Twenty three Senate Democrats today showed that they are cowards and will bend to the slightest threat by the right wing. They all joined every single Republican Senator in censuring MoveOn.org's advertisement in the New York Times. The add, now famously known as the "General Betray Us" ad, asserted that General David Petraeus had a record of carrying the political water of the Bush administration and that a less than honest assessment of the situation in Iraq was a betrayal of trust.
It's not rocket science. In fact, none of the people attacking MoveOn even bothered to take issue with the facts contained in the advertisement. Not one. I challenge you to prove me wrong.
Instead, one after another, pathetic, cowardly Democrats allowed the not-so-invisible hand of Karl Rove to make them fear that they would yet again, be questioned as to whether or not they support the military. Seriously, HOW MANY TIMES WILL THEY FALL FOR THIS?
Here's the list of cowardly Senators:
Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Ben Cardin, Tom Carper, Bob Casey, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Tim Johnson, Amy Klobuchar, Herb Kohl, Mary Landrieu, Pat Leahy, Joe Lieberman (not that he really counts, anyway), Blanche Lincoln, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Ken Salazar, Jon Tester, and Jim Webb.
Senate Democrats running for President that voted AGAINST this ridiculous waste of time include Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton. Clinton has taken her fair share of criticism from the Netroots and deserves some special attention on this. However, Joe Biden and Barack Obama were nowhere to be seen. Interestingly, Obama voted on another resolution immediately before this, then disappeared. I'd like to know why he didn't hang around to stand up for the Netroots. (Update: Matt Stoller has the answer here at Open Left.)
So far in the 110th Congress, the Democrats that the Netroots worked tirelessly on behalf of, have been one disappointment after another. The support they gave this resolution condemning MoveOn is an embarrassment.
MoveOn has done more than anyone else in this country to bring an end to the war. Anyone. (I can already hear the bitching that folks on the Hill will be doing about this statement.) The fact is that all summer long, MoveOn worked with a coalition of organizations throughout the country to target Members of Congress to influence their vote on ending the war.
Meanwhile, the White House ran circles around the Democratic Leadership in the PR game leading up to the conclusion of August recess. In advance of the Petraeus testimony, MoveOn set to frame the expectations in a provocative, fact-based way.
What MoveOn hasn't told you is that the "General Betray-Us" moniker isn't their invention. It's been reported in the British press to be coined by a retired General.
Critics, including one recently retired general, are privately calling him "General Betraeus" on the grounds that he is too ambitious to deliver a balanced report on the war.
But, the Democrats in Congress didn't take the time to look past the baseless finger pointing and elementary name-calling. Instead, they gave in to cowardly instinct and said a big "F@*# YOU" to the millions of Americans who call themselves a part of the Netroots Movement and have worked side by side with MoveOn to end the War.
If the Senate Democrats can't be trusted to stand up to simple attacks like this, there is likely no way they can be trusted to end this war. What are we to do?
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You go, Lane!!! I could not have said it better myself!
In fact, I have nothing more to say, since you already said everything so well!
The last 'where as' of the Cornyn Resolution is a blatant lie. I asked my Senator, Feinstein, why she has attacked speech and signed onto a Republican lie. I believe that all the Dems who signed onto this resolution need to answer this question in writing.
hmmmm..lets get a reality check here. Did the "Netroots" or MoveOn clear that ad with any Senate Democrats before they ran it? If not, why would they need to endorse it?
The ad hurt more than it helped. It was a tragic mistake to give Buh someone to defend other than himself. The ad cost at least 5 GOP votes for the Dems war resolution. If MoveOn would shut up maybe the Senate Dems could get something done.
One other question - why would any Senate Dem who has been attacked by MoveOn with ads and phone banks and tv spots owe them anything? I know they've atacked Ben Nelson on a number of occasions. Why would they think he would defend them now? Why would you, Lane? Why call him a coward? Seems like Nelson had an opportunity for payback and took it.
Simply, Petraeus took a job. It's an impossible job granted but it is a job. When asked how he is doing at his job he replies... things are going okay. Does anyone really expect him to answer otherwise? Why has it become such a travesty to question or furthermore criticize a member of the military? At what point will the Democrats stop playing the game and reinvent it?
politicizing the military is very dangerous indeed...! Not to mention that Bush, that little coward, put Petraeus in that position..another "line" crossed...just like Powell...are the Dems really that stupid, so out of touch that they don't understand what this was really all about...it wasn't just a freedom of speech issue..it was a military "Junta" coup...
