26 Comments

1. Andy Freeman:

Murtha makes Pelosi look good.

He’s Agnew to her Nixon.

Nov 15, 2006 - 8:45 am 2. Rhod:

Murtha squeezed out of his clown car a while back, and bargained away his reputation and his(questionable) war status for Pelosi’s support in his public tomfoolery about the Iraq War. He was the willing front man for Pelosi’s medicine show.

Good press and crediblity for an otherwise obscure, dimwitted and repellant person means a lot, but you don’t get it without the signature of the higher-ups on the chit sheet. She gained, he gained, and now he thinks she still owes him. She’ll cave and then gut him later on when nobody’s watching.

Nov 15, 2006 - 8:53 am 3. waterdragon52:

Could Pelosi’s rationale for nominating Murta be any more complicated than the credibility she thinks a bona fide “war hero” type can bring to the “bring the troops home ASAP” faction?

Nov 15, 2006 - 9:27 am 4. Vulgorilla:

An excellent analysis of all of this is available at http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=6043

Enjoy!

Nov 15, 2006 - 9:35 am 5. Wolverine:

Roger, You have the optimism of a new born. The GOP isn’t coming back anytime soon, at least not in a version that you would find palatable. Just look at who came back today; our boy Trent Lott.

Good to see the GOP trotting out the segregationist wing with McConnell and Lott….hahaha!

Nov 15, 2006 - 10:13 am 6. Terrye:

Wolverine:

Don’t be so sure. I heard the same thing about the Democrats not so long ago. Pride goeth before a fall and all that.

I think Pelosi is backing Murtha because he sent some sweet land deals to her family real estate business and he is demanding she pay up.

As for Lott, I am not that crazy about the man {never wa} but until and unless the Democrats are ready to retire that senile old Klansman Byrd I really don’t think they are in any position to pass judgment.

Nov 15, 2006 - 10:43 am 7. GaryK:

Its been said that the people who want to be in Congress or want to be President are exactly the wrong people for those positions; it is the people who don’t want those jobs who are more suitable for them.

Its also been noted that the skills necessary to win such positions are not the skills needed to then do a good job in these positions.

Think about it–only people who have a an almost all-consuming need for power and adulation, have very thick skins, are willing to suck up to almost anyone and willing to make all sorts of deals with all sorts of people–are the kinds of people who are likely to stay the course and win.

The media and your opponent will rummage through your life and find anything they can, even if made up, twisted or blown way out of proportion, to defeat a candidate if they think it is in their interest to do so. Sane people do not want to subject themselves or their families to this.

Such scrutiny for federal appointees requiring Senate confirmation, who have to fill out an extraordinarily detailed 40+ page questionnaire laying out their entire life history, financial accounts and associations, plus similarly detailed paperwork for security clearances, drives many potential appointees away as well.

Nov 15, 2006 - 10:53 am 8. Terrye:

Well well well, it seems the NYT might be having second thoughts. Now that they have beat that old surrender horse to death it seems they may be having second thoughts and several Generals who called for Rumsfeld’s resignation are also questioning the wisdom of a pullout from Iraq, via Big Lizards :

And what exactly should be the goals of these new American forces? Rather, “Coalition” forces… assuming there are any countries left in the West besides us who can actually fight. The Times answers that question:

* Reduce Iraqi unemployment;

* Secure Iraq’s borders with both Iran and Syria;

* “Enlist more cooperation” from tribal sheikhs — in the Iraq frontier, primarily in the province of Anbar;

* Weaken or crush the militias — which primarily plague “the capital,” i.e., Baghdad.

Finally, Kenneth M. Pollack, a Brookings Institution guy, argues that pulling out now will make a bona-fide civil war inevitable; as Wikipedia puts it, “the Brookings Institution is a center-left think tank, based in Washington, D.C…. currently headed by Strobe Talbott.”

This is precisely the fig leaf the Democrats can use, if they choose, to turn on a dime and give a nickle change. Especially if the Iraq Study Group (the Jim Baker commission) recommends a troop increase, as I suspect they will, instead of a pull-out: then the momentum for sending in a bunch of troops to secure borders, borderlands, and Baghdad will become irresistable.

At least, let’s keep our fingers crossed: not only will it make the war infinitely more winnable than if we were to pull out prematurely (like Onan did) — which is the most important consideration — but secondarily, it will enrage the nutroots and cause them to go all-out to force a Kossack wack-job on the party as the 2008 presidential nominee. I don’t know if they’ll succeed… but I like the idea of la bataille royale within the Democratic Party for the next two years!

One more thing; take a look at the last line from our previous post:

By the way… if I’m right, and the Democrats are willing to go for a change in this direction instead of insisting on that direction, then I predict they will also go ahead and confirm Robert Gates as SecDef.

