Fox News host Mort Kondracke, the “left-leaning” counterpart to Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes on Fox News’ The Beltway Boys, said last night that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should be nicknamed the “Wicked Witch of the West.”
According to Kondracke, Pelosi has already been pressuring fellow Democrats, “twisting arms and making — you know, having her aides making threats, and stuff like that.” Asked by Brit Hume if that was really happening, Kondracke said, “Supposedly.”
Morton Kondracke, The Examiner
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Jun 19, 2006 5:00 AM (151 days ago)
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BALTIMORE - Democrats can’t come up with a formal unified stance on Iraq, but it’s all too clear what most of the party’s leaders want: out. And soon. It would be a disaster for America if they prevailed.
Iraq has finally installed a full government that is fighting to establish order against multiple homicidal enemies. Millions of ordinary Iraqis have risked death to vote — a testament to their desire for democracy. Yet Democrats want to pull the plug and abandon them.
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It’s a gigantic order, and it may prove impossible. Yet any prospect for success will vanish if Iraqis get the idea that the United States will withdraw its forces from the country before Iraqis can replace them.
Murderous thugs will fill the vacuum. Civil war certainly will ensue and the entire Gulf region will be destabilized.
True, as Democrats devoutly wish, Bush will go down as a failed president. But America also will suffer a catastrophic strategic defeat, probably resulting in domination of the region by a nuclear-armed Iran. It’s a future no Democratic presidential prospect should want to inherit.
Yet, Democratic leaders are falling all over themselves to hasten the process. They disagree about whether to set a deadline for withdrawal — and, if so, what the deadline should be — but the overwhelming consensus is for withdrawal, not commitment to victory.
Surely the most irresponsible positions are those taken by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and ex-hawk Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who want virtually immediate withdrawal, and by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John Kerry, D-Mass., who advocate a full departure by the end of 2006.
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