Robert Scheer: Murtha's No Lefty, But He's Right

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061114_robert_scheer_11_15/

Murtha's No Lefty, But He's Right

By Robert Scheer

Nancy Pelosi is to be congratulated for her backing of John Murtha for the position of House majority leader. To be sure, this was partly payback to a political ally of the speaker-designate. Far more important, however, it was the first installment on a huge debt owed to the voters who swept the Democratic Party into control of both houses of Congress, based primarily on their frustration over the dismal war in Iraq.

Because of his credentials as a highly decorated Marine veteran and stalwart Pentagon supporter, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) was more effective than any other member of Congress in crystallizing the changing American position on Iraq when he dramatically wrote last year, “It is time to bring them home.” Not intimidated by the president’s “cut-and-run” smears, he said what most Americans have come to believe: The war is not “winnable” and it is time—now, not in 10 years—to let Iraqis make their own history and to get American troops out of the line of fire.

By contrast, his opponent for the House leadership position, U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), disagrees with 60 percent of the voters in continuing to support President Bush in this ever-deepening disaster. As recently as Monday, Hoyer continued to hold an allegedly moderate position that is as divorced from reality as the disgraced former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: “You can transfer authority to the Iraqis ... but we need to do so in a way, hopefully, that will not create greater carnage,” he told MSNBC-TV.

<>Pelosi, in supporting Murtha, rejected the path of opportunism that has so hobbled the Democratic Party in recent decades. If the Democrats fail to keep faith with the voters on the war, they can forget gaining back the White House in 2008, and it would be a rebuke much deserved.

[goclark]

1. Thanks for the link, Robert Sheer is a great

journalist.

[Maat]

2. Robert Sheer IS a great journalist ..

and I really appreciate the points he made here.

[goclark]

3. He has a gift for seeing things clearly nt

[flpoljunkie]

4. Particularly this point regarding those who are smearing Murtha..

All of which is just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic; the U.S. presence is helping nobody in Iraq. Clarity of purpose in getting out of Iraq is all important, which is why the war’s supporters are so desperate to smear forthright critics such as Murtha. Witness Dick Morris joining conservative commentator Sean Hannity in blasting Pelosi for backing Murtha: “He’s a leftist, he’s a cheerleader for MoveOn.org, and she could have chosen a centrist,” Morris said on Fox News. “Instead, she chose the most left guy she could find.”

Ridiculous. Murtha, a leftist? Maybe on Iraq, but his record on everything from abortion to gun control to Pentagon budgets makes him an old-school conservative Democrat in this country, as centrist as they come. Of course, pollster operative Morris knows this full well, because it was precisely why Murtha’s call for withdrawal was such a political earthquake.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061114_robert_scheer_11_15

[Cha]

5. I read this the other day

and I wanted to find it again because this is the one view that made so much sense to me.

Imagine~ "The Misbegotten War On Iraq" was the overwhelming deciding factor in the 2006 "Midterm Midtacular"~ FINALLY! Our cmw couldn't cover it up anymore..can you imagine if they reported everything?

[texpatriot2004]

6. kick nm