And compare to Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Caesar’s Palace, 100%) “top priority” that we quoted from an AP story yesterday:

[110th Congress Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid told The Associated Press that a top priority for the remainder of the lame-duck session will be confirming Robert Gates as defense secretary, succeeding Donald H. Rumsfeld. “The sooner we can move it forward the sooner we can get rid of Rumsfeld,” he said.

hmmmmmmmm.

Nov 15, 2006 - 11:06 am 9. Terrye:

That link should be Big Lizards

Nov 15, 2006 - 11:07 am 10. Mark:

After reading this article in today’s OpinionJournal, the thought struck me that the Murtha’s just getting his return on investment, and this isn’t what you’d call novel behavior on his part:

The 54-minute Abscam tape shows Mr. Murtha functioning as a cynical backroom operator, telling the FBI undercover agents: “You know, you made an offer. It might be that I might change my mind someday.” Later, he explained how that might happen: “I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions at all, period,” he told the fake sheiks. “After we’ve done some business, well, then I might change my mind. I’m going to tell you this. If anybody can do it–I am not BSing you fellows–I can get it done my way. There’s no question about it.”

Pelosi needed a congressman who was a decorated veteran on-point against Bush’s Iraq policy. Murtha has named his price and he’s collecting his fee. Simple, really.But I admit I agree with the main thrust of Wolverine’s comment (if not with the racialist rationale): The Republicans really are in the process of priving they’re too stupid to pour urine out of footwear, and it’s going to take at least one more cycle for them to start wondering what that squishy feeling is all about.

Nov 15, 2006 - 11:24 am 11. Mark:

The link didn’t take.
OpinionJournal: Meet the New Boss

Nov 15, 2006 - 11:26 am 12. Godzilla:

The media and your opponent will rummage through your life and find anything they can, even if made up, twisted or blown way out of proportion, to defeat a candidate if they think it is in their interest to do so. Sane people do not want to subject themselves or their families to this.

No lie. After seeing what happened to Alito during the Supreme Court nominations I took the pains to alert one of my sons, who is a senior in college and soon to embark in law school, to give serious consideration about who he chooses to take into his confidence. To never put in writing or in email ANYTHING that can be twisted or distorted to look bigoted or insensitive to minorities.

These twenty-year olds running around today don’t have an inkling yet of how many skeletons they are putting into their closets.

Remember that college frat party a couple of months ago, where some kids in law school were dressed up in ghetto outfits, and wearing name cards with minority-sounding names? If those kids ten or twenty years from now decide to get into politics, they can hang it up.

Nov 15, 2006 - 11:30 am 13. Rhod:

The Pelosi-Murtha issue is just noise coming from the next room at the fleabag, while the action goes on somewhere else. Murtha is just one crasher who represents a dramatic set of opinions on the war, and that’s why we’re talking about him at all. He has issues? What a surprise. He’s a bloated, simple-minded jackass. So what?

Nothing Murtha does or says in any capacity is going to effect our comprehension of the realities down the road.. And Terrye has touched on the matters at hand, and so has Levin, which is withdrawl, or the euphemism “redeployment”. Because this is Murtha’s incantation doesn’t make Murtha the point.

Conservatives who think “timetables” for withdrawl are ridiculous, and liberals who demand them need to explain themselves. Timetables wouldn’t test the Maliki government’s competence to Iraqi-ize the war, it would test its willingness to do it.

The Maliki govt is a majority Shi’a govt, and will not be enthusiastic about any challenge to Al Sadr, or the thousands of irregulars he commands. That’s our central problem. An organized shadow government of Shi’a militias under Al Sadr. We’re seeing an insurgency now; when Al Sadr chooses to challenge Maliki, and he will, we’ll see an insurrection.

A timetable of some kind would evaluate Maliki’s desire for life.

Nov 15, 2006 - 12:25 pm 14. kcom:

“Murtha doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb on the block.”

That’s always the analogy that springs to mind for me when I see him on TV. I always get the impression that he’s a dim bulb. I honestly have no idea how he’s even under consideration for the role of Majority Leader. He doesn’t strike me as being anywhere near the best and brightest that we want leading the country or even the best and the brightest among the Democrats. I know they have members that are more agile mentally, better-spoken, and more widely accomplished.

Like I said, to me it’s a mystery. But perhaps this quote goes a fair way toward explaining it:

“Pelosi said in her letter that she was swayed to endorse Murtha, a longtime ally, by his early call for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.”

My question is: Is that the sole qualification to being Majority Leader? What does that have to do with the day in and day out job of running the House? Or running the country? Last I checked, foreign policy wasn’t even the main responsibility of the House. Nancy Pelosi might think Murtha’s opinion was admirable (I don’t) but that’s hardly a qualification for that kind of responsibility. It sounds like single issue politics run wild to me. Hell, I know plenty of people that made the same call, too. Does that mean they are qualified to be the Majority Leader?

