If you want to understand what an absolute position of weakness the Republican minority is working from (which makes the suckitude of the Democrats even more inexplicable), check out today’s antics from the Grand Old Party:
House Republican leaders introduced a resolution Monday condemning a full-page newspaper ad from MoveOn.org that criticizes the character of Gen. David Petraeus, the commanding general of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The resolution, authored by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), is cosponsored by 11 Republicans, including Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs panel.
“The despicable attack MoveOn.org launched against General Petraeus today should be condemned by all Members of Congress, including the Democratic leadership,” Boehner said. “I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to join in support of this resolution so the House speaks with one voice rejecting the character assassination tactics employed by this extremist group.”
That is it. The current GOP is a snivelling, brain-dead, spineless group of sewer trout, always focussed on political advantage, never paying a lick of attention to what really matters. In the aftermath of Petraeus’s lame and essentially fact-free testimony (BUT HE HAD CHARTS!), they are not focusing on on the hard decisions that need to be made, they are not soul-searching and trying to determine their role in this mess. That would make too much sense. Instead, they are doing what they always do- lashing out, trying to achieve one more temporary little political victory.
Condemning MoveOn won’t save one god damned life in Iraq. It will, however, make the dead-enders they represent giggle like a self-satisfied toddler on the pot.
Personally, I don’t support the rhetoric in the ad. Just like I didn’t support Kerry being called a traitor, or Durbin being called a traitor, and so on. However, apparently this ad is such a big deal, and a fringe group calling Petraeus Betray Us is such a problem, that we should get to the bottom of it. As early as March of this year, a commenter at Outside the Beltway (I can not find the link right now) noted that Petraeus was dubbed Betray Us by his troops because of his ability to self promote, among other things.
So here is what needs to be done, wingnuttosphere, to support your Congressmen in their denunciation of MoveOn. We need a full-on Beauchamp. We need to find and root out the soldiers who may have referred to Petraeus this way, because clearly they are not patriots.
This should not be hard- just get the Army records of who has served with him, and start asking soldiers. I have it on good authority that soldiers never lie. So come on, Michael Goldfarb. Come on, Confederate Yankee. Your country and your party need you.
We need to do this so the truth can get out.
Pb
Re: that OTB post — here you go, John.
Zifnab
Hey, if Republicans want to go down this road, I say let them. Back in ’04 and ’05, when Democrats were staring into the dark pit of minority status, they proposed ethics reform, troop reductions, and an increase in the minimum wage. What did they win on in ’06? Ethics reform, troop reductions, and increasing the minimum wage.
Does the Republican Party really think its going to reclaim its status as a party by running on the “We don’t like MoveOn.Org” platform? When neighborhoods are getting depopulated by the mortgage bust and job growth is slipping into negative territory, we’ll see how many people pick up the “Help defend General Petreaus from a left-wing anti-war non-profit group!” and let out a hearty battle cry.
I can see the Republican fundraising troubles disappearing before my very eyes.
whippoorwill
I’ll never understand why so many republicans require something or somebody to attack on a daily basis. It is particularly ugly when it’s one their own their carving up. Of course Democrats sometimes indulge in this activity but most don’t unless it’s a Democrat habitually attacking other Democrats {I.E. The whiny one from New England}. Although I have different political beliefs than Will, we both belong to the Church of Baseball and therefore Malkin et all…. Go suck an egg!
The Other Steve
Careful. Michael Goldfarb might call you shrill.
Dennis-SGMM
The shorter Boehner: “You owe us a Harrumph!”
The Other Steve
Tally-Ho men!
neil
Boy, MoveOn really touched a nerve with that one.
The Other Steve
Mission Accomplished.
And I’m not even a fan of moveon.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
You’re being naive and silly. Resolutions like this are part of daily business in Congress. They take almost no time to draw up and pass, and they do not impede vital matters, nor show any failure of resolve in relation to Iraq.
Let me try to be as hysterical as you are for a second. From yesterday’s Congressional Record:
Why must the Senate be so preoccupied with dead miners that they ignore Iraq????
