Swift-Boating Comes out of the Closet

(see MSNBC for details and video on the House rumble today) Earlier this week Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa made waves with a resolution… that would force the president to withdraw the nearly 160,000 troops in Iraq “at the earliest practicable date.” It would establish a quick-reaction force and a nearby presence of Marines in the region. It also said the U.S. must pursue stability in Iraq through diplomacy. The GOP response? A call for a quick vote on the following: “It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.” The implication, of course, is that both resolutions are the same, but nobody is fooled by the same type of word games that led to the Iraq Mistake in the first place. Rep. Murtha's credentials on military matters are impeccable, yet Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, stood in the House today and passed on this message from a Marine colonel: "cowards cut and run" (Rep. Murtha has thirty-seven years of Marine service—Rep. Jean Schmidt has none). In the past, the administration and GOP lawmakers have removed themselves a few degrees when destroying someone's character. Now they've dispensed with the surrogates and are proudly flying their true colors. Starting at the top, the President accuses those who question his administration's disastrous sales pitch of undermining the troops. Serial fabulist Cheney labels criticism of his pre-war creative fiction "reprehensible". The White House Press Secretary issues a release comparing Rep. Murtha to Michael Moore and accusing him of advocating surrender. In the House the same respected veteran is smeared by at least one member and has his position distorted by the GOP leadership en masse. They've lost the agenda and don't have the time to plant a fake grassroots movement for every front and foe that arises; without the puppets, the Swift-Boat masters have no choice but to drop the strings and rush into the breech on their own. It's hardly a sign of strength.