According to the Drudge Report (which on some days is a step below the bathroom wall in terms of reliability), the DNC worked to defeat Mayor Nagin:
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) secretly placed political operatives in the city of New Orleans to work against the reelection efforts of incumbent Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean made the decision himself to back mayoral candidate and sitting Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu (D-LA), sources reveal.
Dean came to the decision to back the white challenger, over the African-American incumbent Nagin, despite concerns amongst senior black officials in the Party that the DNC should stay neutral.
The DNC teams actively worked to defeat Nagin under the auspice of the committee’s voting rights program.
The party’s field efforts also coincided with a national effort by Democrat contributors to support Landrieu.
Landrieu had outraised Nagin by a wide margin – $3.3 million to $541,980.
Preliminary campaign finance reports indicate many of Landrieu’s contributions came from out of state white Democrat leaders and financiers, including a $1,000 contribution from Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) PAC.
The defeat of Mitch Landrieu is the latest setback for Dean’s often criticized field operation.
In his victory speech late Saturday night, Nagin praised President Bush.
“You and I have probably been the most vilified politicians in the country. But I want to thank you for moving that promise that you made in Jackson Square forward,” Nagin said.
Take it for what it is worth- but for some reason all I could think about when I read this was the Kossack desire to purge the Senate of Joe Lieberman.
*** Update ***
Like I said- bathroom wall.
SomeCallMeTim
You know, whenever anyone charges that Kos or other anti-Iraq war Dems want to “purge” someone, it might be nice if that person noted that all of this purging talk was started by the DLC/TNR/Lieberman faction of the Democratic Party about three years ago.
It’s reasonable disagree on policy directions, but generally these charges seem to be made to indicate that Kos or others are somehow more rude or venal than the guys who started all of this.
Mr Furious
I think they should have remained neutral. Nagin got some great, heroic press very early on during and after KAtrina. Then he got a lot of more critical/negative press.
I can’t really evaluate how he was as a mayor. Nor do I know how the residents of New ORleans feel about him. It think it is pretty unfair to judge the tenure of his term on a natural disaster (whether positive or negative). If NAgin has to kiss some Republican ass to get things done for his city, he should not be punished for it by the party—it is not at all the same thing as Lieberman.
If Nagin was a clear failure as a mayor, before, during and after Katrina, then the party has a responsibility to perhaps endorese a challenger, but only if Nagin’s stature was/is so poor that they would look negligent for standing on the sideline.
Since I haven’t heard that about Nagin, I think they should have kept a low profiile in this race.
Otherwise, I think Dean has done an outstanding job at the local level with his 50-state/every race strategy.
Slide.
lets wait and see what Dean and the DNC says. Raw Story is indicating that the story is untrue. You know.. kinda like Iran making jews wear yellow stars. We are in an age of disinformation so I’ll hold my opinion until I hear a bit more..
Ross
Druge makes no comment of why the DNC was campaigning against Nagin. Kos makes it clear as day why he is against Lieberman. So what’s the connection – an incumbent being challenged feels victimized? Doesn’t sound like much of a story.
Zifnab
Yeah, you’ll forgive me if I hold out a bit of skepticism on anything released by Drudge or Raw Story. Neither are what you would call highly credible sources.
But Dean’s judgement up until now has been fairly sound. If he thought Nagin needed to go, I’m willing to give Dean the benefit of the doubt before I give it to an ass-kisser like Nagin.
Either way, I’d hold out on more facts before I start passing judgement.
What’s more, there are Jews in Iran? That takes balls.
ppGaz
Gosh, political movements with actual agendas.
How shocking to see something like this in America!
America’s strength has always been in pulling together, supporting the government, and taking direction from the people in power and standing behind them.
You know, if the DNC “worked to defeat” Nagin, I say good for them. He’s an embarassment, an icon of self-serving government ineptitude.
