BOEHNER: SMALL PRICE TO PAY IN BLOOD AND TREASURE FOR... WHAT? THE EGO GRATIFICATION OF GEORGE W. BUSH?

This morning we posted a link to John Boehner's disgraceful remarks on CNN about how the cost-- in dollars and blood-- for Bush's war agenda in Iraq will be "a small price." I wanted to puke. Watch it:



Boehner, who wasn't weeping for a change, doesn't seem to understand that for the families, friends and colleagues of the people maimed and killed in this uneccesary war, it is anything but a small price. For the Iraqis, who are unlikely to forget what the U.S. has done to them, it is anything but a small war, to Americans who will be suffering from inflation, poor infrastructure, retarded education and miserable health care, it is anything but a small price. And even for the U.S. military, which is run-down and broken, by a pair of life-long military haters-- Bush and Cheney-- it is far from a small price.

Howard Dean and John Kerry left very much like I did about it. This is what Howard Dean, speaking, I'm sure not just for the DNC, but for all Americans who don't subscribe to the Republican culture of death, had to say:

House Republican Leader John Boehner's comments yesterday are deplorable and he should apologize immediately. Our brave men and women who have given their lives in service to our country and their families have made the ultimate sacrifice, and to say anything less is insulting to their memories and service. Republicans stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that their Iraq policy is a failure, our troops are mired in a civil war and we're not making the necessary political progress on the ground. Bohener's comments show how truly out of touch the Republicans are. The loss of a son or daughter is never a small price to pay, especially for a policy which was initiated by Republicans who misled the nation about why we are there. The war in Iraq must end. We need to bring our troops home.

Kerry posted at Huff Po, calling Boehner's remark "stunningly cavalier" and he's wondering why we haven't heard an apology from Boehner yet. (I'm expecting another of his crying jags on TV any time now.)

Whether you support or oppose the Bush escalation, no American should ever for even a moment think the cost of war is small.

A single life is a large price to pay for any endeavor. Sometimes, in our national interest, we choose to pay that awful price, but we must always make sure that the policy is worthy of it.

Visit our wounded warriors at Walter Reed hospital and ask whether the price they paid was small.

Talk to the mothers, fathers, husbands and wives of those who have been killed and ask them to measure the price of war. Young lives stopped short, children who won't have a mother or father there as they grow up, when they graduate, when they get married-- that loss is many things, but it is not small.

Yeah... the Republicans support the troops-- with all their hearts. Lance Mannion sums it up very, very well.


UPDATE: BOEHNER REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE-- McCAIN SAYS HE SHOULD RETRACT HIS OFFENSIVE REMARK

If Boehner is weeping over this one, he's locked away and doing it in the dark. Publicly he's squirming and lying about what happened. You watched the video; Blintzer cleared said "treasure and blood," but Boehner denies that and claims the discussion was just about money. Ana Marie Cox is on the bus with McCain and quotes him saying "With all due respect, every American wounded or sacrificed is the greatest possible price to pay," and we should all be grateful, "particularly those of us who sit in relative safety while those young men and women are fighting... He ought to retract it."

Meanwhile Howard Dean again called on Boehner to apologize and disavow his crude disrespect for the troops and their families. Like McCain says, Boehner is sitting back in safety while these young men and women are risking everything for a war he has rubber stamped 100% from the first day. For him to call their sacrifice "a small price to pay," is really, really vile-- and very Inside-the-Beltway Republican. The ultimate Inside-the-Beltway Democrat, Joe Biden, slammed the remark as unconscionable and the rationale behind it "simply ridiculous."