Pancreatic Cancer? While our boys are in Iraq? Get back to winning the war, Congress, and stop ignoring Iraq!
Oh, my God! What has celiac disease have to do with Iraq? Aaaaaaaugh!
Meanwhile, the number of Balloon Juice posts on Mr. Hsu and illegal money to Democrats? Zero. Nada. Nothing to see, move along!
But if the GOP would be implicated, John would have carpel tunnel by now. Whatever. You should rename the site IOKIYAD.
whippoorwill
Well MoveOn did make in the form of a question- “Betray-Us”?-. How many times during the course of the news day does Fox News post slurs of Democrats in banners with a question mark. Hey, we just asked the question, no harm no foul.
I wonder if the House Republicans get any political mileage out of such a stunt, except maybe for the 28 percenter’s . I suspect any possible widespread outrage at liberals will be soundly trumped by the steady stream of flag draped coffins and mangled soldiers coming out of Iraq everyday.
KCinDC
Wingnuts have been using “Senator Betrayus” as a nickname for Hagel for a while now. I don’t really get the thought process behind ridiculing someone with a pun based on a different person’s name, but maybe another resolution is in order?
Xanthippas
Resolutions in which members of Congress condemn political organizations by private citizens are “daily business”? Interesting. Perhaps in these times, you are correct.
I personally agree with Zifnab up above. I say to the GOP: good job fellas. Listen to the likes of EEE&L and keep up the good work.
Alan
At least this Republican display won’t harm the Party in the eyes of its constituents. Unlike the brilliance displayed during the Shiavo affair. LOFL
Jake
Yep, and anyone who doesn’t vote for this resolution will immediately be tarred as Pet Raeus Haterz and that will be expanded into Soldier Haterz and from there Al-Qaida Loverz (because they’re all one and the same) and during the next election cycle they’ll go on and on about the evil Soldier Hating, Terrorist Loving Democrats who didn’t vote for Resolution We Hate MoveOn Neener, Neener, because that will be the only thing they have.
Meanwhile, as Xanthippas points out, watch your mouths Commrades.
Face
General Betrayus
General Pet Rockus
General Bet Raise Us
General Portray us
General Boot Anus
whippoorwill
Dear Lambchop,
If the GOP would be implicated, That’s a riot. That phrase is akin to “if the sun comes up” or “if the Pope would be Catholic” How many GOP’ers in prison, how many “implicated” in non-family values type hobbies. How many current targets of federal investigations, from a GOP Justice Department. And your outraged about campaign donations that may or may not be illegal. Of course, that sort of thing never happens to the GOP. Get real Miss Lambchop.
Rick Taylor
I don’t support the rhetoric of the add, but I think I see the point to it. Calling people names has been a staple of Rush Limabaugh humor for ages and no one’s really cared. But there’s this sense that General Petraeus is a sort of saint, a sanctified member of the military. Only his judgement matters, and it is certainly beyond the pale to suggest he has anything but the highest and most noble of motives. When I hear war supporters talking about him, it’s with a sort of veneration you would never hear for a member of congress, for example. I doubt they would have reacted to a senator’s name being made fun of the way they have his (Obama Osama anyone?). One must not question his integrity or honor!
Well bull. Petraeus is a human being, and there’s no reason his history and motives shouldn’t be taken into account in assessing his testimony as they would with anyone else. This veneration of the general like he’s some sort of saint is unhealthy, and not all what I would have though of as “conservative” values in the past. Maybe it takes a little name calling to prick this, to get people angry, to declare the emporor has no clothes. Certainly the add wouldn’t have gotten nearly the attention it did, and the criticisms it makes beyond the name calling are substantial enough.
timb
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop = Dan Collins
timb
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop, posts on Protein Wisdom re: Alan Fabian = 0
The Globe on Mr. Fabian
here.
I’ll breathlessly await the Dan Collins post on Mr. Fabian and how he somehow relates directly to Romney. After we know Hsu is actually Hillary in drag.
