The big story today is the House GOPers putting up for a vote the supposed Murtha Resolution calling for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Read the news story here.
But then read this and you’ll see that the GOP won’t put up the original resolution — but one it has refurbished. Here’s another view of what’s happening, this one from a GOP perspective.
This is all about trying to define the Democrats as all being in favor of withdrawal, forcing them to vote to accentuate divisions within the party, and making them stand with or break away from longtime hawk Jack Murtha. Fair enough. That’s politics.
But it’s indicative of what we’ve written about repeatedly: today’s GOP governs by polarization as opposed to actually dealing with issues that are raised.
In fact, many Democrats have questions about the war but don’t favor immediate withdrawal.
But unlike the White House and many in the GOP leadership, they don’t label those who disagree with them on when to withdraw as being unpatriotic.
Will this define the Democrats or backfire? Our bet? It may have unintended consequences for the GOP, will spark a ton of press stories noting high up in the stories about what the real intent of this vote was, will get the Democrats a large chunk of TV time…and probably won’t make those Americans who polls say don’t support the war support it. And, in the end, it’ll only spur the Democrats on to even more spirited opposition….as independents continue their exodus from the GOP fold.
UPDATE: Veterans everywhere take note. A GOPer just called veteran Jack Murtha a coward. From Hotline:
Emotions runneth over on the floor of the House. Just now, brand new rep Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), quoting a Marine friend from back home, addressed Murtha: “cowards cut and run and marines stay and fight.”
The place went batty, and Schmidt’s words are being taken down. The chair suspended floor action.
UPDATE II: The Brad Blog gives you the full versions of this resolution so you can compare for yourself what Murtha proposed and what the GOP is saying is his resolution. Read it here since it is NOT the same thing.
UPDATE III: The New York Times:
House Republicans are attempting to split the ranks of the Democrats tonight by offering a resolution to withdraw American troops from Iraq immediately. The Republican-controlled House is expected to defeat the measure in a vote that the Republicans hope will leave the Democrats in disarray….
The vote tonight may force many Democrats to stand by Mr. Murtha or go on the record against his proposal. But Ms. Pelosi urged House Democrats to vote with the Republicans against the resolution being considered tonight, according to The Associated Press.
Tonight’s vote will likely only stoke an intensifying partisan debate on Capitol Hill over the Bush administration’s handling of the war, including how it used prewar intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
UPDATE IV: Andrew Sullivan on Schmidt:
She later withdrew her remarks from the record. But those words linger as a reminder of what these Republicans have become. For the record: Murtha served 37 years in the Marines, and has Purple Hearts to his name. He visits wounded soldiers at Walter Reed every week. Three years ago, he won the Semper Fidelis Award of the Marine Corps Foundation, the highest honor the Marines can confer. Every time you think these Republicans can sink no lower, even after their vile smears against Kerry’s service last year, they keep going. They make me sick to my stomach.
And, in an earlier post, Sullivan (who used to back Bush solidly on the war — meaning he is now DISHONEST according to the White House) writes:
How pathetic is the credibility of a commander-in-chief that while he is abroad, all hell breaks loose on the war he is allegedly waging? Bush has lost the country on this. It’s not the media’s fault, not the Democrats’, not the military’s. It’s Bush’s, and his sad excuse for a defense secretary.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.