As for “purging” the Senate of Lieberman? Funny choice of words, I thought purges happened in the old Soviet Union? Whereas here in the USA, officials have to stand for election. But I’m sure that the use of the word “purge” was an honest mistake by a guy who teaches communications at a university. Yeah. That’s it, just an honest mistake.
rilkefan
Umm, didn’t the proprietor of this blog come to the conclusion back in the day that Nagin is incompetent? And didn’t we all cringe at “chocolate city”? Shouldn’t you be cheering this story, if true?
Andrew Sullivan wants to believe. How many neurons were involved in reaching his conclusion is not clear to me.
Vladi G
Markos is a Democrat. Why shouldn’t he be expected to try and purge the Senate of Republicans like Lieberman?
Drudge Is Full Of It
According to Chris Bowers at MyDD Druge made it up. Not anything new for Drudge.
Telling Lies Online
by Chris Bowers, Sun May 21, 2006 at 10:40:45 PM EST
Drudge has a piece up about Dean right now, claiming that he supposedly made a personal decision to send DNC resources in support of Landrieu in the New Orleans mayoral election. There are several notable aspects of this piece:
* 1. It is completely unsourced.
* 2. I already have a better on the record source than Drudge. I received this from Donna Brazile:
The Democratic National Committee did not endorse any candidate for Mayor of New Orleans. The Party’s role was simply to help educate, inform and assist displaced voters.
So I’m already one step ahead of Drudge on this story.
* 3. The one Democrat Drudge cites as actually donating to Landrieu is Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the second most conservative Democrat in the country (after only Zell Miller). Pointing out the actions of Ben Nelson as somehow representative of all Democrats should have stretched even Drudge’s low threshold of credulity.
* 4. The article is clearly an attempt to try and draw a wedge in the Democratic Party between whites and African-Americans. Since Republican efforts to woo African-Americans, um, faltered, after Katrina and Bush administration disinterest resulted in the deaths of thousands and they declared, :
“we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did”
Republicans have now turned false, unsourced stories on Drudge instead.
* 5. The article is also an attempt to discredit Dean, the fifty-state strategy, and the netroots which have supported that strategy. Check out this choice graph:
The defeat of Mitch Landrieu is the latest setback for Dean’s often criticized field operation.
Criticized by who? Begala? Kind of makes you wonder who fabricated this story for Drudge.
Read the rest at: http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/5/21/224045/332
Daebo
Wow John. You live a lot closer to CT than I do so perhaps you have some inside information which proves that nearly 40% of the CT population are “kossacks”.
Clever
In that case, you owe me one.
Brian
Definition of “purge”:
To rid (a nation or political party, for example) of people considered undesirable.
I think John used the word quite apropriately. On a similar note, did anyone see the TV spot for Ned Lamont, Lieberman’s challenger? The spot with Kos and his merry band of moonbats? Lieberman’s a shoo-in now. Every candidate that Kos endorses (and who outside the political blogosphere even know who Kos is or what he looks like?) turns to shit.
ppGaz
I know what it is, you spoofass bonesmoker.
But in America, we “defeat incumbents,” we don’t “purge” them.
Purging is what you do when you sit down to post.
ppGaz
Fixed.
DougJ
While you’re at it John, how about a few posts about the secret meetings in Prague, the yellow star story from Iran, and Bill Clinton’s black baby? And why not go see if you dig up some stuff about how Joe Wilson was a French spy and Richard Clarke helped kill Vince Foster?
Those stories are out there. Why are you ignoring them?
Steve
That’s really all you could think about? So like… the racial angle never occurred to you? You didn’t notice how every other sentence of Drudge’s repeats the allegation that the DNC supported the white guy against the black guy?
Maybe John is like Stephen Colbert, who says “I don’t really see color, but people tell me I’m white.” Because otherwise, I don’t see how anyone could miss the point of Drudge’s smear job, and think that it was just another article about two Democrats running against one another.
