How DARE they
I'm as disgusted as I've ever been in my political life. The absolute outrage of the White House calling Rep. John Murtha a coward, in essence, is the most despicable thing I could imagine in political discourse. This is pure McCarthyism. The White House statement said, "Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. (emphasis mine) After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer."
This adminstration is the one full of cowards. Not one veteran among them, save for Donald Rumsfeld, and they continue to question the bravery, the courage, of critics who served in combat, who have fought for our soldiers since some of them were in college or grade school. Murtha became a Marine during the Korean War. He served actively and in the Marine Reserve until 1990, when he retired a colonel. He was 58 years old when he did that.
Since 1974, he's been in the House, and he's charted his own course, supporting Reagan in Central America, Bush Sr. in the first Gulf War, and he supported our efforts in Iraq since we went in. He's been behind our men every step of the way. For him to change his mind about this action, and say we need to leave and redeploy elsewhere in the region, to be on standby in case we're needed in an emergency, but otherwise be out of Iraq, means a lot. He's an experienced officer, an experienced congressman, and no one's coward. The cowards are the ones who are questioning his commitment to our troops, who use the Michael Moore smear, who say he's "surrendering to the terrorists" because he is advocating changing a failed course. It's McCarthyism at its finest, and Scott McClellan should apologize, and then resign if he has any honor.
Furthermore, the President himself should apologize, publicly, for such a statement being issued from his White House towards such a decorated, brave man. I'm insulted, as an American, that our President would allow such a statement to be made about John Murtha.
Let me say it one more time, so it's loud and fricking clear: DISSENT IS NOT UNAMERICAN OR UNPATRIOTIC!
Late update: I want to add Rep. Jean Schmidt to this list for directly calling Murtha a coward, and then not even having the guts to stand by her statement, which was clearly planned out, because the House would have censured her on the spot. How dare she. Oh, and let's add on Karl Rove too, because Newsweek's Howard Fineman has said that Rove is now looking to have an ethics investigation into Murtha because he spoke out. Let's hear it for McCarthyism, shall we?
This adminstration is the one full of cowards. Not one veteran among them, save for Donald Rumsfeld, and they continue to question the bravery, the courage, of critics who served in combat, who have fought for our soldiers since some of them were in college or grade school. Murtha became a Marine during the Korean War. He served actively and in the Marine Reserve until 1990, when he retired a colonel. He was 58 years old when he did that.
Since 1974, he's been in the House, and he's charted his own course, supporting Reagan in Central America, Bush Sr. in the first Gulf War, and he supported our efforts in Iraq since we went in. He's been behind our men every step of the way. For him to change his mind about this action, and say we need to leave and redeploy elsewhere in the region, to be on standby in case we're needed in an emergency, but otherwise be out of Iraq, means a lot. He's an experienced officer, an experienced congressman, and no one's coward. The cowards are the ones who are questioning his commitment to our troops, who use the Michael Moore smear, who say he's "surrendering to the terrorists" because he is advocating changing a failed course. It's McCarthyism at its finest, and Scott McClellan should apologize, and then resign if he has any honor.
Furthermore, the President himself should apologize, publicly, for such a statement being issued from his White House towards such a decorated, brave man. I'm insulted, as an American, that our President would allow such a statement to be made about John Murtha.
Let me say it one more time, so it's loud and fricking clear: DISSENT IS NOT UNAMERICAN OR UNPATRIOTIC!
Late update: I want to add Rep. Jean Schmidt to this list for directly calling Murtha a coward, and then not even having the guts to stand by her statement, which was clearly planned out, because the House would have censured her on the spot. How dare she. Oh, and let's add on Karl Rove too, because Newsweek's Howard Fineman has said that Rove is now looking to have an ethics investigation into Murtha because he spoke out. Let's hear it for McCarthyism, shall we?