{"id":9825,"date":"2007-02-03T11:30:27","date_gmt":"2007-02-03T16:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9825.html"},"modified":"2007-02-03T11:30:27","modified_gmt":"2007-02-03T16:30:27","slug":"kristol-blasts-republican-war-critics-as-anti-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/kristol-blasts-republican-war-critics-as-anti-troops\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristol blasts Republican war critics as ‘anti-troops’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought Weekly Standard editor William Kristol had officially gone over the edge two weeks ago when he argued<\/a> that critics of the president’s escalation policy in Iraq should just “be quiet for six or nine months.”<\/p>\n

But in his latest column<\/a>, Kristol takes the inanity one step further.<\/p>\n

John Warner of Virginia, Gordon Smith of Oregon, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine are the four Republican senators (in addition to Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel) currently signed on to the Democrats’ anti-surge, anti-Petraeus, anti-troops, and anti-victory resolution. (I give Hagel a pass — perhaps undeserved — in my roster of ignominy, since he has been a harsh critic of the war for quite some time.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Spencer Ackerman put it, “That’s right: a nonbinding anti-surge resolution is an act against the troops.” I also liked the childish “anti-victory” line, which suggests those with whom Kristol disagrees are necessary pro-defeat.<\/p>\n

I’d say that about a year ago there was a subtle-but-distinct difference between war supporters like Kristol (the establishment), Hannity (red-meat provider), and the activist base. Kristol would criticize rivals, but would generally hesitate before questioning their patriotism, especially in print.<\/p>\n

But now the lines have been blurred out of existence — they’re all reading from the same script. The “serious” conservatives are gone; their sincere interest in policy and ideas has been replaced by, well, foolishness.
\n
\nBorrowing an idea from the pages of Red State and Townhall, Kristol adds:<\/p>\n

In any case, Republican senators up for reelection in 2008 might remember this: The American political system has primaries as well as general elections. In 1978 and 1980, as Reagan conservatives took over the party from detente-establishment types, Reaganite challengers ousted incumbent GOP senators in New Jersey and New York. Surely there are victory-oriented Republicans who might step forward today in Nebraska, Virginia, Oregon, and Maine — and, if necessary, in Tennessee, Minnesota, and New Hampshire — to seek to vindicate the honor, and brighten the future, of the party of Reagan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go along with a reckless and irresponsible escalation strategy or lose your job.<\/p>\n

I can’t be sure which political landscape Kristol is looking at, but I don’t think it’s this one. The latest Newsweek poll showed some public dissatisfaction with Congress over the war, not because lawmakers were resisting Bush’s ideas, but because they weren’t fighting them aggressively enough.<\/p>\n

“Since the Iraq war began, do you think Congress has been assertive enough in challenging the Bush Administration’s conduct of the war, or has not been assertive enough?”<\/p>\n

Assertive enough: 27%
\nNot assertive enough: 64%<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And GOP senators are supposed to be afraid of Kristol-inspired primary challengers? Please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought Weekly Standard editor William Kristol had officially gone over the edge two weeks ago when he argued that critics of the president’s escalation policy in Iraq should just “be quiet for six or nine months.” But in his latest column, Kristol takes the inanity one step further. John Warner of Virginia, Gordon Smith […]<\/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-9825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9825","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=9825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}