President Bush Must Skip Communist Olympics

It's all the rage to say, "Our GOP has lost its way." It's quite beyond dispute, for the truth remains the truth.

Yet the stock recitation of selected symptoms -- spending, Iraq, Katrina, etc. -- omits a sinister affliction consuming the heirs of Lincoln and Reagan. The ravenous malady eclipsing our honor is this: Republicans coddle communist China.

No starker episode exhibits our anile need for a moral hospice before we slither into the dust bin of history than the one playing out before Americans' astonished eyes. Legacy building with the urgency of a dying Pharaoh staring at an unfinished Sphinx, George Walker Bush is bent upon being the first U.S. President to attend a foreign nation's Olympics. The nation in question is communist China, the shock troops of which are presently bludgeoning Tibetan Monks as if they were orange bathrobed baby seals. (One shudders at the prospect this Tibetan repression is the Chi-coms' sedulous sally into Olympic demonstration sports.)

Notwithstanding the Global Generation's remaining misanthropes' unsophisticated quibbling (i.e., me and mine), our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief has eagerly RSVP'ed to the communist dictatorship's dramatic recreation of the Berlin Olympics. Given "The Decider's" resolve, hope dims we might disabuse his whimsy that watching a wobbling discus with the wanton butchers of Tiananmen Square can advance the sacred cause of human freedom. But we are duty-bound to the endeavor, lest as "history with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past" she finds us fallen from the ranks of honor.

Perhaps we could appeal to our President's historical sensibilities by reminding the Leader of the Free World that attending this evil regime's games will forever stain his legacy by depicting him as calloused to the subjugation of Tibet and sundry other communist abominations. Really, how would this generation of Americans esteem Franklin Roosevelt -- no slouch at setting Presidential precedents -- had he not let the cup of the Berlin Olympics pass from his nicotine stained lips and, instead, pursed them into a smirk with Der Fuerher for Leni Riefenstahl's lens.

Yes, this assumes Mr. Bush worries he may one day be regarded by posterity in the manner William Manchester recalled a discredited generation of sophisticated British "statesmen", save one:

"And as (Churchill's) debts mounted and his gloom deepened, England's indebtedness to Stanley Baldwin rose.in his final deed for the homeland, he joined Chamberlain in telling Tory MPs that if they felt they must deplore totalitarianism and aggression, they must not name names. It was important, he said, to avoid `the danger of referring directly to Germany at a time when we are trying to get on terms with that country.' Fleet Street cheered. So did Britain. These were men of peace."

In fairness, they were also the jackasses who paved a second road to Hell.

If such an appeal to history's verdict proves fruitless, we could remind our Commander-in-Chief communist China is:

Arming our enemies;
Engaging in espionage against us, including the use of cyber warfare;
Subjugating Tibet;
Abetting genocide in the Sudan;
Compelling a "One Child Policy" and forcing abortions amongst its people;
Committing predatory trade practices against us;
Denying their people's God-given human rights;
Subverting sovereign democracies;
Supporting their fellow dictatorships; and, generally,
Being an unsporting bastion of tyranny.

Could this partial recounting of the rogue regime's transgressions against our nation and others prove to the President that attending the communist Chinese Olympics will subvert the moral authority of his position as the Leader of the Free World -- a Free World which, along with the world's oppressed, will be watching and weighing his participation?

Could this enumeration of grievances against the Chi-coms help the Chief Executive glean that the President of the United States cannot attend these games as a passive spectator? (This is, after all, why the Chi-coms invited him.)

Could such a factual exposition convince Mr. Bush that attending their Olympics will reinforce our foreign policy "experts'" suicidal communist China "exception" and, in the event, make President Bush's political statement thus: "The United States is devoted to the self-evident truth every human being is endowed by their creator with the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- except in communist China"?

Given these right reasons, would the President reconsider, for the sake of our free republic's sovereign citizens; and for the sake all the world's enslaved and oppressed who, yearning to breathe free, believe our nation remains their beacon of liberty and bastion of hope?

Thus ends our lesson in rhetorical questions.

Ever the political masochist, I once circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter to President Bush positing much of the above and requesting he not attend communist China's Olympics. Only a handful of brave souls signed my entreaty; undaunted, in September 2007 the missive flew. Certain I had affixed the correct address of Mr. Bush's taxpayer-subsidized housing, I am saddened to report he has not replied to this Congressional correspondence with the alacrity he did the Chi-coms' Olympic invite.

As the Year of the Rat scurries toward the opening ceremonies, however, I and my anti-communist ilk have not been idle. On April 1, I introduced H.R. 5668, which would bar any United States government official from attending the Beijing games' ceremonies. (Importantly, this legislation does not impact our athletes.) Oh, I know H.R. 5668 requires the President's signature or a Congressional over-ride of his veto to become law. Still, while it may not persuade the President to be "unavoidably otherwise occupied elsewhere in the world" during the communist Chinese Olympics, it will meet our moral imperative to our posterity, our country, and the cruel muse of History:

For when, once again, history's flickering lamp illumes our aged cheeks and strews her lengthening shadows across our fleeting existence, she will avow how the supporters of H.R. 5668 did "march always in the ranks of honor."

