California Conservative

As you know, I’ve been writing alot about Jack Murtha’s rant about immediately withdrawing our troops and that I’ve written that his calling for unconditional retreat has helped “reunite and reinvigorate” the GOP. Imagine my surprise today when I read Derrick Jackson’s Boston Globe column titled “White House plays chicken with a war hero” and Eleanor Clift’s column, titled “Murtha’s Moment”.

Both opine, incorrectly, that the White House came out second best in this tussle. Clift’s assumption is that there’s popular support for pulling out the troops while Jackson’s assumption is that an impressive pro-military resume is all you need to coverup a blunder of epic proportions.

Here’s Derrick Johnson’s opening paragraph:

The White House is so deluded, it actually believes it can turn a soaring hawk into a scrounging chicken. Stung by the call by US Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania to pull out of Iraq, Scott McClellan, President Bush’s press secretary, said this week, “It is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party.”

Notice that McLellan didn’t question Murtha’s patriotism. Instead, McLellan chose to simply point out that Murtha’s retreat was practically indistinguishable from something you’d expect from Michael Moore. Frankly, it sounded like something that Dennis Kucinich has been advocating since the war started.

Murtha should’ve expected this after proposing such a short-sighted policy. I suspect he did, though I don’t have proof of that.

Here’s a sampling of Clift’s mindless rant:

Administration officials were less reticent. A White House statement said Murtha was “endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party.” Indeed, the election campaign tactics are back in all but name, with the president and the vice president attacking critics by questioning their patriotism. The strategy may rally some of the Republican base. However, the broader public has made up its mind about this administration’s credibility, and Murtha isn’t the only member of Congress paying attention.

Notice how quickly Clift accuses the White House of “attacking critics by questioning their patriotism.” Clift obviously didn’t listen to what actually happened because the White House rightfully questioned the policy but didn’t get personal. It should also be noted that many of the Republicans’ speakers during debate of the actual resolution said one glowing thing after another about Murtha’s commitment to the troops. Again, they only questioned the wisdom of immediate retreat, something that should be debated.

Jackson concludes this way:

Murtha clobbered Cheney’s words the next day, saying, ”I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.”

This hawk still soars, above the scrounging chicken hawks.

Mr. Jackson’s animosity towards this White House is in full view, characterized by the name-calling and the avoidance of speaking to the issue at hand. You don’t win arguments by not talking about the core of the issue. Further, you lose arguments when all you have to offer are insults.

Finally, here’s another excerpt from Clift’s article:

President Bush and Vice President Cheney accuse Democrats of “rewriting history” by objecting to a war they voted for and claiming they were misled.

Finally, she gets something right. They weren’t misled and yet the Senate and House Democrats insist on not owning up to the votes they cast because they thought they could play politics with this issue forever. This week, they got caught in that misconception. This week, the administration and their allies in the House said “No more.” This week, the administration’s allies in the House said “Put up or shut up.”

Democrats are now whining about cheap political stunts, which, translated means they got called on a political stunt of their own. Score last night’s debate as a big win for the military and a big political victory for the Bush administration.

RELATED:
Reunited & Reinvigorated

Cross-posted at TheRevolutionWillBeBlogged

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 19th, 2005 at 8:46 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Military, W, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.