As I recall, it wasn’t too long ago that Republican activists got upset enough with Arlen Specter to fund a strong primary challenge against him. Was that an attempt at an ideological “purge”? I dunno… felt a lot like democracy to me.
ppGaz
Well, I see a pattern. Last year after the pressures of school were removed, John went on a tear, posting stuff aimed at “pissing off” his lefty commentariat.
We’d just gotten into the swing, when hurricane season came along and huffed and puffed and blew the Bush house down. Anyway …
Checking the old calendar on the wall …..
hmm……..
DougJ
Drudge is reporting that, in order to punish Lieberman, the DNC is now requiring all Jewish members of Congress to wear a yellow star.
Developing…
VidaLoca
John,
maybe I’m reacting to an inopportune choice of words — and if I am, my apologies — but your problem with
purgingorganizing to remove an elected official who had outlived his mandate to hold office would be what, exactly? You don’t have to agree with the Kossacks, or the Angry Left(tm) more broadly, to concede that Lamont came out of nowhere to force a primary against a sitting incumbent — thanks to the state Party caucuses who are neither Kossacks nor Angry Left(tm).In my opinion the issue is not the Kossacks and it’s not the Angry Left(tm). The issue is Lieberman and his record. You’re either for him or against him.
ppGaz
Wow, that makes the DNC “worse than Hitler”, I think.
That means that DNC is the New Iraq in the WOT.
Oh baby, it’s going to be a long, hot summer.
norbizness
Of course, there are the high profile blogs saying that New Orleans deserves to get shafted because they voted incorrectly, I guess. I don’t know, I don’t live there and I’m unaware who the challengers are. If you do a Technorati search, you may find that Marion Berry has made an unexpected resurgence; his connection to the recent NOLA election is as yet unexplained.
P.S. Poor Lieberman! Fucking democracies with their fucking primary challenges! Whatever happened to letting the insurance companies choose the Senatorial candidate, before all that 17th Amendment nonsense?
ppGaz
Oh, I think Nagin and Berry are the perfect pair. A veritable Dynamic Duo.
VidaLoca
Crap, I’d have thought that with all the food fights going on here he wouldn’t have had to do that kind of thing this year to keep the page views up… :)
ppGaz
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
{ apologies to Stein, Bock and Harnick }
Brian
Actually, you don’t. You defined it as mass execution.
Want to smoke a bone do ya, you desperate little puke? Well, pucker up, Buttercup, while I unzip and let this monster out of his cage for ya.
ppGaz
Behold, your mighty member!
Impressive! Oh wait, that’s your leg ….
ppGaz
Is it too late to get Michael Brown back at FEMA? We could sure use his expertise this year
DougJ
Brian can be a good guy, but I think it may be time to start putting all of his comments through moderation.
It’s for you own good, Brian.
ppGaz
But, you’re Brian.
Everybody knows that.
Blue Neponset
It is posts like this one that make me miss John’s cat blogging. I would much rather hear about the new drinking bowl technologies available these days than Matt Drudge’s opinion about anything.
John, please take a vacation, man. Montreal is beautiful this time of year, and if you can’t get laid there then you didn’t try. Just my two cents.
DougJ
Hey, I give John as much crap as anybody, but let’s stay off the “you need to get laid” line of attack. We don’t know anything about John’s personal life and it just shouldn’t be a topic of conversation in any case. Just my two cents.
But Montreal is a nice place to visit. If the prices haven’t gone through the roof, try Tocque.
Marcus Wellby
Man, why are so many rabid Bush supporters hardcore closet cases?
Brian
Well, yes it is. It’s my third leg. They don’t call me The Human Tripod for nothin’.
And, on that story about the hurricane season, what exactly is so newsworthy about it? “There are expected to be hurricanes this year, and they may hit the mainland!!” Right, like in practically every year since the beggining of time?
Steve
Could Brian actually be Jeff Goldstein? Developing…
ET
I also read somewhere that former governor Mike Foster (Republican) and his protoge Bobby Jindahl set up a PAC to get republican money in order to support Nagin. They hoped a second Nagin administration would be so disasterous that it would permanantly harm the Democratic part in NOLA that the Republican party would benefit.
I am from NOLA and do know the state/city politics well enough to not completely dismiss this as a conspiracy, I can’t help but be sad if it is true. How utter cynical and frankly wrong on so many levels.
And just for the record of course the DNC was going to be support of Landrieu (if this story is to be believed) – his father is wired and his sister is a US Senator. The Landrieu family has the political connection that Nagin (with his one term as mayor) doesn’t.
Daebo
“They don’t call me The Human Tripod for nothin’.”
Wow Brian, you’re really tooting your own horn there aren’t ya?
A sure sign that the person in front of you was never a Navy Seal is the fact that he’s talked about his time in the Seals for the past 20 minutes.
I think the same theory applies here.
Tractarian
What does this all have to do with the Los Angeles race?
Daebo
And up until approximately 3 weeks before he originally filed to run for mayer Nagin was a registered Republican.
Blue Neponset
Good point DougJ. I didn’t intend to make that ‘you need to get laid’ argument, but I did. Sorry John. I do think you should take a vacation John. Mainly because I don’t think you are enjoying blogging much these days and I think it would help if you got away from it for a while.
Mr Furious
It’s true Kos might not have a great won/loss record. That’ll happen when you endorse the clear underdog in a sysytem rigged for the incumbent. None of those candidates “turned to shit” after Kos endorsed them. In fact, I’m sure much of the successin votes and fundraising was directly attributable to the exposure gained from Kos.
Jackass.
—
I will say the Lamont ad with Kos, is pretty damn goofy (aka bad). But Kos is never identified, so I cannot see a negative to it aside from the fact that its a dumb concept.
Angus
Would not surprise me if Nagin got GOP backing in the race. Nagin backed Bush for President in 2000, and almost did so again in 2004. Nagin also endorsed Bobby Jindal, the Republican candidate for Governor, in 2003.
Steve
From the WaPo political chat this morning:
LITBMueller
Sometimes?!?!??!!
Armed with ray guns, invisibility cloaks, and Diebold voting machines, these operatives waged a months-long effort to prevent people from voting for Mayor Nagin. It was only through the efforts of the X-Men, and their “Cerebro” device, that the identies and location of these operatives were revealed. Developing…
Ummm….the DNC exists to keep incumbents in office, while the Kossack community is not afraid of lining up against an incumbent if they do not meet their expectations. Seems pretty opposite to me!
chopper
dude’s also a former gooper. changed parties right before an earlier election figuring he’d get more votes that way.
Tom in Texas
My personal favorite Drudge item as of late has to be his denouncing of truthout.org for not apologizing forcefully enough when they wrote an unsourced article concerning Rove’s aleeged pending indictment. Matt Drudge is LIVID about unsubsantiated rumor and innuendo on the internet? He actually claimed it besmirched the internet’s reputation, or words to that effect? Hysterical.
Steve
Here’s another well-sourced bit from Drudge.
I’m sure Darrell will be along any moment now to denounce all this unsupported speculation and rumor.
ppGaz
Thass right, BrianJ. Like last year was “just another year” in the hurricane biz.
Try to keep up.
Otto Man
His batting average is low, but go back and look at the Goldwaterites’ early track record. Not much different.
Brian
Stop calling me Jack, dickshine.
