Oct. 1, 2006
Opponents Aim To 'Swift Boat' Murtha
Anti-War Democrat Brings In Heavy Hitters To Support His Own War Record
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U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., speaks at the Veterans for Murtha Rally in Johnstown, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006. (CBS)
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CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports from deep in the heart of Pennsylvania steel country that Rep. Murtha is engaged in a new battle – this one in his own backyard.
This is what Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, is saying: "I don't appreciate these people sitting on their fat backsides at the White House, sending our young people to war when they don't understand the circumstances."
But this is what he's facing: "We are here to 'Swift Boat' John Murtha."
That's right, "Swift Boat." Veterans for Truth — some of the same guys that went after John Kerry's military record in 2004 — is back.
This time, they are gunning for Murtha — who is up for re-election — by questioning his military record and his character.
"Our campaign is entirely negative, but as we all know, negativism is a positive aspect of American politics," said fellow Vietnam vet and former Congressman Don Bailey.
This weekend, they organized a "Boot Murtha" rally.
Murtha, ever the Marine, rolled out some heavy political ground support of his own to take them on.
"Jack Murtha's critics don't know Jack," said fellow Vietnam vet and former Senator Bob Kerrey.
"This guy laid his life on the line for us and for our country, and we're not going to let any Swift Boaters, shrimp boaters or anybody else take out Jack Murtha," said retired Ge. Wesley Clark, another Vietnam vet and the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
No one thought the 16-term Congressman was in any danger of losing his seat to Diana Irey — his "stay the course" Republican challenger. But the "Swift Boat" guys changed the equation, so Democrats are changing their battle plan.
"Take your dirty politics, shove it where the sun doesn't shine and leave town," is how former Senator and Vietnam vet Max Cleland put it.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 107 CommentsThe Republican party has abandoned its moral compass in the pursuit of power for its own sake.
Here's the question that the GOP should be asking itself, "What profiteth a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?"
The whole putrid Foley affair demonstrates clearly that the Republican party leadership sold their souls for worldly power, and sold out the safety and security of children entrusted into their care at the same time.
And you want the American people to believe this is the party that will keep us secure? Get real.
where are you? Is that strategy too much for your stomach to handle? I am reasonably sure that's the case for the Clintonites who like to give passes.
or for the typical cut and runners.
You got strategy. Now write your congressman whether he or she is a Republican or a Democrat and urge the same. Put up or get out of office - and let's win this war. But to win it it has to be fought right - and if that involves no trials for terrorists, too bad. If it involves torture, too bad (after all, ask the Korean boy, Nick Berg, Danny Pearl, the English woman who helped Iraq what they think - too bad they can't answer- because they were tortured and KILLED). Mohammed scumface Atta didn't think about the doomed women on board that plane. Why should WE give a hoot about the rights of his buddies?
Now it is the turn of those who claim we're not fighting this war right, or bash Bush after giving Perverted Billy Boy a pass for doing nothing.
5. - If Rumsfeld cannot carry this out, or Bush, then they should be replaced. YES, replaced. But not by the likes of a McLame or his Democratic counterparts who offer exactly the opposite. Who want us to have guilt trips. Who want to give terrorists who murder women and children trials by jury. Who want to "cut and run" like EVERY SINGLE ONE of the leading Democratic candidates. Put in a Colin Powell or a Schwarzkopf, but a leader who is willing to curtail some rights temporarily and is also willing to obliterate Islamic terrorism once and for all so we can pull out of Iraq and elsewhere, and in a manner that surviving regimes like North Korea and Cuba will sit up and take sobering notice.
You want that? Then good. But let's see if your Clintonite friends and apologists will as well.
Here's something else that would make your Ned Lamont blood go to ice. Wanna know what else should be done, since you call for war? Good.
1. - Racial Profiling at Airports. Why should the average American citizen wait two - three hours, and go through all kinds of inspections when the Dems and their ACLU allies are crying about the rights of Arabs or Olive-skinned folks. If you want a war footing, you support this, and no crying foul about human rights or dignity obliterated.
2. - That also means an abandonment to the cries of the Dems and yes, John McCain about torture or intense interrogations. You get what WE need to know, no matter what it takes. Our Liberties won't be in jeopardy no matter what the Left says. BUT THEIRS WILL. And that is what they need to know.
