"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."
-- Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania, on Dick Cheney.
Murtha, who has a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts from his service in Vietnam, retired as a colonel from the Marines after 37 years and was elected to Congress in 1990. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which among other things oversees military spending. White House press secretary Scott McClelland, following the Chickenhawk-in-Chief around in Korea, took his mouth off the President's boots long enough to describe his boss as "baffled" -- no surprise there -- but then began the Swift-Boat-style smear by saying Murtha was "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party."
Now I proudly consider myself one of those, and as such don't consider that kind of comment an insult, especially when I consider the source. But how I would take it isn't the point; how it's intended is.
Speaker Denny Hastert, himself a Vietnam draft avoider (he had bad knees, so he stayed home to wrestle) described his own fat ass as "saddened". "Rep. Murtha and Democratic leaders have adopted a policy of cut and run," he said.
This is how the White House and the Republican leadership treats the people who actually supported them on the war. The ones who truly believed they were doing the right thing at the outset.
They piss all over them. Publicly.
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