There is only one reason that Kod is in there, and that would be his name recognition. There is no other reason for him to be in that spot. Problem is, he is not the brand name he thinks he is, so the spot only succeeds in taking attention off the candidate and what he stands for and places it on this group of freaks who walk into his house and take over the scene. This will only serve to steer votes away from Lamont and towards Lieberman. In other words, they’ll choose stability over the High on Life candidate and his ex-hippie posse.
chopper
Every candidate that Kos endorses (and who outside the political blogosphere even know who Kos is or what he looks like?) turns to shit.
they don’t turn to shit. they’re shit from the beginning, most of em. cause kos picks these underdog candidates in a hope that a few of em will win out of nowhere and demonstrate exactly how influential grassroots-type bloggy blogblog politics can be.
personally, i don’t think that grassroots-type bloggy blogblog politics is quite at that point, but all the fuckin up the bush admin has been doing is nothing but help to those bloggers on the left. it’ll get there eventually, and kos will be able to point at it and be there from the beginning.
neil
Surprisingly, nobody has mentioned in so many words that the DNC is exploring a lawsuit against Drudge. It’s from RAW STORY but has named sources:
Brian
I predict there will be hurricanes this year, just like last year, and the year before that. Some may be Cat. 3 or higher, and may or may not make landfall in the U.S.
I predict that there may be an earthquake in California of a magnitude of 4.5 or higher. It may hit NoCal, or it may hit SoCal. There most definitely wil be a similarly large earthquake in the Pacific Rim area, including the Pacific Ocean. If these don’t occur this year, I predict that they will happen eventually.
I predict the sun will rise in the east, and set in the west, for the foreseeable future. I’ve been studying the solar models being made at the local observatory, and I’ve decided to go out on this limb.
Think I can get a job at CNN? I’m obviously an expert.
neil
Every candidate that Kos endorses (and who outside the political blogosphere even know who Kos is or what he looks like?) turns to shit.
So Kos is such an influential person (even though nobody knows who he is) that he’s personally responsible for the Democrats losing the last 3 elections (i.e., all of them since he started his web site)?
If you really want to zing him, you could point out that his _predictions_ about pretty much every race have been wrong. Since he’s more of a pundit than a campaign manager, this is considerably more damning.
Pb
Brian,
Sadly. You’d give Wolf (“Leslie”) Blitzer a run for his money.
ppGaz
Oh yeah, you are definitely an expert.
Darrell
Of course, even though I never cited or touted it, I should be expected to issue a denunciation every time Drudge posts unsupported rumors.. right? Get a grip Steve, you’re supposed be part of the ‘reality based’ community, remember?
Pooh
Irony – Lost on the Senator for Months Running.
Ryan S.
Ohh. For a second I thought you where tring to impersonate Pat Roberts.
I believe you missed the one about someone saying something stupid and being publicly ridiculed for it.
Darrell
What’s so ironic jackass? Seriously.. fill us in
DougJ
I have a question: how long until the smearing of the Dixie Chicks begins again? And how much will it help sales?
The Other Steve
That’s interesting. Last fall all you could think about was what a horrible mayor Ray Nagin was.
I am curious why you guys fear Kos so.
Steve
I just thought, since you’re usually so quick to denounce the story of the day by saying “we need to wait until all the facts are in” or “there has been no judicial determination of this issue,” that you would of course apply the same standard to the story under consideration. It’s a bullshit story unworthy of this blog, right?
Perry Como
Has the Republican Black Caucus weighed in from the Hill?
chriskoz
Darrell:
Why not? I’ve seen you denounce lots of things you never “cited” or “touted”.
In fact… you have often been the flag bearer for denouncing things critical or bad for the current administration. No matter who cited it.
Why not this time?
Steve
What I don’t understand is, since Howard Dean is this unhinged loon who makes the entire Democratic Party look like an unelectable joke (right?), why GOP mouthpieces like Drudge work so hard to try and bring him down. You’d think they’d want him to have a lifetime appointment.
DougJ explained to me, though, that the Republicans are just extremely civic-minded people who believe a healthy opposition party is an essential component of our democracy, and they are growingly increasingly annoyed with the Democrats’ frustrating inability to win elections. I guess I see his point.
Brian
I do.
He’s perfect in his incompetence. But it’s so delicious to point out his stupidity.
Pb
Wait, I lost track… are we talking about Bush?