John
Thank goodness the party that brought us Band-Aids with little purple hearts on them is standing up against those who dare disrespect our military.
wasabi gasp
I like pietraeus!
Zifnab
That was different, because we all know that Democrats never actually served in the military except as a part of a grand conspiracy to undermine it.
ThymeZone
Well, until somebody gets it, I will keep saying it. All outcomes on Capitol Hill are about vote counts. The expected vote count in any situation determines what will happen and what the outcome will be.
What happens on the floor and in the hallways is mostly theater. The vote counts also are predictors for what the theater will be. When the votes are not there to actually change anything, then the theater takes over and posturing replaces action.
Under current rules and given the distribution of the congress, what you have now is what you get until the next congress is sworn in.
If you want to change that, change the distribution in the next congress and change the vote counts. Or, get some Republicans to break from the administration and change the vote count. Either way, without a change in the vote count, you are stuck. Stop complaining.
If you think I am wrong, write a few Senators and ask them to explain it to you. Or better yet, write to their staffs, since they are on top of the situation. Start with the whips.
Tax Analyst
What TZ just said. I can’t find a single word to disagree with. People who want to blame the Democrats for not making anything happen need to ask the Republicans why they insist on continuing to support a bloody, destructive and eventually useless fiasco. Yeah, I’d like to see more Dems display a little more in the way of cojones, but that still wouldn’t change the vote count.
carsick
The only way to combat moveon is with a constitutional amendment. I’m hoping that Rep. Boehner puts the issue of a proposed amendment against moveon’s ad at the center of the ’08 election cycle platform.
Rick Taylor
It’s been like that for years.
What drove it home for me was how the Republicans responded when congressman Murtha made his proposal to withdraw American troops and create a strike force. I’m certainly not saying that his proposal was perfect or that no one ought to have opposed him; it’s not an easy question what to do in Iraq. But it was a serious proposal. By then it was an obvious we were in an awful mess. Reasonable people could certainly disagree, but we needed a dialogue about what to do.
The Republicans would have none of that. Rather than engage in serious discussion, or make proposals of their own, they saw it as an opportunity to take advantage. “Cut and Runners!” I was shaken. Even with Americans dying in Iraq every day (not to mention Iraq becoming a living hell), what was important to the Republicans was covering their own collective ass, and taking political advantage where they could. The Democrats were far from perfect, but there was at least some attempt to figure out how to address the horrific consequences of the endless occupation we’d engaged in.
Ever since then, for me, the Republicans have gone from respected opposition to a party I fervently hope is utterly crushed. Let them go the way of the whigs, and let a new political party be formed from the Democrats. Let them become historical relics. When Americans were suffering and dying, all they cared about was political advantage. I don’t know how to express how appalling it all is.
Zifnab
Yes, yes, vote count, vote count. That’s all well and good until you see numbers like with the McGovern Bill that barely get the majority of Democrats’ votes. Or when you see someone like Feinstien flip on a key justice appointment like Southwick. To quote a Republican, “Words mean things” and what they say on their stump speeches don’t just get read into the record to kill trees and waste oxygen. Political theater serves to shame opponents, rally allies, draw lines in the sand, and stack people near them.
Sure, the average Senator’s speech on the Senate floor is no more than a few minutes on Meet the Press or Face the Nation. But that doesn’t make the posturing worthless.
The fact that Republicans have the cajones to stand up and bash MoveOn in full session suggests that either they are so out of touch with their constituency, they’ve gone insane. Or their constituency is so out of touch with reality that this sort of theater works on them. These two possibilities are important if you want to flip votes and swing legislation in the future.
