On Capitol Hill, the French Is Put Back in the Fries

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Kicked Off the Council?

Iranian President Ahmadinejad says the U.S. and Great Britain should be thrown off the U.N. Security Council for supporting Israel. The Iranian leader blames the two countries for civilian deaths in Lebanon, saying, "They are not competent to be members of the Security Council... they are criminals and should be put on trial."

But Ahmadinejad wasn't finished. He accused Israeli troops of being part of a Western plan to re-colonize the Middle East, calling the soldiers, "worse than beasts," and "bloodthirsty savages."

Gamblin' Charlie

New York Congressman Charlie Rangel is putting his money where his mouth is. The 76-year-old Democrat, who's served 35 years in the House, says he'll retire from Congress if Democrats don't retake control of the House in November.

Related

Rangel says, "It just seems like America is so frustrated and fed up like I am, and if she's not then I may have to say maybe it's me." The party needs to pick up 15 seats from Republicans. But Rangel says he's not worried, telling the AP, "I would not put everything on the table if I thought for one minute we would lose."

French Twist

It happened without fanfare or publicity — but french fries have once again become french fries on Capitol Hill. The fried potatoes were renamed "freedom fries" in the House dining rooms three years ago after France scolded the U.S. for its planned invasion of Iraq.

At the time, Ohio Republican Bob Ney, called the gesture, a "small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France." Ney refused to comment on the switch back.

But a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says maybe Republicans now "will admit their other foreign policy mistakes."

—FOX News Channel's Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.

See Political Grapevine Archive

ADVERTISEMENT

FOX NEWS VIDEOS



uASK|uREPORT

INTERVIEW

Blog Postings


  • Lies, spies and .summits
    Seven Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee wrote CIA director Leon Panetta a letter to ask him to “publicly correct” a statement he made saying that it is not ” the policy or practice of the agency to mislead Congress.” The Democrats say Panetta told Congress that senior CIA officials concealed actions and misled lawmakers [...]

    read post
  • Stimulus the sequel, public option, Palin 2012??, and .the direction of media coverage
    In an interview with Fox News, President Obama said a second stimuluscould still be an option—Major Garrett sat down with the President today in Moscow. President Obama said that he was aware that given the economic crisis recovery would prove to be difficult no matter what, but that unemployment was nearing 10% and he was [...]

    read post
  • Agreements, protests turned deadly andcomedian turned politican (finally)
    President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today in Moscow and both menpledged they were on a path to “reset” ties between the United States and Russia. The two leaders signed a statement to reduceeach country’snuclear arsenals. President Obama and President Medvedev held a joint news conference in which Medvedev said his talks with [...]

    read post
twitter
ADVERTISEMENT