California Conservative

Everyone that’s capable of thinking knows that the various wire services are hopelessly liberal. Still, it isn’t often that you see examples like this:

Bush held out the promise for such a change, but it is not materializing, Reid said.

Reid wasn’t specific about what amendments Democrats would offer, or whether they had the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP stalling efforts and to prevail.

Notice that the AP wasn’t quoting Sen. Reid when they said they didn’t know if “they had the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP stalling efforts…” That’s the AP’s editorial comment. I’d love asking AP reporter Ann Flaherty why she chose to characterize the GOP’s effort to support our commander-in-chief a stalling tactic. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to say that it wasn’t certain if Democrats could muster up the 60 votes needed to block the GOP filibuster?

Besides Ms. Flaherty’s unwarranted editorializing, there’s the daily declaration that Sen. Reid doesn’t think that President Bush’s plan declares defeat fast enough:

Senate Democratic leaders on Wednesday rejected the call by the top U.S. general in Iraq for a reduction of up to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by next summer, saying it does not go far enough.

“This is unacceptable to me, it’s unacceptable to the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-NV). Reid said the recommendation by Gen. David Petraeus, expected to be embraced on Thursday by President Bush in a speech to the nation, “is neither a drawdown or a change in mission that we need. His plan is just more of the same.”

It’s getting annoying listening to Sen. Reid and Speaker Pelosi telling us that the surge isn’t a change of direction. They’re doing their best to ignore the information that everyone is reading and talking about. It’s as if they didn’t pay attention to anything that Gen. Petraeus said during his testimony.

Clearly, though, this week’s testimony by Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker has shifted the debate inside the Beltway. It’s obvious that Reid and Pelosi are talking from a weakened position. Here’s what Peter Wehner thinks of Gen. Petraeus’ testimony:

General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, testifying before the House and the Senate during the last two days, did what many people thought was impossible: They reset the Washington clock. These good men, by what they have achieved in Iraq and by the force and power of their testimonies, have recast the terms of the debate. They will now have until next summer to build on their successes, which in turn could eventually lead to a decent outcome in Iraq.

I wholeheartedly agree. I wish I could say that I’m surprised but I can’t. I shouldn’t be that surprised since I predicted this in August:

The bad news for anti-war Democrats is that more military successes will make it into the public discussion between now and Gen. Petraeus’ and Amb. Crocker’s reports in mid-September. The worse news for anti-war Democrats is that Gen. Petraeus’ report will talk about the multitude of successes Operation Arrowhead Ripper has had. When the American people hear that the military campaign is making significant progress in killing AQI terrorists and that sectarian casualties have dropped significantly, then their opinions will change.

I paid attention to the reports coming from Iraq this summer. I made certain that I checked websites like Vets for Freedom, Victory Caucus, Stars & Stripes and BlackAnthem.com for the latest news from Iraq. In so doing, I learned that reconciliation meetings were held in Diyala Province. I learned about how the sheikhs had turned against AQI terrorists in Ramadi and throughout al-Anbar Province.

That’s why this week’s testimony wasn’t a surprise. In fact, I can’t say that Sen. Reid’s reaction was surprising either. They’ve based their 2008 election strategy on bad news from Iraq. If conditions in Iraq improve, Hillary will have to adopt yet another stance on the war. If she does that, she’ll look as confused as a chameleon on a plaid background.

Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton are a perfect pair. Neither of them has any core beliefs other than that they’re opposed to anything that President Bush says or does.

Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Agenda Media, Troop Surge, David Petraeus, Ryan Crocker, Reconciliation, Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, AQI, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Hillary, Iraq, Military, Pelosi, 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.