Calling Their Bluff
By Jim Lynch on Nov 19, 2005 in House, Iraq, The Left, War on Terrorism
The left is going to follow the house dems who called last night’s vote a stunt. They are going to have a baby cow about how “divisive” this ploy was. Personally, I loved it. It reminded me of people I’ve observed who continue to take the put-downs until the reach a point where they just have to say, “put up or shut up.”
It’s laughable to have the party that pushed the Senate into a closed door session, tries to give footing to the already refuted theory that Bush lied to get us into the war, and who can not see the progress being made in Iraq cry “foul” on this vote. Last night’s vote was not a stunt, it was a bluff call. Confederate Yankee put it this way:
Of course the call for a vote was politically calculated—so was Murtha’s “surprise” call for a headlong retreat. Despite willful media amnesia, Murtha has been trying to back out, no in, no out of Iraq since 2002, well before the invasion. I’m thankful for Murtha’s service to this nation’s military, but to call him a pro-war “hawk” is like labeling a Pomeranian an attack dog. When it comes to position on Iraq, Murtha has more flip-flops than [an] Imelda Marco[s]/John Kerry timeshare.
The Democrats pulled a shrewdly calculated stunt by trotting out a hero to try to undercut the White House while the president was out of the country. House Democrats had estimated—and no one could blame them—that a Republican House, so flustered by the Democrat’s last cheap stunt, would likely drop the ball again leaving the Republicans looking awkward and foolish as Congress headed into a long holiday break.
But the Democratic plan backfired, and backfired horribly. Instead of folding as they typically do, the Republicans grew a spine, and embarrassed the neo-copperheads into voting against their own treachery in a resounding and humiliating defeat.
Congressman Murtha’s three decades of military service to his nation was whored away in a cheap bit of failed political theater by the Democratic Party. It is sad, sad sight to see.
Exactly right. The unfortunate part of all this is that it has taken so much to bring the right to the point where they will stand up. Captain Ed wraps it up very nicely,
What a joke. The Republicans made the right move — instead of debating the issue through the media, they took the Democratic demands and introduced it as a resolution for debate where rhetoric actually counts, and where both sides get equal time. In the Democratic world, that equates to something vaguely unfair. They tried to hide behind a procedural block, and when that didn’t work, they screamed and hollered in support of the idea of withdrawal — and then promptly voted against it when it counted.
Of course the left will continue to attempt to put a spin on this that will energize their base (and raise some funds) but the vote is on the record. Let’s hope the conservative spine grows stronger and doesn’t retreat under the rhetoric that is sure to come from the opposition.
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