Does the media's play on Murtha's past now discredit him as strong voice against the War

[wisteria]

and the media's involvement in carrying the lie of Kerry flub now diminish two strong voices against the Iraq War?
Who else has been out there leading?
I feel let down today. I feel there are many in Washington who don't care if this war continues. I don't see anything meaningful happening anytime soon. And, the Republicans have a vested interest in stalling the whole issue so that Dem's can look bad in 08.

[TayTay]

1. This hasn't even begun yet.

The Leadership positions are inside baseball and don't matter that much.

Eyes on the prize. Let's see what happens over the rest of the Lame Duck, what Bush does in sending over the 20,000 more troops and so forth.

The Senate and the Dems will play a part in withdrawal. So will Bush, probably against his will. But events over there will start to be more and more important. As will the actual logistics of what troops we have, whether or not we can arm, equip and keep them in IRaq and so forth.

This was, in the larger scheme, a little nothing.

[ProSense]

2. The Democrats

who have been most vocal against the war and the culture of corruption need to keep at it. Are there Democrats willing to visibly hamper efforts to end both?

[beachmom]

3. I don't think so. The point was his past ethics problems

and pork trading hurt him for a majority leadership position. However, he still is well thought of in the military, and is very close with them. That hasn't changed. And, frankly, he might have been far more bruised as a majority leader, thereby diluting his message on the war.

Although in the other thread, there was a lot of talk about how bad Hoyer is, I'm actually happy Murtha isn't majority leader.

Meanwhile, we have a speaker of the House who shares our views on the war. I think she will be a powerful speaker, easily eclipsing Hoyer (unlike Hastert who seemed weak compared to Delay).

[wisteria]

4. Well, I hope this all turns out for the better. We need Murtha taking

on the mess in Iraq.

[ProSense]

5. Slightly off topic, still Iraq: This is beyond ridculous

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2972635&mesg_id=2972635

Guessing strategy: label the Sunnis terrorists, and proceed to genocide! WTF? WTF?

[beachmom]

6. I actually read about that "theory" on that RW Iraq blog

Iraq the Model back in September. It was uttered more directly: Kill all Sunni men. The Iraqi bloggers Mohammed and Omar are Sunnis. Iraq the Model is a very scary blog and there are theories that GOP operatives and psy ops spooks own the comment section of it. They usually bully all liberal voices out of there -- I know it worked on me. I no longer even visit the site.

Now we learn that's what they're considering in the Bush administration. Beautiful, just beautiful. You know, not all Sunnis are terrorists. The innocent will perish while the evil ones will escape; that's how it always goes.

[ProSense]

7. Murtha blogs at HuffPo

Don't get me wrong, other things matter too, such as ethics reforms and the Democrats' agenda, and I'm going to keep my promise to work hard with Speaker Pelosi and the Leadership to pass those as well.

But Iraq is the key. Democrats won the election because we spoke up, and the real test of our leadership lies ahead. Thank you for your support, and now let's get to work.

[karynnj]

8. I doubt either voice is all that damaged

Murtha was a voice of the conservative hawk who has always been for the military. At worst he is seen as a politician who deals in pork - that doesn't change the validity of his commitment to the troops or his authenticity.

With Kerry - he is still the person, who first made a strong case that more now see was right. The list of everything he was right on is very long. That's on one side of the scale. The other side - he flubbed a joke after a month of extensive campaigning while also dealing with the "heyjohn" friendly (?) fire.

He's still the same capable, intelligent guy - the joke should have little impact on this (less than on his presidential chances).