The Ostroy Report

The Ostroy Report:

Stumping in Tampa, Fla. Friday for Republican state legislator Gus Bilirakis, whose seeking to win the 9th Congressional District seat being vacated by his 12-term father Mike Bilirakis, vice president Dick Cheney ratcheted up the Middle East rhetoric, citing the current crisis as another reason to keep Republicans in control of both the House and Senate.

'This conflict is a long way from over,' Cheney warned at a fundraiser of over 200 party loyalists at Tampa's Wyndham Westshore hotel, which raked in over $230,000 for the GOP candidate. 'It's going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It's absolutely essential that we stay the course....If anyone thinks the conflict is over or soon to be over, all the have to do is look what's happening in the Middle East today.' (This is the same Cheney who declared May 31, 2005: 'The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency'). What's this...Cheney's a flip-flopper?"