Pray she finds Republicans amongst them.

SEND OUR ATHLETES TO THE BEIJING OLYMPICS BUT NOT OUR POLITICIANS

Mr. McCOTTER. Mr. Speaker, as the Olympic torch goes through San Francisco today, I would just like to bring attention to the fact that I, as well as others on each side of the aisle, will be introducing legislation to ensure that we send our athletes to the games but not our politicians.

In the past, America has sent their athletes to the Olympics to show what free people can achieve, most notably in 1936 when Jesse Owens won gold and disabused the world of the Fuhrer's propaganda that there was an inferior race amongst us. FDR did not go to the Olympics.

I would encourage American politicians, including the President of the United States, not to politicize the games by their attendance, but rather stay home and attend to the pressing issues which face us as a people. This would be the proper way for the United States to both honor the spirit of the Olympics and the spirit of our free people.

CALLING ON THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA TO END ITS CRACKDOWN IN TIBET

Mr. McCOTTER. Madam Speaker, we stand at a historic moment. In the stream of history, it is oftentimes overlooked as we circumnavigate around time, fate and circumstance the momentous era and the momentous deeds which must be undertaken. This is one of them.

I thank the Speaker for bringing this resolution. I thank her for bringing with it the moral weight of her opposition to Communist China's abysmal human rights record throughout her career in this Congress, and for uniting Republicans and Democrats behind it.

But at this moment, I am also reminded of someone who is no longer with us, someone from whom I learned very much. That man is the late Chairman Tom Lantos, a man who embodied the human spirit in its ability to triumph over evil. How many people in this Congress understood the moment when the tanks rolled into Budapest and the Soviets went into Hungary, that that was a seminal moment in the Cold War, that the desire to breathe free, of the Hungarian people, could not be quelled by tanks and could
only be quenched by freedom? And throughout the history of the Cold War, their example was emulated by others, including the Czechs in 1968, and of course the Poles, and that eventually brought down the Soviet Union.

Today, what may appear a resolution of the moment for a specific incident is not that. It is our generation's Budapest. It is this generation of Americans who get to witness the Tibetans trying to breathe free from beneath the Communist yoke of the Chinese regime. And as we Republicans and Democrats stand together today, we stand with them, and we send a clarion message to the Communist Chinese Government. They will be free. And as the Olympic torch goes from town to town and you see people gathering
together of all political persuasions and all walks of life to protest the abominable suppression of the Tibetans, let us remember that we here have come together to make sure that the torch of Lady Liberty still shines bright as a beacon of hope for all the world.

Rep. McCotter: Stop Politicians' Taxpayer Funded Junkets to the Communist Olympics

New Bill Will Make Attending the Olympic Opening Ceremonies Illegal for the President, All Government Officials

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) introduced a bill in Congress restricting all government officials and employees from attending the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in communist China. The bill does NOT affect America’s Olympic athletes.

The bill, The Communist Chinese Olympic Accountability Act, is a follow up to a September 11, 2007, letter to President George W. Bush in which Congressman McCotter and a bi-partisan coalition of Members of Congress, state: “We urge you [President Bush] to reconsider your decision to attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics in communist China.”

McCotter commended Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments regarding President Bush boycotting the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and acknowledge her long-standing, principled opposition to communist China’s human rights violations. “Hopefully, Speaker Pelosi will be supportive of this bill; and our colleagues will join us in denouncing the reprehensible actions of communist China and the changing the errant decision of the President to attend the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics,” said Rep. McCotter, Chairman of House Republican Policy Committee. (http://policy.house.gov)

“While we applaud the hard work of all the Olympic athletes, President Bush, as the leader of the Free World, must uphold America’s beacon of liberty to the world’s oppressed. This noble cause is harmed through his attendance as a guest of this oppressive communist government,” said McCotter.

“The Communist Chinese Olympic Accountability Act” and the September 2007 letter to the President both provide a partial list of communist China’s offenses, including human rights violations, subjugating Tibet, abetting Sudan’s genocidal regime, persecution of its Chinese citizens for freely exercising religion, enforcement of a one child policy upon its Chinese families, supporting fellow dictatorships, and systematically denying the Chinese people their basic freedoms, among others.

The bill prohibits any individual who is an official, whether elected or appointed, or employee of the Federal Government from attending any segment of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics Games held in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. Importantly, this prohibition does not apply to any member of the United Stated Olympic Team or persons serving in a support capacity.

“President Franklin Roosevelt did not attend the 1936 Berlin Olympics; and President Bush should not attend the Beijing Olympics. In the grand sweep of history, President Bush’s attendance at these games will be an unwelcome and unnecessary stain upon his legacy as a champion of human liberty,” said Rep. McCotter

"No Good Government Denies God's Presence"

My remarks on the House Floor today.