Pull Out, Or Pre-Emptive Positioning?
Tom Bevan at RCP has a theory on why Big John Murtha went French (again) last week:
Bevan also ponders why the Democrats are going berserk trying to pull defeat from the jaws of victory now, with Iraqi parliamentary elections only three weeks away - and then, perhaps unwittingly, points the way to his own answer:
For those of our readers who have tired of my "questioning of Democrat patriotism" of late, try this explanation on for size: the Dems have been paying attention, do know that the White House and and Pentagon plan to begin drawing down our in-theater forces following the aforementioned Iraqi elections, and are throwing their huge anti-war, "Bug out NOW!!!!!" fit...well, now, so that when the troops do start coming home, they can take credit for it by claiming that they forced the President into "facing reality" or some such similar BS spin. So instead of Bush getting public accolades for a successful (drumroll) "mission accomplished" that cause his poll numbers to robustly rebound, he's depicted as having "caved" to his "reality-based" opponents.
Remember the timing of this draw-down: next spring and summer, right smack in the run-up to the 2006 mid-terms. The only way the Dems can expect to pick up seats is to deny the President his long-anticipated victory celebration; can you think of a better way than to hijackingly redefine that victory as a defeat?
UPDATE: Murtha's Press the Meat appearance yesterday sure seems to bolster my hypothesis.
Simple question: why'd he do it? Why did John Murtha, who went sour on Iraq back in September 2003 and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nancy Pelosi back in May of last year and called the war "unwinnable," choose to come out last week and call to bring the troops home immediately? The short answer is probably that Murtha wanted to capitalize on the dazzling display of weakness and timidity by Senate Republicans last week.
Bevan also ponders why the Democrats are going berserk trying to pull defeat from the jaws of victory now, with Iraqi parliamentary elections only three weeks away - and then, perhaps unwittingly, points the way to his own answer:
The timing borders on the insane, and is at least as counterproductive as it is dangerous. As Ralph Peters points out in a particularly hard-hitting column today, we look an awful lot like a winning team who can't wait to find a way to lose.
For those who have been paying attention (and you would hope to count our folks in Congress among this group) the White House and the Pentagon have been signaling for months that the plan is to begin pulling out troops as soon as humanly possible after the completion of the elections in December. [my emphasis]
For those of our readers who have tired of my "questioning of Democrat patriotism" of late, try this explanation on for size: the Dems have been paying attention, do know that the White House and and Pentagon plan to begin drawing down our in-theater forces following the aforementioned Iraqi elections, and are throwing their huge anti-war, "Bug out NOW!!!!!" fit...well, now, so that when the troops do start coming home, they can take credit for it by claiming that they forced the President into "facing reality" or some such similar BS spin. So instead of Bush getting public accolades for a successful (drumroll) "mission accomplished" that cause his poll numbers to robustly rebound, he's depicted as having "caved" to his "reality-based" opponents.
Remember the timing of this draw-down: next spring and summer, right smack in the run-up to the 2006 mid-terms. The only way the Dems can expect to pick up seats is to deny the President his long-anticipated victory celebration; can you think of a better way than to hijackingly redefine that victory as a defeat?
UPDATE: Murtha's Press the Meat appearance yesterday sure seems to bolster my hypothesis.
posted by JASmius at 8:51 AM
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