Craven Fools

Craven fools. The 22 Democrats and supposed Republican moderates who paid homage to the right-wing slander machine by voting to disavow Moveon.org yesterday once more demonstrated why they're considered sunshine patriots who can't be trusted when things get tough.

This isn't anything new. Republicans, stuck with defending an unpopular president intent on continuing the worst foreign policy debacle in U.S. history, look for ways to distract. Moveon.org published an ad with an unfortunate title — "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" — but correctly indicting Gen. David Petraeus, the ambitious political general wired to the White House spinners, of cooking the books on Iraq. The Republicans revved up their attack machine, enlisting everyone from Rush Limbaugh to the shameless president, who disgracefully charged that the "Democrat Party" is more afraid of "irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org" ... than "the United States military."

We've seen this before. This is a patented right-wing ploy. They grab on to a random event, inflate it into a national scandal, intimidate the media, and chuckle as Democrats fall for it. The Republican attack squad in 2004 turned a butchered joke by Sen. John Kerry into a measure of Democratic hatred of the military, and the entire Democratic establishment turned on Kerry. They've libeled Moveon for years because one of thousands of participants in a 30-second ad campaign contest submitted an entry comparing Bush to Hitler. Now, they get 22 Democrats in the Senate and the supposedly independent Republican moderates to line up and waste time passing a resolution condemning Moveon for its newspaper ad. They do this only to prove one thing - that Democrats are too spineless to stand up even for their allies. That they will cut and run at the first sign of fire.

Why would Democrats do this? One hapless aide suggested that they were fearful of the electoral consequences of not disavowing Moveon. Pathetic. Republicans are using filibusters to block majority support for ending Bush's disastrous venture in Iraq, to deny soldiers the guarantee of basic home rotations vital to their mental health and military training, to block restoration of basic habeas corpus rights, to block empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs for seniors. They are defending an occupation that has cost 30,000 U.S. casualties and nearly $1 trillion while isolating us from our allies, emboldening our enemies and providing a recruiting boon to a reconstituted al Qaeda. They are wedded to a casino economy that doesn't work for most Americans. They are responsible for so disemboweling our regulatory agencies that our children and pets are being poisoned by deadly imports. Their legislative caucus has made closeted corruption and hypocrisy their trademark. And Democrats are worried about a newspaper ad? Would you want these quails in your foxhole?

Of the presidential candidates, senators Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd sensibly stood up and voted against. Joe Biden and Barack Obama didn't vote, Obama describing his absence as a "protest against this empty politics." Liberals in the Senate weren't much better. Led by Barbara Boxer, they wrote their own version balancing disavowal of "an unwarranted personal attack" on Petraeus with criticism for Republicans for Swift Boating Kerry. That garnered the votes of senators Clinton and Obama, raising doubts about Hillary's claim that she knows how to stand up and fight the right, and concerns that Obama's call for a new bipartisanship may involve more retreat than reform.

It doesn't matter what you think of the Moveon.org ad or title. Individually Democratic politicians can say whatever they like. But we're trying to end a foreign policy catastrophe in Iraq. People are getting killed. Billions are being squandered. Our security is being eroded; our military weakened. Minority Republicans are blocking majority support for bringing the troops home. They are denying troops a guarantee of decent home rotations. That Senate Democrats would allow them to consume the time and the attention of the Senate and hijack that debate to vote for criticizing an ad by an independent group is simply craven and foolish.

Comments

[AnotherMcIntosh]

It's amazing that the party of Harry Truman have so few people that can speak in plain English.

Where are the Democrats who can even put together a parallelism such as "They grab onto a random event, inflate it into a national scandal, intimidate the media, and chuckle as Democrats fall for it"?

Where are the Democrats who can even string together a series of accusatory thoughts such as "Republicans are using filibusters ... They are defending ... They are wedded to a casino economy .... They are responsible for ... Their legislative caucus has ..."?

The Republicans aren't just greedy, elite, Bush-enabling obstructionists. They are skillful. They know how to speak English, they know how to get to the point, and they know how to go after the point over and over again.

[Manx]

Talk about a non-issue. Again, the Republicans have manipulated the mainstream media to their advantage. If you listened to Wolf Blitzer on CNN yesterday, you'd get the impression that Moveon.org's ad was the most important issue facing the nation.

Republicans are so good at feigned indignation and the media bite the bait everytime.

[Johnson55]

If you want to get your representatives attention e-mail them this: "NOT ANOTHER NICKEL" until you get some guts.

[emerger]

Move On should respond by creating a campaign for independent candidates. That would put a scare into the spineless Democratic Party. What this country really needs is a House and Senate full of independent representatives.

[SamBrown]

Bravo Mr. Borosage. Very well said.

