Cleland Update

Last night, I posted on Max Cleland's five minute diatribe. Now I can post the rest of the transcript of his diatribe:

BARNICLE: So it‘s deja vu all over again as far as you are concerned?
CLELAND: Yes, it is and we can‘t let this happen. What is happening to our country, when a member of Congress who has been there for more than 30 years, a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, that is very close to the American military and is a marine colonel, retired and has been in the Marine Corps for 30 years, what happens when that voice of sanity, and advocacy for the truth about what is going on in Iraq, the ground truth, what happens when that person is trashed, his character is assassinated, and he is questioned in terms of his patriotism. That‘s unbelievable.

Cleland's reaction is emblematic of liberal thinking. If I had a dollar for every time that I've heard a Democrat talking about Republicans questioning their patriotism, I'd be a wealthy man. I won't say that no one has questioned Murtha's patriotism but I will say that lots of people have questioned Murtha's loyalty to the military, which isn't the same thing.

It's a major stretch to say that Murtha's voice is the voice of sanity. Let me edit out the political correctness in that statement: It's a bunch of Barbra Streisand to think that Murtha's voice is the voice of sanity.

BARNICLE: Congressman Murtha, he seemingly has a safe seat, I mean he is not in danger of being tipped over by Vets for the Truth, do you think that he is?
CLELAND: I don‘t think that he is being in danger of losing his seat. That‘s not what we are talking about here. Actually we are talking about the pain that somebody has to go through if they challenge this administration, whether it‘s Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, whether it is John Kerry, whether it is John McCain, whether it is me, anybody that raises their head up against this administration, particularly on the question of the war, which now the majority of the American people see that Murtha is right, the ground truth is we cannot affect this war anymore.
General Abizaid said today to the Congress this thing is drifting into civil war. Murtha has known that for a year and a half. Therefore, he advocates redeploying our forces, bringing our guard reserve home, and focusing on Osama bin Laden, which is what we should have been doing in the first place.

Cleland's whistling past the graveyard when he says that Murtha's seat is safe. Within three months, they'll be talking about PA-12 as a safe Republican seat for a generation. Murtha used to represent PA-12's values. That Murtha is long gone in search of the limelight.

Notice Cleland's invoking Joe Wilson's and Valerie Plame's names in his diatribe? I hadn't thought of it before but Democrats must think that Wilson and Plame are the picture of honesty and patriotism whose only 'crime' was to challenge the Bush administration's honesty.

Here's a statement in need of a fisking:

Therefore, he advocates redeploying our forces, bringing our guard reserve home, and focusing on Osama bin Laden, which is what we should have been doing in the first place.

Typical Democratic Barbra Streisand. It's a global war on terror but Democrats would focus only on getting bin Laden. What part of GLOBAL don't they understand?

This statement bothers me, too:

"Actually we are talking about the pain that somebody has to go through if they challenge this administration..."

Actually, Sen. Cleland, what's really happening is that American citizens are holding John Murtha accountable for disobeying his oath of office, specifically the part that says that he'd "protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." It's impossible for Murtha to "protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies" when he's ignoring two cornerstones of the Constitution: the right to a fair trial and the right of due process. In fact, it's wrong for him to assume that the Haditha Marines will get convicted of anything when they might not even get charged with committing a crime.

BARNICLE: So you‘re talking about the dialogue of Democracy actually, because John Murtha is in no danger of being defeated. Do you agree with Congressman Murtha about, you know, that these troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year, and we should begin the withdrawal almost immediately?
CLELAND: Absolutely because we can no longer do any good there. This thing is drifting in to civil war. It is in civil war. We are losing, in effect, the Iraqis are losing 100 people a day. We are spending $8 billion a month. We have lost 500 young Americans since Jack Murtha took this issue public and said it‘s time to redeploy our troops out of harm‘s way. We cannot afford to see the blood and treasure of this great country dissipated in the Iraqi desert. Now, it‘s up to the Iraqis to solve their problems, not us. That‘s the rationale for coming out and Jack Murtha is right.

Sen. Cleland says in one sentence that Iraq was drifting inton civil war. Then he says that "It is in civil war" in the next sentence. I watched that segment. It was apparent that that was an attempt to have it both ways, which is typical Democrats demagoguery. It also proves that they play fast and loose with the facts from the theater of war.

Sen. Cleland says that "We can no longer do any good there." What chutzpah on his part. Shouldn't he take into account that the popularly elected Iraqi government doesn't agree with that statement? Or is he that willing to throw overboard a valued ally in the heart of the Middle East?

He's so full of Barbra Streisand that he isn't worth paying attention to.

Technorati Tags: Murtha, Osama, Due Process, Global War on Terror, Military

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog