Karl Rove attacked Rep. John Murtha during a speech last week in New Hampshire. Rove described Murtha’s Iraq plan as “cutting and running’” and suggested that the 37-year Marine combat veteran would “be with you at the first shots” but not “for the last, tough battles.”
Until recently, I’d never been a particularly big fan of John Murtha. Of course, I didn’t know much about him, because Murtha is the sort of politician that one could never fairly describe as a “media whore”. John Murtha is a fairly old-school politician, more comfortable with working behind the scenes and concentrating on constituent services and the causes that are important to him. No reasonably well-informed observer would ever characterized Murtha as “Liberal”- he has, after call, consistently received a 0% rating from NARAL and an A+ from the NRA. Even describing him as a “Moderate” Democrat may be something of a stretch, but he’s served his southwestern Pennsylvania district since 1974, so he must be doing something right in the eyes of his constituents.
Murtha may in many respects be a Democrat in name only, but there is one area in which no reasonable person can question the breadth of his knowledge and experience nor the depth of his commitment. That would be military affairs. A retired Marine Colonel (USMC, ret.), and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Murtha knows of which he speaks when it comes to all things military. So when he spoke out forcefully against the war in Iraq, a war he initially supported, I sat up and took notice, as did many on the Left. Murtha, no Liberal by anyone’s definition, was and is speaking truth to power, and the Chickenhawks are doing everything in their power to discredit him…and looking small and desperate in doing so.
Now Karl Rove, he of the three student deferments during the Vietnam War, has the cojones and the chutzpah to step into the breach and question Murtha’s commitment and patriotism. It seems that the Republican accusation of choice is to smear a Democrat for “not supporting our troops.” Trust me on this one; NO ONE supports our men and women in uniform more than John Murtha. Jeebus, what a flaming, arrogant, clueless DUMB@$$ Rove is. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Murtha to put Rove in his place:
MURTHA: He’s in New Hampshire. He’s making a political speech. He’s sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside, saying stay the course. That’s not a plan…. We’ve got to change direction. You can’t sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell troops carrying 70 pounds on their backs, inside these armored vessels hit with IEDs every day, seeing their friends blown up, their buddies blown up — and he says stay the course? Easy to say that from Washington, DC.
‘Nuff said….