Anyone who doesn't think that Obama hasn't made every move-since lobbying for editor of law review -with political calculations is either niave or just plain dumb- He wasn't protesting anything-he voted on another similar "unnecessary" bill right before he left- At least Biden was out of town- Take off those rose colored glasses-It's the reason he's changing leadership in his campaign and his poll numbers are going in the wrong direction- Obama is no doubt a good man but not ready for prime time.
See a pithy tongue-in-cheek visual on the resolution titled, "Jackass: The Sequel - Twenty Two Donkeys For Brother Bush"...here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/09/jackass_the_sequel_twenty_two_donkeys_for_w.php
just finished emailing all those stupid cowardly democrats this:
You wasted time on a stupid anti-free speech proposal, and embarrassed the ENTIRE Democratic Party, and fell for a diversionary Republican trick AGAIN.
Go out on the Senate steps and deny a quorum to anything NOT ENDING the Iraq war.
Out of Iraq
Out of Congress
Pick ONE.
I like that! Exactly. Out of Iraq. Out of Congress. Pick one.
Um, could it be because BushCo-ites have basically either co-opted or coerced said democrats to the point where they're no longer
a tenable voice against the war? Or, maybe it's just the old time-tested good politician/bad poltician gag...there IS a school of thought
that says 'dont vote, it only encourages them'...
Democrats = losers. They are clueless. They all look weak and pathetic and they act like losers. They just don't know how badly that looks when they allow the right wing to set the agenda and then they cower. Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb
Hasn't Amy Klobachar turned into the biggest disappointment you've ever seen? Wow, has she tanked!! Minnesota Democrats were so proud when she won and now all she does is disappoint.
At least my favorite Presidential candidates and Senators aren't on the list.
Diane Feinstein and Joe Lieberman stay true to pathetic form and Barbara Boxer keeps showing that she is the better Senator from California.
P.S. Patreaus did allow himself to be used for political purposes and therefore did betray us. There you pathetic Dems, go ahead, you can censure me now! See if I care.
The upside of the imbroglio over the Senate vote is that it identifies DINOs, providing targeting information for primary contests next year, in 2010 and 2012.
Finding, supporting and promoting Democratic candidates who actually are Democrats should be a high priority for all groups who wish to root out the rot in the Democratic Party.
if any of these Senators were yours, I hope you're busy writing to tell them how you'll be voting for their opponent in the next primary, which is exactly what i'd be doing this very minute had i seen Murray or Cantwell on that list.
Surfed around some progressive/liberal websites...witnessed an orgy of Democrat bashing. Brilliant MoveOn...just brilliant!
I almost wish I was a Republican. Because the Democrats in Congress are such cowardly spineless weenies, it's almost fun to see them fall to the ground crying "don't hit me, don't hit me." All the Republicans have to do is say "Democrats are mean," and they get a whole bunch of Democrats standing up to "denounce" some other Democrat for having said something. These people are weenies. No wonder the public is disgusted with Congress. The Republicans are psychopaths, and the Democrats are infantile and paranoid.
Is it really so hard? I can say Petraeus is a weenie, a traitor, a coward, a murderer. I can say that. Oh No, she said that? Yes, actually, I just did. Who died because of what I said? No one? Okay, then who died because of what Petraeus said? How many hundreds have died already since he spoke, and how many thousands more will die because of Petraeus. And I should apologize? I don't think so.
As for these Democrats, they need leadership and unfortunately they have none. They've got Reid who is excellent at some things, but way too polite. They've got Hillary who has no interest other than collecting money from corporate America and trying to get Republican voters to support her. Taser-Man Kerry? The ever-vague and often absent Obama? What a pathetic sight these Democrats are.
One of my friends just said it was ridiculous that it has gotten to this level and ask, what's next? He suggested that the Republicans will now want to taser MoveOn.
Taser?
Maybe just to get the hoods over their heads.
I'm sure they will do somethingly fittingly shocking. Like a few renditions or maybe MoveOn members will start noticing people... People who seem eerily similar to Gordon Liddy.
Don't sell them short.
But don't worry...
DLC Dems would never let anything happen to their liberal constituents without a non-binding resolution... Perhaps even a motion to censure.
Again.
I thought that the Fundies were sucker for believing the Republicans...
If the Democrats did half as much work for urban liberals as the Republicans do for the Fundies Bush would've been impeached by now.
One more example of the neo-authoritarian America.
Did they also decide when the official ceremony to burn all copies of the Constitution will be held?
Moveon should send the GOP some BIG blocks of CHEESE to go with that whine.
no one should be allowed to criticize moveon for this without being asked about all the right wing insults and whether they will renounce them all right now. Develope a list. Will everyone who called Joe Wilson a liar be made to take it back. What about ... Ask them if they feel this ad will adversely affect general P. in some manner, is he so fragile that this will cause him to crack or something. Ask them if it would not be nice if all the other soldiers in Iraq could be safe from real attacks and just subjected to name calling instead? Explain the difference between a verbal attack and a real attack where deadly weapons are used?
