Democratic Lawmakers Splinter on Iraq (MSM reports on schism)

[gulfcoastliberal]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's embrace Wednesday of a rapid withdrawal from Iraq highlighted the Democratic Party's fissures on war policy, putting the House's top Democrat at odds with her second in command while upsetting a consensus developing in the Senate.

For months now, Democratic leaders have grown increasingly aggressive in their critiques of President Bush's policies in Iraq but have been largely content to keep their own war strategies vague or under wraps. That ended Wednesday when Pelosi (D-Calif.) aggressively endorsed a proposal by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, leaving only a much smaller rapid-reaction force in the region.

snip

David Sirota, a Democratic strategist in Montana long critical of the party leadership's timidity, fired back: "It is not surprising that a bunch of insulated elitists in the Washington establishment -- most of whom have never served in uniform -- would stab the Democratic Party in the back and attack the courage of people like Vietnam War hero Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi for their stand on Iraq."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101491.html

With the 5th column of the DLC acking as shock troops for the RNC, we don't need to worry about being in power ever again. Your thoughts?

[blm]

1. George Miller says the media is to blame for exaggerating differences of

the Dems on Iraq. There is more common ground on withdrawal than is being told in the press who makes it seem as if it's cut and run or stay the course, and you can't really find a handful of lawmakers for either one of those options.

Here's an excerpt from the article ;


>>>>>>

The news media is partly to blame for many Americans' misconception that the Democratic party is badly divided on the Iraq war, because they seek comment mostly from what they consider the party's elite, Miller said. Democratic senators like Sens. Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman - who voted in favor of the war and who now can find no graceful way of admitting they'd made a mistake - don't necessarily hold the party's majority view, Miller said.

But growing knowledge that "it's a mess over there," and that the American presence has become the most effective weapon in the radical Islamic recruiting arsenal, has caused a shift in the congressional debate on the issue, Miller said.

"The Democrats are driving the debate on the war now," Miller said. "You have generals on the ground telling you that the American presence is driving the insurgency and that the Jihadists are the only ones over there who want us to stay. Some are concerned that the Army is 'broken.' Some troops are on their forth rotation. They're out of equipment, the desert is eating it up."

>>>>>

[LittleClarkie]

2. Oh that wacky "liberal" press

I wonder how they got that reputation anyway. I don't see it.