John Murtha, The Real Deal

White House Blinks As Pennsylvania Democrat Stands His Ground

(CBS)  Dotty Lynch is the senior political editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points

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On Monday, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney waved a big white flag. Not in the war in Iraq, but in the Administration's personal war against Rep. John Murtha. Cheney was very straightforward.

"I disagree with Jack, but he's a good man, a Marine, a patriot," and then took off on a group of Senators who voted to give the President authorization to go to war with Iraq.

Score round one for Murtha.

Murtha, a 16-term Democratic congressman from Johnston, Pa., is not exactly a media darling. But, when he suddenly burst into the headlines and led the CBS Evening News on Thursday and Meet The Press on Sunday, the interest level was sky high.

Bob Schieffer told CBSNews.com's Public Eye that while "Murtha had been critical of the administration and its handling of the war in the past, he had never unequivocally called for withdrawal. And coming from Murtha, a well-respected hawk and veteran, that was a big deal.

"I don't know how much you know about dairy farms, but you put the bell on the lead cow, and all the other cows follow her," he said. "When John Murtha says something on defense, people listen. He has always been a hawk, he's not a garden variety liberal, nor a Bush hater."

Murtha is also the epitome of unslick. He is blunt, tough and reeks of credibility. That is why the first reaction from the White House — comparing Murtha to "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore — was so odd.

The decision of Cheney to respond by talking about "certain politicians losing backbone" and then Rep. Jean Schmidt — relaying a phone call alluding to Murtha, a decorated Marine Vietnam vet, as a coward — generated such a huge backlash.

Others floated a story to Roll Call that ties between Murtha and his brother's lobbying firm, KSA Consulting, might spur an ethics committee investigation. Murtha himself is used to hardball and fired back that "guys who got five deferments and never been there … then send people to war and don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

Murtha's bold proposal to get the troops out in six months stands in stark contrast to his fellow Democrats' nervous and tortured attempts to extricate themselves from their 2002 vote to give the president the authority to go to war.

That affirmative vote was cast by 29 Democratic Senators and more than 100 Democratic members of the House for a variety of reasons, many of them very bad. Advisors to Rep. Dick Gephardt, a dove on the Persian Gulf War, were looking for a way to broaden his image, hoping he would become a Scoop Jackson for the 21st century.

In October 2002, Gephardt stood in the Rose Garden with President Bush, in a show of solidarity. At a dinner with reporters that I attended in the summer of 2002, Gephardt made a convincing case that he was there on principle as well as politics and felt if he could make common cause with Mr. Bush that he might be able to affect the policy.

A few weeks ago, however, a liberal blog called the Next Hurrah reported that Gephardt, now an investment banker, told an audience in Seattle at a fundraiser for liberal Rep. Jim McDermott's legal defense fund that he had been wrong.

Other Democrats were convinced that if they voted for the resolution they could get the issue "off the table" before the 2002 election and return to the issues of economics and health care where Democrats were strong

John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton were just a few of the 29 Democrats who voted yes. That vote dogged Kerry throughout the 2004 campaign and his famous weasel phrase about his vote on funding for Iraq operations in 2003 "I voted for it before I voted against it" became the most effective Bush campaign shorthand for Kerry's lack of fortitude and honesty.

Jack Murtha has now provided cover for the Democrats. Kerry and Edwards have admitted their mistakes but won't go as far as the straight-talking Murtha.

Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner to lead the Democratic Party in 2008 who has been putting out more press releases about projects she has delivered for upstate New York than about Iraq, said on Monday that she "respectfully disagrees with Murtha." Her position on withdrawal appears to be some amorphous time later than "immediately" but sooner than "forever."

Given the public's reaction and the White House's cave, it might make sense for other Democrats to follow Murtha on style if not on substance and come forward with a specific, clear and bold plan for bringing American troops home.