Whoa! How about that MoveOn.org-Petraeus ad. Quite the little brouhaha, huh?
So, what's up with all that, anyway?
On the right we have the GOP-propaganda machine making hay off the MoveOn ad as fast as it can, and doing well at it, as it usually does.
On the left – well, that's a lot harder to explain, because there's no longer a single left, but two:
So, what's up with all that, anyway?
On the right we have the GOP-propaganda machine making hay off the MoveOn ad as fast as it can, and doing well at it, as it usually does.
On the left – well, that's a lot harder to explain, because there's no longer a single left, but two:
Democrats, as my crusty old country uncle used to say, “don't know whether to shit or go blind -- so they walk around all day with one-eye closed farting.”
Hell, 23 of Dems actually voted with the Republican Senators yesterday to condemn the MoveOn.org ad. Prez candidates, Obama and Biden went into hiding, not voting at all. Hillary voted “No,” another attempt to fade the blood stains on her hands from her vote authorizing the war four years ago. (Seemed like the smart political thing to do at the time.)
Now establishment Democrats are furious with MoveOn for running that ad. Not because they disagree with the sentiment or message, but because it deflated the tidy little cloakroom soufle' they were cooking up with “moderate” Republicans. (You know, the same “moderate” Republicans who've been filibustering every effort to wind down Bush's war in Iraq.)
The MoveOn.org ad hit like a bunker-buster, collapsing those “bipartisan” efforts – which, had they succeeded would not have ended the war anyway. What they would have done, had they succeeded, is provide incumbent hacks in both parties an all-purpose legislative doodad to dangle in front of voters back home.
Hell, 23 of Dems actually voted with the Republican Senators yesterday to condemn the MoveOn.org ad. Prez candidates, Obama and Biden went into hiding, not voting at all. Hillary voted “No,” another attempt to fade the blood stains on her hands from her vote authorizing the war four years ago. (Seemed like the smart political thing to do at the time.)
Now establishment Democrats are furious with MoveOn for running that ad. Not because they disagree with the sentiment or message, but because it deflated the tidy little cloakroom soufle' they were cooking up with “moderate” Republicans. (You know, the same “moderate” Republicans who've been filibustering every effort to wind down Bush's war in Iraq.)
The MoveOn.org ad hit like a bunker-buster, collapsing those “bipartisan” efforts – which, had they succeeded would not have ended the war anyway. What they would have done, had they succeeded, is provide incumbent hacks in both parties an all-purpose legislative doodad to dangle in front of voters back home.
- Dems would claim their success proved they were doing something to end the war.
- Repubs would use the same legislation to prove they were not in lockstep with the most unpopular President since Nixon.
It would have been another of Washington's version of a “win-win.”
And, as viewed from the nitrous oxide-filled halls of Congress, the whole thing seemed to be going along swimmingly before the MoveOn ad ruined everything. Hell, even Republican voters were warming up to this ineffective Democrat-controlled Congress:
And, as viewed from the nitrous oxide-filled halls of Congress, the whole thing seemed to be going along swimmingly before the MoveOn ad ruined everything. Hell, even Republican voters were warming up to this ineffective Democrat-controlled Congress:
Republicans approve of a Democratic controlled Congress significantly more than do either Democrats or Independents. (Full Story)
But the MoveOn.org ad screwed up their plan. To which I say, so what?
And that's exactly what every Democrat in Congress should have said as well -- so what? Dicking with troop rotations was not what we sent to Washington to do when we voted them in last November, now was it? No. We sent them there to end this abortion of a war, and sooner rather than later.
But the MoveOn.org flap did much more than just expose a phony, baloney legislative three-card monty routine. That ad, and the commotion it caused, exposed nothing less than a political tectonic split on the left.
Like pack ice breaking up, it broke off a section carrying establishment Democrats, leaving the rest of us on a separate sheet. And the two seem to have begun floating further and further apart with increasing speed. With each passing day communication between the two sheets become harder and harder. We now no longer can talk to each other. Now we shout.
Where they are going I cannot say. All I know is that it's not the same direction our sheet is heading. And where might that be? Don't know.
All I can way with certainty is that common sense tells us one of them headed for oblivion.
And that's exactly what every Democrat in Congress should have said as well -- so what? Dicking with troop rotations was not what we sent to Washington to do when we voted them in last November, now was it? No. We sent them there to end this abortion of a war, and sooner rather than later.
But the MoveOn.org flap did much more than just expose a phony, baloney legislative three-card monty routine. That ad, and the commotion it caused, exposed nothing less than a political tectonic split on the left.
Like pack ice breaking up, it broke off a section carrying establishment Democrats, leaving the rest of us on a separate sheet. And the two seem to have begun floating further and further apart with increasing speed. With each passing day communication between the two sheets become harder and harder. We now no longer can talk to each other. Now we shout.
Where they are going I cannot say. All I know is that it's not the same direction our sheet is heading. And where might that be? Don't know.
All I can way with certainty is that common sense tells us one of them headed for oblivion.
