According to this article in the Politico, several Democrats are backing away from Harry Reid’s statement that we can’t win the war in Iraq. In fact, Jim Manley, Reid’s spokesman, is singing a different tune:

Jim Manley, Reid’s spokesman, said earlier that the “war is lost” comment was not in Reid’s prepared text for the news conference last Thursday. But from now on, Manley said, the senator will “couch it more”: The mission in Iraq is not working and must be changed.

I’ll guarantee that Reid sees the firestorm he created with his statement. Now he’s backpedaling in a major damage control effort. The Washington definition of a gaffe is saying what you really believe in an unguarded moment. If you go to that ‘dictionary’ for the definition of a ‘major gaffe’, the only thing you’ll find is a YouTube clip of Reid’s disparaging, anti-military statements. Now he’s getting ‘help’ from his Senate colleagues:

“I understand what he was trying to say,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), although she acknowledged that Reid’s comments had caused a political problem for Democrats. “I think it was more a problem of tone rather than of substance.”

DiFi, it isn’t a matter of tone. It’s purely a matter of substance. He said what he said and it’s obvious that he meant it. Let’s put that horrible statement in context. Let’s remember that he’s got to say what the Insane Left tells him to say if he hopes that they’ll keep funding Senate campaigns. Let’s also remember that Reid is the idiot that rejoiced at killing the Patriot Act:

WALLACE: All right. Change of subject. You voted this week to block renewal of the Patriot Act, and as we mentioned with Secretary of State Rice, key provisions of that act are due to expire by the end of the year.

After the vote on Friday, you talked at a Democratic Party meeting, and let’s take a look at what you had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Think of what happened 20 minutes ago in the United States Senate. We killed the Patriot Act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Senator, is that really something to celebrate?

REID: Of course it is. The fact is that I voted for the original Patriot Act. It was the right thing to do. And the Patriot Act that I talked about there, at least some semblance of it, came out of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate unanimously. It passed the Senate unanimously. It was an improvement over what we had.

Now he wants us to believe that he’s pro victory in Iraq? Are we to believe that the man who rejoiced at taking away vital tools from law enforcement would give the military the things it needs for victory? Speaking charitably, that argument is laughable. Sen. Reid’s statements about killing the Patriot Act to loud applause shows that Harry Reid and the Democrats attending that press event aren’t serious about fighting terrorists. If they were, they wouldn’t have celebrated defeating the Patriot Act, which is the most important pieces of legislation in fighting the jihadists.

In other words, Sen. Feinstein is spinning Reid’s quote for all it’s worth. The truth is that Democrats like Harry Reid, Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and Dennis Kucinich aren’t the least bit engaged in fighting the jihadists. If they were, they’d understand the importance of winning in Iraq.

If the Democrats were serious about defeating the jihadists, they’d be offering alternative plans for winning in Iraq. They’d understand that Iraq is Ground Zero to terrorists like AQI. Instead, the Democrats talk about Iraq only in the context of gaining a political advantage. They should be ashamed of themselves.

That said, Democrats wouldn’t be Democrats if they had any shame.

Check out Captain Ed’s post about Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to even attend Gen. Petraeus’ briefing of the House tomorrow. Ed’s post is all the proof you need on whether Reid and Pelosi take Iraq seriously from a national security level.

Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Russ Feingold, John Murtha, Ted Kennedy, Iraq War, David Petraeus, Patriot Act, GWOT

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. [...] Original post by Gary Gross and software by Elliott Back [...]

   Pingback by Reid In Full Backpedal Mode at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source. — April 24, 2007 @ 8:04 pm

1. Feinstein (Dumb -Calif.),

   Comment by toolaye — April 24, 2007 @ 10:27 pm