Politics & Power Quote by Patrick Leahy

Evasion is the tell, and Patrick Leahy builds his whole indictment around that single behavioral tic: the “constant” subject change. He isn’t just accusing the Bush administration of failure in Iraq; he’s accusing it of refusing the basic democratic ritual of accountability. By framing the question as a pattern rather than a one-off dodge, Leahy suggests a strategy, not a stumble - a communications doctrine designed to outpace scrutiny.

“The answer is simple” is the rhetorical feint that does real work here. It’s a senator flattening a complex war into a moral and managerial verdict: you were wrong, you stayed wrong, and now you’re trying to narrate your way out of the consequences. The simplicity is pointed. It implies that what’s complicated isn’t Iraq, but the administration’s excuses. Leahy also uses “consistently wrong” to deny them the refuge of good intentions. One bad call can be tragedy; a chain of bad calls becomes negligence.

Then comes the closer: “the results speak for themselves.” That’s not a flourish so much as a refusal to litigate spin. It gestures to a shared backdrop - casualties, insurgency, instability, eroding public trust - without enumerating them, letting listeners fill in the evidence from the headlines. The subtext is prosecutorial: if the facts are this loud, any attempt to change the subject is practically an admission.

Contextually, this is Congress trying to reassert oversight in a post-9/11 executive-heavy era, when messaging often substituted for candor. Leahy’s intent is to puncture the aura of competence and force the argument back onto outcomes.