Mr Furious
Bullshit. Nobody in Connecticut who sees that very limited ad will have any idea who the hell comes in and sits on the couch with Lamont. None. I bet half the people who read Kos don’t know what he loooks like.
This was done as a lark and as a nod to Kos the netroots who have done a lot to push Lamont and garner support for him. That’s it. they alll high-five each other and that’s about it.
As I said above, I think the ad is dumb. And I don’t think it helps Lamont at all. Not because the virtually unrecogizable in face and name Kos is going to drive away voters, but because it’s a dumb concept that is poorly executed.
The only possible way this is a negative for Lamont is if it gets enough traction in the Connecticut press to have a Michael Moore/Wes Clark effect—ie: “This is the kind of wacko backing Ned Lamont…”
That’s unlikely, because Kos has nowhere near the recognition of Michael Moore.
Stop trying to think for the Democrats, Brian. People who are fed up with Lieberman are not switching back to him because the insurgent candidate is “too edgy.”
If Lieberman wins, it will be because he is the incumbent, has more money and name recognition. It won’t be because Kos showed up as an anonymous face in a Lamont ad.
On the other hand, if Lamont wins, its a nice feather in the cap for Kos, because he was there early.
We’ll see in November.
ppGaz
It takes them a while to put on their blackface.
Mr Furious
For the record, I grew up in Connecticut, and most of my family and friends still live there. I don’t know ANYONE who likes Lieberman. Not a one. Given a legit alternative, every single one of them will vote for a Dem challenger.
DougJ
It’s because all your “friends” and “family” are part of the loony left.
Don’t be insulted. About 68% of Americans are now part of the loony left.
DougJ
Actually, ppgaz, they’re busy doing soft shoe at an RNC fundraiser.
The Other Steve
That’s why I think it’s good to go to a primary. I think you’ll find in any party that the caucus goers, generally the party officers and such are more aligned with the incumbent because they scratch each other on the back.
Could be wrong. Maybe Lieberman get’s 80% of the vote in the primary.
But at least he’s being forced to sweat a bit.
You know the thing is, I used to defend Lieberman even though I didn’t agree with him, up until the point as SomeCallMeTim notes… where he started attacking Democrats and calling us names.
And what I don’t disagree with Old Joe on, is mostly his attacking Hollywood all the time.
ppGaz
And that’s just within the Lieberman family.
Steve
The thing about Lieberman is that he seems to embody the word “sanctimonious.” He lost me forever when he got up on his high horse to denounce Clinton – as if the whole world didn’t already know that what Clinton did was tawdry and disgusting. It’s that you have the Republicans rushing to make this sex scandal into grounds for impeachment, and Lieberman, completely ignoring the political context, decides that now would be a good time to let the world know that he, Joe Lieberman, personally disapproves of the President’s conduct in the strongest possible terms.
There are any number of elected Democrats who still support the war, and I’m fine with most of them in spite of it all, but only Joe goes around denouncing war critics as irresponsible. It’s like he’s constantly auditioning for a guest spot on Fox News.
ppGaz
Some of them do publicly, but privately almost everyone in Washington knows these days that Iraq has been mired in civil war for a year now. Nir Rosen, a journalist just back from the country and author of a new book on the subject, says that the American presence now is mainly just an annoyance there. The warring factions — Sunni and Shia — just go around the American presence to carry out their attacks on each other. The old view of Iraq as a haven for Al Qaeda and a place where America is “fighting terrorists” is now just crass political myth. America isn’t fighting anything there now, other than it own death toll. The deadly struggle between factions in Iraq will continue no matter what we do, according to Rosen, who points out that, of course, all of this completely politically incorrect in this country, which is why noone wants to talk about it. Except a few like Murtha.
The so-called “War on Terror” in Iraq is now entirely fictional.
John S.
Then that means we won!
Mission accomplished.
