-Israel lobbying group offered scattered boos to a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the Iraq war has been a failure on several scores.
The boos, mixed with some polite applause, stood in stark contrast to the reception House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) received minutes earlier. Most of the crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 stood and loudly applauded Boehner when he said the U.S. had no choice but to win in Iraq.
Pelosi and Boehner were speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual meeting. AIPAC has not taken a position on the war in Iraq or the supplemental spending bill to be considered this week by the House Appropriations Committee, but much of Boehner’s speech was about the future of the Iraq conflict.
Boehner sought to link the fight in Iraq to the future of Israel, as he said a failure in Iraq would pose a direct threat to Israel.
Pelosi said the U.S. military campaign in Iraq had to be judged on three accounts: whether it makes the U.S. safer, the U.S. military stronger and the region more stable.
“The war in Iraq fails on all three counts,” Pelosi said. Some of the crowd applauded before catcalls and boos could be heard. A spokesman for AIPAC argued the boos were in response to those clapping for Pelosi.
AIPAC leaders have said about 6,000 of their members are in town for this week’s annual meeting, which ends today. Members are set to lobby individual lawmakers on the Hill for the rest of today. A priority for the group is to convince Congress to approve tougher sanctions on Iran, which is seen as a growing threat to Israel.
I wonder if I was actually the first “reporter” to hear this news — right as it was happening?
Haha, nice post! And if we’re being technical, I was actually the first reporter to hear the news right as it was happening. In all honesty, I did not boo Nancy Pelosi. It was a somewhat pathetic end to her speech because she had given a pretty solid pro-Israel speech up to that point. I just remained in my seat without clapping as scattered people applauded, very few stood up, and the vast majority booed. After hearing Dick Cheney and Rep. Boehner speak on how Israel’s safety is directly related to the outcome of the War on Iraq, AIPAC delegates were simply not in the mood to be lied to by Pelosi. Furthermore, Sen. McConnell also spoke about the war as did Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Any pro-Israel figure with half a brain realizes that if we allow ourselves to lose Iraq, not only will our national security be at risk, but the very existence of Israel will be threatened.
By: tieki rae on March 13, 2007
at 8:39 pm
[...] Good Reads March 14th, 2007 — Scott Tieki Rae recently went to cheer (and jeer) some speeches in DC for a (seemingly mostly) pro-Israel group. I have sought out the transcripts [...]
By: Political Cowboy Some Good Reads « on March 14, 2007
at 3:26 am