{"id":5869,"date":"2005-11-18T09:11:27","date_gmt":"2005-11-18T14:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5869"},"modified":"2005-11-18T09:11:27","modified_gmt":"2005-11-18T14:11:27","slug":"the-gop-skipped-drehers-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-gop-skipped-drehers-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"The GOP skipped Dreher’s advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher, responding<\/a> to John Murtha<\/a> at the National Review Online yesterday, said he was “sure there’s going to be an anti-Murtha pile-on in the conservative blogosphere, but from where I sit, conservatives would be fools not to take this man seriously.” As it turns out, the pile-on went way<\/i> beyond right-wing blogs — and there are a whole lot of fools not taking Murtha seriously.<\/p>\n

I foolishly believed Rep. Murtha’s reputation, stature, and record as decorated war hero might give the Republicans pause before acting like frothy-mouthed pitbulls and accusing Murtha of treason. Instead, I’m left with the feeling that I should write, “I will not underestimate Republicans’ penchant for lunacy” 100 times on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Murtha’s policy is controversial. There are plenty of Dems<\/em> who believe a withdrawal would be a mistake. If GOP critics criticized Murtha’s policy and articulated an alternative, it’d be completely legitimate. But that’s not what happened. Republicans gave Murtha the Swift-Boat treatment, smearing him and effectively accusing him of sedition against the country. It was one of the uglier displays on the Hill in recent memory.<\/p>\n

It’d take too long to rehash every attack, but here are some of the more startling condemnations:<\/p>\n

* The White House said<\/a> Murtha has endorsed “the policy positions of Michael Moore” and suggested Murtha wants to “surrender to the terrorists.”<\/p>\n

* House Speaker Dennis Hastert said<\/a> Murtha “would prefer that the United States surrender to the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans,” and added<\/a> that Murtha’s remarks were “the highest insult” to the troops.<\/p>\n

* House GOP Leader Roy Blunt<\/a> (R-Mo.) informed Murtha that his views “only embolden our enemies.”<\/p>\n

* Rep. Geoff Davis<\/a> (R-Ky.) said Murtha was part of a group of people who have “cooperated with our enemies and are emboldening our enemies.” He added that terrorists “have brought the battlefield to the halls of Congress.”
\n
\n* Rep. Joe Wilson<\/a> (R-S.C.) said, “After a leading Al-Qaeda terrorist recently stated that his goal was to expel Americans from Iraq, it is reckless for Congressman Murtha and House Democrats to agree with Zawahiri…. As our brave men and women in uniform continue to protect our country, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, and other Democrats should not embolden our enemy.”<\/p>\n

* Rep. David Dreier<\/a> (R-Calif.) asked Murtha to “refrain from further dismissing the accomplishments of our troops.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I think Murtha came out on top in terms of the back-and-forth. For one thing, Murtha wasn’t afraid<\/a> to acknowledge that many of his critics avoided military service while he shed blood on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

“I like guys who’ve never been there that criticize us who’ve been there,” Murtha said. “I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For another, Murtha is the right guy to have before the cameras<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One Democrat I spoke to particularly reveled in the way ABC juxtaposed footage of an angry Dick Cheney wearing a tuxedo (during his Wednesday night Iraq speech) and Murtha, who looked and sounded for all the world like an idyllic awesome-grandpa — the kind of character who would do the right thing and save the day at the end of an old black-and-white movie. (ABC even aired an extended excerpt from Murtha’s press conference in which he spoke of trying to get a Purple Heart for a soldier who’d lost his hands and been blinded. “If you don’t give him a Purple Heart,” Murtha recalled saying, as he choked up, “I’ll give him one of mine.”) In public relations terms, that’s not even a fair fight. And such is the stuff that shapes public opinion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that Murtha’s speech was a watershed event, I think, for our caucus, for our Congress, and for our country. No person who listened to Mr. Murtha could do so without recognizing our need to re-evaluate our policy in Iraq.” Sounds about right to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher, responding to John Murtha at the National Review Online yesterday, said he was “sure there’s going to be an anti-Murtha pile-on in the conservative blogosphere, but from where I sit, conservatives would be fools not to take this man seriously.” As it turns out, the pile-on went way beyond right-wing blogs — and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}