Vladi G
Seeing as how he only got 67% of the vote at the convention, about 20% less than he was expected to get, I highly doubt he’ll get 80% in the primary.
Steve
Apparently the DNC’s lawyers were successful in extracting a half-hearted retraction from Drudge. However, that guy who said Rove was indicted two weeks ago is still at large.
ppGaz
Maybe Bush floated the story. He’s probably tried everything else to get rid of the engorged parasite.
Like, calling Karl on the intercom. “Come into the Oval, Karl.” And then hiding in the bathroom when Rove gets there. After a while, you’d think the guy would take a hint.
Steve
It seems that Drudge’s cheap shot at Al Gore from earlier today has also been retracted. John needs to find himself a better class of tabloid.
Andrew
Why aren’t we talking about Al Gore’s plan to make Republicans wear tree shaped badges in public?
ppGaz
What’s the difference between Drudge, and Darrell?
Drudge apparently will issue a retraction when confronted with the facts.
John S.
There are infinite places that one can go with this.
They are all dark and disturbing.
demimondian
Oooh, can I play?
Druge has been right at least once?
Darrell
Compare that to the un-retracted cheap shots John Murtha has leveled – accusing Marines of cold blooded murder of civilians while the investigation is still open and fact unconfirmed… Some lefties on BJ have touted that story as well, no doubt because they ‘feel’ it must be true.
Perry Como
Murtha accused Marines of murder because he hates the military. Duh.
Darrell
He tried to undermine military recruiting earlier, and then makes an accusation of murder against the military while the investigation is still open. I guess those marines don’t deserve any better, right? No wonder he’s a hero to the left..
ppGaz
Murtha didn’t make up the story, he reported it, following his own investigation. He’s a decorated Marino hero, and based on what I know of him, I have no reason do doubt his account. The Marines corps as acknowledged the incident as well.
The story is almost certainly true, and your constant references to it here are weird, since to my knowledge, nobody here has asserted anything in particular about the story other than the widely published facts.
Obviously you are using the story as a strawman for some or another of your useless and tedious fucking “points,” only nobody is listening to you, in case you hadn’t noticed.
If you don’t have something useful to say about the story, why don’t you quit bringing it up?
Perry Como
The Ret. Major General that was on Hardball this evening brought up Haditha too. It was obvious from the foam surrounding his mouth that he has a seething hatred of the military. For all we know that 3 year old Iraqi girl had an rpg aimed at the marines. Anyone that disagrees wants the terrorists to win.
lard lad
I suspect that Murtha has inside info from military officials who know the dirt on this story (and are appropriately appalled), and he wants to get the details out before Rummy’s spin machine gets fired up.
All one has to do is recall the Pentagon’s frenzied efforts to cover up Abu Ghraib and the Taguba report to see how much sense that makes on Murtha’s part.
Perry Como
But do you have any proof? I think this is another smear campaign by French spies (aka Joe Wilson) to discredit our military. They’ve been working with the DNC on how they can blame the troops, when they aren’t working on the new Democrat dating site matchmetoaterrorist.com.
ppGaz
Murtha is pretty tight with the Corps, and I imagine that they wanted him to float out the story, knowing that he would defend the Marines involved and blame the event on the war, and not on the Marines themselves. Which is what he did. He attributes the thing to “the pressure they are under.” Whereas someone who doesn’t really support the troops might try to spin the story as one of bad American soldiers doing bad things.
Murtha is a pretty savvy politician, and knows that he is taking heat here. My take on it is that he is taking this heat in order to serve as a shield for the Marines. Nobody is going to attack the Marines with Murtha in the room. And I think he’s doing another heroic service. It would be easy to bash the Marine Corps for this, but with Murtha taking the point, that’s not going to happen.
Pooh
PoTD
Pooh
BTW, this thread demonstrates a point of a great post I read a few weeks ago – how American politics at this point seems solely about Iraq…discuss
Demdude
For the entertainment value I was listening to Sean Hannity. The Swift Boat Bottom Feeders have Murtha in their sites now.
