By: E&P Staff At his televised press conference today, President Bush said her personally does not believing in questioning the patriotism of those you disagree with, but did not rebuke a Republican leader in the House who this week seemed to do just that.
He started to say that no one should do this, then caught himself and simply declared that he doesn't do it.
Earlier this week, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the GOP majority leader, said of Democrats, ?I wonder if they?re more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.?
Asked at the press conference if he agree with Boehner, or if he thinks "he owes someody an apology," Bush replied, "I wouldn't have exactly put it that way, but I do believe there's a difference of attitude" between his administration and the Democrats.
After outlining the differences, he returned to the original query, stating, "No one should ever question the patriotism of somebody, you know -- let me just start over. I don't question the patriotism of somebody who doesn't agree with me. I just don't.
"And I think it's unwise to do that. I don't think it's what leaders do."
A transcript of the exchange follows.
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QUESTION: The Republican leader in the House this week said that Democrats -- he wonders if they are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.
Do you agree with him, sir? Do you think that's the right tone to set for this upcoming campaign? Or do you think he owes somebody an apology?
BUSH: I wouldn't have exactly put it that way, but I do believe there's a difference of attitude.
Take the Patriot Act, for example. Interesting debate that took place not once but twice. And the second time around there was a lot of concern about whether or not the Patriot Act, you know, was necessary to protect the country.
There's no doubt in my mind we needed to make sure the Patriot Act was renewed to tear down walls that exist so that intelligence people could share information with criminal people. It wasn't the case before 9/11. In other words, somebody had some intelligence that they thought was necessary to protect the people, they couldn't share that with somebody whose job it was to grab people out of society to prevent them from attacking. Just made no sense.
And so there was a healthy debate, and we finally got the Patriot Act extended after it was passed right after 9/11. To me, that was an indication of just a difference of approach.
No one should ever question the patriotism of somebody, you know -- let me just start over. I don't question the patriotism of somebody who doesn't agree with me. I just don't.
And I think it's unwise to do that. I don't think it's what leaders do.
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