California Conservative

Lean back in your easy chair and just enjoy my latest fisking another puff piece on John Murtha, this time from the LA Times. Check out the title of their article:

“Swift Boat” Veterans Set Sights on Rep. Murtha

Omigod. Those evil Swift Boat vets setting their sights on another patriotic war hero who…..shot his mouth off and ‘convicted’ a platoon of Marines without any proof. How dastardly can it be?

In a fight that organizers say will feature rallies, TV ads and an aggressive Internet campaign, these activists are promising to make Murtha pay for his criticism of the Iraq war.

WRONGO!!! As I’ve said dozens of times, we’re taking Murtha to task because he ignored the Marines’ constitutional rights to a fair trial and to various due process rights. We’re taking Murtha to task because it isn’t even certain that they’ll be charged.

His proposing the “immediate redeployment” ‘plan’ was something I spoke out about but it wasn’t something that I dwelt on because I knew it wouldn’t and shouldn’t have been taken seriously.

Few believe that Murtha, a Vietnam veteran who has represented his district since 1974, is in much danger of being driven from office.

Count me as one of the few and the proud proclaimers that he’ll lose. Just because the Agenda Media doesn’t see the freight train picking up steam doesn’t mean that it isn’t coming Murtha’s direction.

But in the wake of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s defeat in Connecticut’s Democratic primary last week, Murtha’s showdown with an increasingly vocal group of opponents provides more evidence of the prominent role the Iraq war is playing in this year’s midterm campaign.

That’s just a peripheral issue. Speaking for the MMG writers group, I can confidently say that the central issue for us is Murtha’s ignoring the Constitution while berating brave men in harm’s way. That Murtha would chastise these heroic young men while they’re facing death daily without him so much as getting a detailed briefing following a thorough investigation is disgusting. For that alone, Murtha deserves to get chastized. Couple that with his throwing out the Constitution in violation of his oath in office and I’ve got plenty of motivation to defeat him this November.

Murtha has brushed aside the attacks. “It’s ludicrous,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week. “What they are trying to do is distract from the [Iraq] issue…There is no one who supports the military more than me.”

Keep believing that that’s all it is, Mr. Murtha. Keep believing that right through this November and I’ll be writing about your retirement party this Thanksgiving.

As for Murtha’s statement that “There is no one who supports the military more than me”, I don’t doubt that he genuinely feels that way. That isn’t the point. More people aren’t believing that. Here’s a bit of proof that not everyone shares Murtha’s opinion:

“Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you…(applause).
“Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn’t have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
“And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn’t come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That’s reprehensible. I don’t know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high.”

Forgive me if I don’t take that as a testimony of Murtha’s great affection for the military. Sgt. Seavey isn’t alone in that sentiment, either. In fact, Seavey’s opinion of Rep. Murtha is far more widespread than the Agenda Media realizes. Here’s more proof of that:

In tiny Charleroi, Pa., Nikki A.C. Sheppick, a 54-year-old housewife who served as an Army personnel officer in 1972-73, has made a series of dining-table-sized panels with cartoons, text and photos attacking Murtha for his comments about the alleged civilian massacre in Iraq. “You just don’t talk about the troops that way,” said Sheppick, who recalled how hurtful criticism of soldiers was during the Vietnam era. She is helping organize an effort called “Operation Street Corner,” in which volunteers are to take the cartoon panels to fairs, shopping centers and other public places.

Don’t think that MMG won’t be hyping the daylights out of Ms. Sheppick’s efforts. Don’t think that MMG won’t be echoing Ms. Sheppick’s sentiments, too.

Meanwhile, Murtha’s Republican challenger, county commissioner Diana Irey, is making Murtha’s comments on the war a focal point of her campaign. “That’s the issue that people come up to me and talk about,” she said in a recent interview.

At Point Stadium in Johnstown, where thousands converge every summer for the All American Amateur Baseball Association championships, Jeff Katarski said the issue bothers him. “I think [Murtha's] talking out of both sides of his mouth,” said Katarski, who served in the Navy for five years in the late 1970s and early ’80s. “To me, he should know better than to criticize the administration and the troops during war, at least openly…It hurts morale.”

Ms. Irey’s campaign has been smart in hammering Murtha’s ongoing anti-war diatribe on a daily basis. There’s no convincing me that PA-12’s vets aren’t listening to Ms. Irey’s message of support for the troops and their mission.

Murtha may reflect the feelings of a large portion of his constituents, said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the polling institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, which polls extensively across the Northeast. Opposition to the war “emerged earlier [in the region] than it did in other parts of the country,” Richards said.

Mr. Richards is mistaken in his opinion. People have disagreed with how President Bush has prosecuted the war, which shows up in the right track/wrong track ratings on the war but it doesn’t mean that people favor pulling out.

The reality is that Iran would essentially open a ‘branch country’ in Iraq via Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia if we left. Of course, we won’t hear that from the Agenda Media but that’s where the Right Blogosphere will flourish. We’ll point these important things out so people can factor that into their voting decisions.

Technorati Tags: Murtha, Irey, Elections 2006, Iraq

Cross-post at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Elections, Military, Subversives, Terrorism, W. 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.