Pattern of GOP Mudslinging - Could Backfire with Murtha...

[Peter Frank]

• McCain won a primary, became a threat -- his military record was slimed and his character was assassinated.
• Kerry got the nod to run against Bush, became a threat -- his military record was slimed and he was characterized as a traitor.
• Murtha challenges Bush on the war, becomes a threat -- he's characterized as an extreme liberal ala Michael Moore (public enemy #1 for Bush's extreme Right base). Since Bush couldn't impeach Murtha's military record; the best he do was to sling elephant dung at him.

The only problem for Bush is that the character assassination slime-dogs just might not hunt this time around. Voters are sick of the war, sick of the spending, sick of the border policy, sick of the duplicity/hypocrisy, sick of inept Republican "leadership," ...and sick of Bush.

This time, the voice in the wilderness might just be the rallying call that will lead to sweeping change in D.C.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Don't forget Max Cleland...

Along with several others that come to mind. The draft-dodging warhawk GOP denegrating the veteran Democrat is an old parable of hypocrisy.
Hell, it goes all the way back to McGovern in 1972, if not earlier.

[Peter Frank]

4. Yes, a very important omission...

What the slime machine did to Cleland is nothing short criminal. Let's work our asses off to sweep these weasels out.

[Lautremont]

2. Hand-in-hand with the Michael Moore "insult" is a new strategy,

downplaying Vietnam as a war, reinforcing that it was a bad war poorly conducted, and ultimately a lost war, and so sliming its participants by association with it. This is the current strategy of one Mark Steyn, and a new low if you ask me. (How many new lows yet to be plumbed?)

[Loonman]

3. Murtha was a Colonel when he left the Corps

So any Republican who questions his integrity or slimes him is lower than low.

[Ksec]

5. Murthas showing true leadership today

Hes not gonna play the GOP game of shit slinging, the country is sick of that and Murtha is smart enough not to sink to that level. He knows how the game is played and hes showing it today with whats hes saying to the press about the war of word drivel the GOP has sunk to. Speak your peace and let that do yer talkin. Good job Murtha.

[Loonman]

6. Is Tom Daschle watching this?

That fucking little wimp, this should have happened years ago.

[Warpy]

7. It should have stopped with KERRY

but he was cursed with DLC handlers who apparently had no experience with bullies and told him to ignore it.

THINK of what he could have accomplished had he sued the day that book came out. Winning wasn't the point. Gaining subpoena power and following the dirty money was the point.

Alas, the DLC handlers got that way and Kerry came across as a simp.

[MrMonk]

8. Here's something that was thrown out during the Repub. response

Geoff Davis: "Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, as well as Abu Musab Zarqawi, have made it quite clear in their internal propaganda that they cannot win unless they can drive the Americans out. And they know that they can't do that there, so they've brought the battlefield to the halls of Congress.

They're attempting to link Murtha and Democrats to al Quaeda!

[Peter Frank]

9. Just more of the same tired old tactic...

I think the GOP has just stepped in a big pile of elephant strunz this time.

[MissMarple]

10. Staying makes it worse,leaving does some damage.We have to live with that.

It's all in how we do it. An al Qaeda threat should not dictate our policies. What an idiot.

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

[Spazito]

11. An additional thought I have is that this sliming of Murtha will

remind Americans of the outing of a CIA agent in order to slime her husband which, by the polls taken, is seen as very serious in the eyes of the public.

Once a tipping point has been reached as happened with the travesty of the bush admins response to Katrina, everything the bush admin says and does after, including this attempt to slime Murtha, will be viewed through the anger the public have for the admin, imo.

[Peter Frank]

12. Like I said...

I think the GOP has just stepped in a huge pile of of it's own feces. ...Or, to turn a phrase, "Live by shit -- die by shit."

[Hidden Stillness]

13. Murtha's Statement Has Changed My Opinion

Murtha is very impressive, not only by background but by a wonderful way of telling things. Anybody who heard the entire statement Murtha made on Thursday, just over half an hour, had to be extremely impressed with it. It was well thought-out, very moving (the stories of soldiers and their families), and thrillingly clear and straightforward. It has changed my own opinion. As much as I hate Bush, I was not really for pulling out of Iraq, because I felt that, since we caused all of their problems--destroying their infrastructure, electric, water, roads, oil pipelines oddly enough, their whole economy, police, etc. etc.--that we have a moral obligation to repair what we had done. We could not just bust in to their house, so to speak, trash everything, then la-di-da, go waltzing off as soon as we were not pleased with our own conditions anymore.

I now agree, having heard Murtha's explanation, that we are ourselves the focus and target of so much of the growing hate in Iraq, that peace and stability will never come as long as we are there, because so much of the hate, after Abu Ghraib, etc., is directed exactly against us. Also, I know that Bush and the rest of the neo-cons have no interest in helping Iraq, but only in funneling money, eternally, to Halliburton, etc. I now agree that we will be more helpful trying to rebuild Iraq when we are out of it, and others, starting with Iraqis, take over. It may be bad, but it is disaster now, and we are fixing nothing. Get the corporate pimps out, who caused most of the abuses, and maybe a whole new relationship with the United Nations may help here, if they can step in.