He isn’t Kerry. This should be interesting.
DougJ
How gay is Matt Drudge by the way? Is he still technically closeted? Not that he should have to wear pink triangle like they do in Iran.
Harley
The idea that the only folks who want to shove Saint Joe out of the Senate are Kossites is moronic in the extreme. Leiberman has spent the last few years playing to the camera while ignoring his blue state base. It should come as no surprise that a little buyer’s remorse is finally taking hold.
tBone
On a scale of 1 to Gannon, he’s a 7.
neil
Drudge has replaced the story with an all-but rebuttal. He gives the DNC’s side of the story and then says that he takes Dean and the DNC “at their word,” a forced statement which is consistent with RAW STORY’s report that the DNC’s lawyer demanded Drudge take it down.
MAX HATS
Is there any evidence for Drudge literally sucking D besides the memoir of a pathological liar and Drudge’s well-known eccentricity regarding hats?
Because as far as the hat thing goes I don’t read anything into it. ANYTHING.
demimondian
Neither was Kerry. The SBVFBS (Swift Boat Vets For BS) got away with defining Kerry, and I don’t doubt that we’ll be reading their talking points about Murtha filtered through John’s propaganda-immune keyboard pretty soon, too.
The question is not whether Murtha is Kerry, but whether 2006 is 2004.
Ancient Purple
Hats?
I thought Drudge’s fetish was eggs.
Maybe eggs with hats. Or hats covered in eggs.
Who knows?
Andrew
With Drudge, I’m pretty sure it’s not the funny hats so much as the gay sex with homosexuals.
Richard 23
MAX HATS: is that a Men without Hats reference?
The Other Steve
So you are stating unequivocally that the story is false?
That’s interesting. The Torygraph(Britains Conservative paper) is reporting differently.
I’m a pretty big believer in the Innocent until proven guilty. I mean I was defending Scott Peterson’s right to a fair trial, long after Nancy Grace and the other talking heads had convicted him.
But there’s a big difference between yelling we ought to hang people, to going around claiming the charges are completely false and those bringing them up have a political motive.
That’s pretty moonbatty.
Thank god I’m in the middle, and am simply disturbed by this incident, but thankful that the military is now investigating it and is bringing charges as they should. A military which loses discipline is weak.
ppGaz
Yes, and unless I’ve missed it, nobody here has yelled anything about the case. At all.
Darrell is wishing somebody would, so that he can put some underwear on his strawman.
Punchy
I had no idea. I’ve always wondered why he’s so happy to be with Sean Hannity…it’s falling into place now…
Temple Stark
Murtha also never used the word “murder” – that is the writer’s addition. The TIME writer shouldn’t have used that phraseology. Murtha seems to have outlined the facts as he knew them and he seems to be – based on other reporting cited above – right.
True and trusted military officers, just like cops, are more than happy to “purge” the terrible elements out of their profession.
Darrell
Almost as moonbatty as those like you who falsely accuse others of saying the charges are “completely false”. Nobody said that. You made that strawman up and pulled it out of your ass. Some ‘centrist’ you are.
It was completely out of line for Murtha to accuse those marines of murdering civilians while the investigation IS STILL ONGOING. Murtha said the murders were comparable to the Mai Lai massacre during Vietnam.
The Other Steve
Not really, because that is what you’ve been doing.
Whenever there is a chance to stand on the right side of justice, to step back from defending the indefensible… you always fail to take that path.
Darrell
Just to be clear, you made up a story that someone said Murtha’s claims were “completely false” when all that was said was that it was wrong and inappropriate for Murtha to publicly make such inciteful and damaging accusations while the investigation was still open.. while facts were still being gathered and confirmed. Glad to see you backing up Murtha on that one.
So by choosing the strawman route, you see yourself as the noble truth teller “defending the indefensible” as you say, right?.. Pathetic