[miamirat]

Sorry, but, i do not blindly support MY Troops !
I am a vietnam vet. And, i see a hugh lack of ingegrity and patrotism on the part of the leadership of all 4 branches of our military today. They are as corrupt as the bush administration itself is. I was disgusted watching Powell in front of the UN several years ago, telling what i knew to be lies, and most of the world already knew was lies. If these Troops you want me to hand blind alliagence have proven do not deserve it with the the current 8-billion dollars of disappeared dollars as well as another 40-billion in corrupt no-bid contracts to american companies. A fish rots from it's head, and this military fish is rotton almost to the core.

The only people that desire our support are the ones on the ground getting shot at every day. Our military leadership is a gung-ho for replacement enemy for the commie threat and if they have to make it up ... well, they're doing it as we go along.

[pmfelipe]

The democratic party is just like the republican party. Just look at what this party did in Iowa. They had to forum for democratic candidate but the leadership of the party decided not to invite the only candidate who truly represent the supposed values of the party. That just shows you who they truly represent. Both parties represent a government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation. They will not pass any meaningful bill that reflects what the base wants because they have raised the threshold to 60 votes. However if the bill is submitted by the republicans they line up to support it.

[Pete Ross]

I will not vote for my Senator who was among those who voted for the MoveOn censure.

I will also not campaign for him as I did last year, nor any of the other Democrats who voted for it.

I do not understand why the absurd resolution was allowed to come up for a vote. Something similar when the Republicans held the majority would never have made the floor.

Move On benefited from this absurdity in as much as I sent them an additional monthly donation instead of sending monies I had set aside to send to several Democrat organizations. I think every member of MoveON should consider doing the same.

[chharriett]

I just wrote Pelosi an email, and told her this completely idiotic move has FINALLY turned me against the Democrats. I've been a strong Dem for nearly 50 years, and have continued to support them until today. I am now changing my voter registration card to read INDEPENDENT, and am donating all my money to MoveOn. I do hope the netroots can get candidates who challenge the weak-willed Dems for their seats. Enough is ENOUGH! Time for US to do something, since they roll over in fear every time a Rethug threatens them.

[GreenPlanet]

Isn't the fact that close to 4000 soldier deaths due to Bush lies and intelligence twisting quantifiably pose the biggest disrespect to our men and women in uniform? They actually died because of this!! These are actual deaths. Isn't this a major treasonous act and constitutionally impeachable for high crimes? Isn't this more detriment to our military and national security than a Movenn.org ad. Why isn't there just one Dem in Congress and at least one of the Dem presidential candidates articulating this? The Democrats who are in the majority in Congress should easily have brought the Soldier deaths due to twisting intelligence thing to a vote. But 22 of them didn't waste any time to vote against Moveon.org. And recently they didn’t waste anytime in helping Bush continue funding of the war. This was an “in your face” assault and major betrayal on the millions of voters who made history by giving Democrats the majority in Congress due to the prolonged Iraq disaster. . What about the 60 Minutes episode a few weeks ago which detailed how the Bush administration directly doctored the clean air report in NY after the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks thus causing short term and long term respiratory ailments to hundreds of people. Not to mention doctoring the global warming reports which will cause deaths to thousands of Americans in the long run. Not one mention of this by any Democrat. If this was a Democratic President and a Republican Congress, the GOP would have wasted absolutely no time in echoing the 60 minutes report and begin congressional hearings. The twisting intelligence thing and soldier deaths, without doubt, would have already lead to impeachment if it was a Dem President. The Democratic Majority will be very short lived, they are basically finished.

GreenPlanet

[alan2a]

Couldn't agree more. Dem's in their own sick way are as culpable as the Pubofascists. Not only do they not stand for a single identifiable principle but they are all, all, political cowards. They won't make the Pub's stand up and hold a "real" filibuster, they won't stand up and cut off funding and they continue to behave as if all of us out here that keep telling them they need to stand up and be counted don't really exist. Only their mythical right wing Democratic voter exists.

[ld]

Thanks for saying this. It's just amazing how spinelessly the Democrats can avoid taking a real stand and yet wonder why pretty much no one supports them.

[dogman44]

And yet we're too spineless to take to the streets and cause non-violent disruption as a means of protest.

[Jinxykb]

What idiot Democrats voted for this? Un-effing-believable....

[wmbear]

IT'S CALLED "POLITICS AS USUAL"...

Unfortunately, it's a game that Democrats haven't learned (or relearned) to play. The neocons basic tactic is to bully their opponents with total non-issues like this. And the Dems haven't learned to stand up to their bullying because they don't yet recognize it for what it is. Politics was always like this. The neocons have just learned to employ a kind of rhetorical karate and the Dems just haven't learned to defend themselves against it yet (or employ it themselves -- if they had learned, they'd be all over Giuliani's cross-dressing).

[made]

Gen.Petraeus is now performing for Bush/Cheney as the new Colin Powell. It is sad & shameful that once honorable and respected men have sold out our nation for a lie and a disaster. Watching Gen. P with his mass of shiny metals and brightly colored ribbons blazing across his chest brought home the successful theatrics of the moment. He was well cast, creating a special effectiveness that the war is going in the right direction. Speaking of which I suspect we have Karl Rove himself for directing this masterpiece of political fiction.