Jay Rockefeller
From Conservapedia
John Davison Rockefeller IV, known as Jay Rockefeller is a United States Senator from West Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues ninety-two percent of the time in this current Congress.[1]
In an April 2008 interview, he attacked former prisoner-of-war John McCain's service as a Naval aviator. He told the Charleston Gazette, "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."[2] Despite Rockefeller's claims, laser-guided missiles did not come into service until after Senator McCain became a prisoner-of-war and McCain was engaged in a low-level attack on a heavily defended power plant in Hanoi when he was shot down. In fact, he was never at a distance of 35,000 feet during his combat missions. It must also be noted that John McCain was not a fighter pilot. Contrary to Rockefeller's ignorance about the U.S. military, fighter pilots do not engage in bombing; they are responsible for protecting bombers. They generally engage other aircraft and most of their targets are air-to-air. Rockefeller later apologized for the comment, saying he had made an "inaccurate and wrong analogy" and regretted his "very poor choice of words".[3]
Iraq Comments
Rockerfeller made a public statement about Saddam's Iraq in 2002. "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ..... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002
Once Saddam was overthrown, many Democrats changed their position on the war. Senator Jay Rockefeller said, "It is my belief that the Bush administration was fixated on Iraq... The committee has concluded that the administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence."[4]
References
- ↑ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/r000361/
- ↑ http://wvgazette.com/News/200804070734
- ↑ http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_099204606.html
- ↑ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080704/OPINION04/807040353 , DesMoinesRegister Anti-Bush moves deserve attention, July 4, 2008
Links
- U.S. Senate site
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Senator Jay Rockefeller News at the New York Times