Carl Gordon
Funny, but are you missing the big picture (or more correctly, the extremely small picture)? Experiencing the seemingly separateness of things, say John Stewart,(or even Bush himself) and yourself, the viewer, as two different entities is deceptive, when in fact we and everything in the universe are all a bunch of swirling tornados of molecules and atoms, and, if you really want to get down, quarks and their various attracting/repelling strong/weak forces, running into each other and giving the false reading of separate “things”, keeping in mind that none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the uncertainty principle which forced the relative ordered and unified Big Bang to fly apart and then coalesce into the objects we see today, you know, galaxies, stars, planets, people, and pints of lager. It’s the third law of thermodynamics and you just can’t drive around it, nor does it respond to “WTF!”! Instead of everything everywhere flying apart at faster and faster rates of speed, just like you would assume when a uniform singularity like the universe before the big bang would be like, as it would result in a “uniform” explosion, the assumption is that there would be no anomalies to slow down enough that their gravity would instead cause random sections to collapse within themselves and form “things”. But I’m getting way ahead of myself here. We’re all illusory parts off the same thing. And some of those parts have a fake Texas accent and are criminally stupid. And so can babble on (Babylon?) incessantly and confuse at even greater levels.
Tax Analyst
Insane or just so morally and intellectually bankrupt that they are willing to sacrifice more soldiers and whatever scant remaining respect and Goodwill the U.S. has in World Opinion to stay in the current mode – lest they have to admit how wrong they have been about everything they alleged about Iraq. If they admit to being wrong all along that could cost them among the remaining “True Believers” in their base and who the Hell else would vote for these morons after they have dragged us into this fiasco and refused at every juncture to read the writing on the wall and demand accountability and some reality-based actions from the Bush/Cheney cabal? So all they have left is their tired and and weak “Surge On!” and “The Demuhcratz R Wurse”. Rick Taylor was right in his above comment that the Republican Party as it now stands needs to go the way of the Whigs. Their constituency? Outside of the loudmouthed, unhinged wing-nut fringe I suspect they are mostly in deep denial, …can’t admit to the ineptly tragic and despicable horror they have been supporting. I read an MSNBC poll this morning that still over 1/2 of evangelicals still think we’re doing the right thing and that there is still a possibility of “success”, whatever that is supposed to mean now. The general overall consensus of the poll, however, showed most Americans split between “Complete Failure” and “Partial Failure”.
gorp
When Bush said “the terrorists hate our freedom” what was he referring to? Freedom of speech? Freedom to have one’s own opinion? Ever since this Iraq disaster started the Republicans have been screaming that dissent from the government line was treasonous. What kind of freedom is that? Who is un-American here?
ThymeZone
Good grief. Do we have to explain everything?
If a bill is going to fail, and everyone knows in advance what the vote count is, then some members are going to make symbolic votes. If a bill is definitely going to pass, some members will make symbolic votes. The only time people line up to vote the caucus’ position is when the vote is very close and every vote literally counts, or when the whole thing is rigged to let the caucuses take a symbolic action.
In order to understand congress, you have to know the backstories and the “true” vote counts. The true vote counts are the real, reliable votes yea or nay available on a measure. Whether those votes are actually cast that way is an entirely different story.
That’s why you get those “I voted for it before I voted against it” situations. There is posturing, there is forcing the hand of opponents, there is grandstanding, there is promise keeping and vote swapping. Very complex.
But bottom line, in this congress, until some GOP members break with their sorry assed party line, we are stuck right where we are. What the Dems do really matters only if you think the theater matters.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Number One thing on the mind of every member every day is …. reelection. Or to one extent or another, some future election. What they do today is aimed at that future election much more than is apparent to the naked eye.
fecapult
Seriously, I imagine Rush was calling for someone’s head this afternoon though I didn’t listen to it. But it’s perfectly okay to play “Barack the Magic Negro” on a daily basis on your radio show. How a person justifies that this doesn’t have some racist implications is beyond me, but apparently it’s perfectly acceptable. I guess it’s because Barack isn’t a General.
Randolph Fritz
Great post, John.
Moveon.org isn’t fringe; they’re pretty big and fairly centrist. And…they’re a relative small group of actual activists, though they have a large mailing list. I think they’re going to come under serious, well-funded attack now, and it’s going to hurt, personally.
Larry Craig
Grand Old Party?Oh,shit.That’s not what the guy wearing the Nikes said.