The Democrats have the courage to censure an MoveOn ad, but Russ Feingold can't get a single signature for a proposed censure of President Bush.
That says it all. When Democrats think nursery rhymes are more of an affront to the United States Government than violations of the Fourth Amendment, that tells me the Democratic Party needs to be dismantled ASAP.
personally, i don't think the moveon.org ad went nearly far enough. at this late date, i think anything short of putting most of the administration on trial for treason (yes, i said it, Treason,) isn't going nearly far enough.
that said, the ad placed by moveon.org was exactly the right ad at the right time and i'm not at all surprised that the so-called democratic senators that lean towards the invertabrate moved to condemn it.
moveon.org made some waves just a few weeks back when they started publically mulling over the possibility of throwing their considerable clout behind challengers to democratic incumbents in the primary voting cycles. this ad was fact-based, everybody's talking about it and what's most important is that IT WORKED.
the right-wing spin machine has spent months building up to The Great General's speech. typically, when a speech on "progress" and so on as regards iraq is given by the president or one of his pet generals, the support for the war goes up slightly. this time, it went down.
if i was a spineless democratic senator i'd be shaking in my gucci's and tripping over myself to condemn moveon.org, too. i might even need a change of underwear after looking at the poll numbers.
"IT WORKED" indeed. It "worked" to embarrass and split the Democrats during a presidential campaign. A few more ads "working" like that and we may as well call off the election and just let Bush appoint his successor.
Well said...I hope at least 23 Senators get a heads up after this disgraceful vote.
Did the ad split them or did this vote split them? Which party gets to call bills up for a vote anyway?
Dera Mr. Hudson,
Timely and Spot-On! I happen to strongly agree with you. Agape.
Okay MoveOn, it's time to target the real culprits of this mess - the DC DLC Dems. Repubs can not do anything without DLC enablers.
My question is 'when did the military get so above reproach'? Do they not step into their pants one leg at a time like the rest of us do. Do they not breathe the same air, or tell lies like the rest of us.
Where is all this hero worship coming from.
This is a worthy idea to pursue. Matt Stoller has often argued that replacing a Bush-Dog Dem is better for us than replacing an actual Republican.
Make sure you join MoveOn and participate in the discussion about where the resources should be spent in the 2008 elections and beyond.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Now, why not follow that logic to the DLC's choice for president?
Democrats are absolutely useless cowards.
In a few years, when America is a Facist state, perhaps they will see the error of their ways.
You mean they're not in on the plan?
What transforms MoveOn's puddin'headed choice of words for an ad title from mere naivete to near-comical irony is that it apparently reflects the "we can play hardball too" approach urged by many on the left after years of rolling over in the face of relentless "swiftboating" by the Limbaugh wing of the GOP. [I've watched them practice and perfect the art since the 50's.] The result: A four star United States Army General of impeccable character is implicitly charged with treason. Gee, I guess we showed them!
A suggestion: Vigorously condemn the gutter politics of the Republican party; challenge its leaders to disavow their smear tactics; but, please, leave character assassination to the other guys. They are PROS. We are amateurs.
Somewhere, Karl Rove is laughing his ass off.
No, the problem is wimpy people like you. The right says jump and you say how high. Unlike MoveOn, cowards like you cave. Unfortunately it seems as honorable a guy as "the baby Jesus Petraeus" is his testimony wasn't all that truthful after all. MoveOn was right and the headline was perfect. I just wish they'd called out Colin Powell before that Four Star United States Army General lied to the American people and the world. "Betrayus" was first used by his troops, not MoveOn. That was his nickname so you figure it out.
There is no public outcry. This is all manufactured outrage from the hypocritical Republican's and the MSM. You and a bunch of spineless Dems fell for it. Karl
Rove may be laughing his ass off but that would be thanks to you. You got played and you haven't even figured it out becasue you're so busy eating your own. I gaurantee you Rove and the right are terrified of MoveOn which is why they are desperately trying to marginalize them. So either step up to the plate and get a backbone or get out of the way and take the rest of your apologist wimps with you.
Quite a bit of difference between MoveOn`s words and those of the swift-boaters, harvey. MoveOn's words were strong, certainly, but they were not part of a tidal wave of lies like those of the swift-boaters. They left an awful lot of people absolutely convinced that Kerry, Cleland and even McCain were liars and cowards, which is revolting.
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Posted September 20, 2007 | 03:02 PM (EST)