3. - Mosques and Muslim communities in the West need to forcefully come out and blast Bin Laden and ALL terror and stop talking about killing if they are insulted. Christians and Jews are insulted every day - no one goes out and kills for it. Or accept consequences.
4. - Seek out all possible targets - in Pakistan , in Iran, and elsewhere - as well as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still with me, boy?
Now suppose that these Military commanders advocated non-stop bombing of Iraqi towns, including the levelling of Fallujah and Sadr City. Of denying press access to Abu Gharib or other camps where terrorists are being interrogated. Where would you stand on those positions, energyconartist?
I can hardly wait for your reply.
Surprise. Some of the commanders and a lot of the enlisted personnel were pleading for such action, especially the first time the roaches in Fallujah tortured and murdered Americans. Yes, Bush and Rumsfeld and the senior commanders are accountable for not doing that. But to date I have never heard a single commander of U.S. ground forces advocate "cut and run" or anything else that the Dem MoveOn.Org phonies want. If anything they want a more aggressive posture - DO YOU?
Still waiting for a solution besides Sharia, sonny.
And, one that actually mobilizes this country for a war - rather than providing no bid contracts and critical positions to feckless and corrupt supporters - rather that calls upon those who are actually competent to perform the task rather than those who are mindlessly loyal incompetents.
Yeah, curious how in what has been portrayed by the right as the battle for the 21st century, rather than unite the country and marshal all the resources at our disposal we got the D-team and a line about how we could do it all for nothing.
Again, I await your rebuttal on a SINGLE point of fact - but then its going to be a reeeeeeeeally long wait, isn't it?
And if you haven't suggested surrender, then what are you suggesting. C'mon - I Don't Hear You!
NO ONE has counseled surrender, that is just your desperate straw-man argument. But a good place to start would be with a real strategy instead of slogans and personal attacks.
And I have more concern for our brave young men and women that are coming back from Iraq, and the cuts to VA funding for head injuries - the signature wound of the Iraq occupation.
You don't offer solutions, intelligent debate or the prospect of success in Iraq, Janey. Just an endless stream of rancor and bile. I pity you.
One fresh fact for ya. In 1945 thousands of American boys died on Iwo Jima. If you were alive then, would you have urged "cut and run"? Or how about the one million projected dead and wounded U.S. military personnel on the beaches of Japan. Oh, you wouldn't have dropped the A-Bomb, right. You'd make peace.
So, little children with no brains, what solutions do you offer. Do you betray a fledgling government of disparate factions that are finally making an effort to jell - or do you allow business as usual and create more Hamas, more Hizbullah, more Al Qaeda when we do pull out?
C'mon whiners and haters, let's see if you can offer cogent solutions rather than you Neo-Fascist Left rants ala Howie and Cindy Sleazehand. Or can you?
Probably the latter, since Kerry, Clinton, Carter, Murtha, Ned the Ped, Byrd, Boxer, Kennedy, et. al., haven't come up with anything better. And neither have the sorry little boys (or was it girls) who are screaming ala Howard Dean here.
Go read the posts of your fellow travelers, Janey - they are engaging in a smear campaign of innuendo and distortion - for the politcal gain of the GOP. PERIOD.
Dial it back yourself - while I respect the service rendered by all who have worn the uniform, they get no blank check when engaging in political debate - particularly when it is in this odious form to which they have chosen to lower themselves.
Did you ever serve our nation? If not, young boy, don't insult those who did. I don't see anyone insulting Murtha's record of service; as for Kerry, he brought that on himself by besmirching his fellow vets and by his own fiery comments.
The Swift Boat men felt, rightly or wrongly that Kerry's record was one of misconduct and "give aid and comfort" to the enemy. They served alongside him - did you?
I will respect anyone who served our country honorably. I suggest, fella, you do the same.
By the way, David Hackworth, whom I admired except for his role in what happened to Jeremy Boorda, also criticized the Vietnam War and because of his experiences in 'Nam was extremely reluctant for America to get involved in the FIRST Gulf War. Yet he did so from military experience and blunt talk. The Democrats offer none of this, nor solutions to the greatest threat we face since Hitler.
Except "Cut and Run" and judicial trials for those who don't give a dang about human life. Or to rant and rave at those who ask questions. Give answers - or stop being pathetic whiners ala Pelosi and Boxer.
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