AnonE.Mouse
Personally,I think Moveon.org is going to find itself seriously well-funded by new donors like myself
Randolph Fritz
AnonE.Mouse, yes. But when these attack monkeys get going…well, Vince Foster killed himself. It wasn’t to cover up for Hilary; it was because he was emotionally vulnerable to a well-funded smear campaign.
CB
I think these lazy a-holes are just looking for a way to get out of doing their jobs. Get back to work bozos. (Congress I mean-not you dear reader)
Rick Taylor
One thing that occurs to me listening to the hearings is that the advocates of war for Iraq in the government have no credibility left. None. If they did, they wouldn’t need to lean on the military, the wouldn’t have to sanctimoniously spout, we can’t do anything until we hear from general Petraeus. Why it’s gotten so bad, even the decider has to say he’s only doing what his general wants. They have no credibility left, and what’s more, they know it.
So now, they’re using up the credibility of the military. And they’re going to drain that too. Quite an accomplishment, destroying the public’s trust in another institution of the government.
One good thing though, I feel more than ever they’re not going to go into in Iran. They have no credibility left, and I don’t believe the military is going to offer there’s for that.
wasabi gasp
“Credibility, schmelibility, I got your credibility right here!” – GWB while grabbing some soldiers nutsack
Tax Analyst
Rick, I wish I could be so sanguine about that. I don’t put anything past these amoral morons.
jake
Should have taken the blue pill.
TenguPhule
The Freedom of the Rich to avoid paying taxes, get richer and screw everyone else in the ass.
liberal
Thymezone wrote,
But there’s one option available to the Democrats that doesn’t require a majority in both houses, and that is immune to the problem of Bush’s veto: not passing legislation appropriating money to fund the war.
You don’t need the Senate to do that. All you need is a majority of House members to vote against funding.
Davis
I’ll bet the G.I.s in Vietnam had a few names for Gen. Westmoreland, too. I’m also betting that Boener’s little trick won’t get anywhere, either. The country is fed up with this war and doesn’t give a shit about Gen. Petraeus getting his feelings hurt. Democrats, please tell them to fuck off.
hastingspete
Yikes. This Dem agrees with you again. Dean is right: the Republican party has gotten detached from its moorings and drifted off into nutty land. The Petraus hearings were useless. So, big deal, we wind down by next summer to where we were last February, with NO idea about how to get out of the civil war. Meanwhile, ethnic cleansing continues, accelerated, under our noses and more people (ours and theirs) die this year than last. And the political situation in Iraq? Non-existant.
The problem is that you have a president who has YET to admit to ever making a mistake presiding over the BIGGEST strategic mistake of our history. How can we ever hope he will admit that he LOST a war he should never have gotten into in the first place? He won’t. He’s playing down the clock, and has said as much, hoping that whoever inherits this mess will get blamed for the loss.
What a coward. What a fraud. What a disaster. And instead of backpedaling away from this nut and trying to stop him, all of the Republican congressional caucus (except for like 2%) are rocksolid behind him.
The Republican party deserves the drubbing it will take, and continue to take until it becomes normal again. I’m not holding my breath.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
MoveOn was much kinder to Petraeus than his own commander at CENTCOM
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235
WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) – In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus’s superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.
That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon’s mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus’s recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.
The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to “bad relations” between them is “the understatement of the century”.
Fallon’s derision toward Petraeus reflected both the CENTCOM commander’s personal distaste for Petraeus’s style of operating and their fundamental policy differences over Iraq, according to the sources.
mclaren
I voted Demo in the last two presidential dysfunctions, and I gotta tell ya the Democratic party ain’t much better:
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/getfuzzy-20070909.html
http://static.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/democrats-spot-a-backbone.jpg
Who’s more loathesome — the torturer, or the guy who hears the victim’s screams and makes sleazy excuses for it whilw allowing it to continue? The Repubs may be Kitty Genovese’s rapist-murderers, but the Demos are the hundreds of people who watched for 3 hours from their windowsills and did nothing to stop it.