Nov 15, 2006 - 12:51 pm 15. Barrett:

Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss.

Hasert and Murtha have their own sides to the story, but each is a bumbling fool in his own right.

My view is that the Repubs were and are incompetent, but that the Dems are dangerous.

Regarding qualifications, there do not seem to be any. That is in part the fault of voters who do not demand the same level of competency from public servants as they do in other areas of their lives.

That is partly because everyone (businesses and individuals) seems to want entitlements today.

Nov 15, 2006 - 1:30 pm 16. GaryK:

Our written histories may not be anywhere near correct in how they have portrayed past figures in American politics but, can anyone honestly say that the current crop comes anywhere near many of their predecessors on the basis of having principles other than,of course, I’ve got mine and “the devil take the hindmost”? To the question, “is there a principle in the House (or the Senate for that matter)” the answer would seem to be no.

It’s been said that “a politician has his eyes on the next election, a statesman has his eyes on the next generation.” Does anyone discern the slightest hint of awareness of or concern for the long view among this troop of baboons in Congress? Can anyone see any concern by this crew for the fate of the people of the United States as a whole? Any person who is out for anything but himself, and maybe his party, with his constituents a very distant third? Anyone who is educated and smart, as opposed to cunning, with an eye for the main chance?

Nov 15, 2006 - 2:14 pm 17. heather:

The Anchoress linked to this article from San Francisco, about how ‘bidness’ is done in the Bay Area. It stars Nancy Pelosi, with a photo of Barbara Boxer..
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/kirshenbaum_061029.shtml

So, she and Murtha are allies because they are the same kind of people: corrupt to the core.

Nov 15, 2006 - 3:29 pm 18. David Thomson:

Is Nancy Pelosi the Democratic Party version of Katherine Harris?
Pushing the nomination of John Murtha is pure lunacy. He is God’s gift to the GOP. Peolosi must have a few screws loose.

Nov 15, 2006 - 4:39 pm 19. bigger:

What does Mad Jack Murtha know of where Congress’s Botox Queen has the bodies buried? What secret hold does he have over her….

I’ll leave the novel plotting to the estimable Mister Simon, but on a serious note I think the Republican base is going to have to take the party back from the Republicans in congress by funding lots and lots of primary challenges, since those on congress seem unable to learn from their mistakes. Of course, I’ll be rooting from the outside, since I live in Massachusetts and we don’t have a Republican party to speak of anyway.

As noted elsewhere, President Bush can re-appoint John Bolton during the next recess, but he cannot continue to pay him, but with PayPal the American people can! I will gladly donate to a Pay John Bolton fund, even though I am not entirely convinced we should have an ambassador to the maffia.

Nov 15, 2006 - 4:46 pm 20. Bostonian:

Wolverine: “Roger, You have the optimism of a new born.”

In contrast, you actually ARE a newborn.

I have a car with more life experience than you.

I’m not picking on you for your age–just saying that you might not know as much as you think you do. It’s rather rich that you mention Lott as a segregationist. Google “Byrd KKK” and see what you find.

Nov 15, 2006 - 5:22 pm 21. Luther McLeod:

Apologies for the bandwidth thing Roger. But I think GaryK’s comment needs repeating.

“Does anyone discern the slightest hint of awareness of or concern for the long view among this troop of baboons in Congress? Can anyone see any concern by this crew for the fate of the people of the United States as a whole? Any person who is out for anything but himself, and maybe his party, with his constituents a very distant third? Anyone who is educated and smart, as opposed to cunning, with an eye for the main chance?

I think Gary hits upon the strong nerve, or at least one of mine. I will take his ‘baboons’ to be multi-partisan. Our Congress, indeed our political system, has morphed into the quarterly report or the two year election, same difference.

Our country has become focused on the short term, never on the long. Is there no one out there with the elucidation to enunciate this view? Someone with the wisdom (of the long view) of our constitutional forebears?

Our national anxiousness for short term resolution of long term problems may be the death of us all.

I know, I’m wordy, best I can do.

Nov 15, 2006 - 5:27 pm 22. Godzilla:

Our country has become focused on the short term, never on the long. Is there no one out there with the elucidation to enunciate this view?

Hobbes would give a good go at it, but unfortunately he’s been dead for about 400 years.

Nov 15, 2006 - 5:39 pm 23. Luther McLeod:

Tight standard Godzilla, leaves many out I guess.

Nov 15, 2006 - 5:53 pm 24. phinsdale:

Sadly seniority is far too important in the Senate. Those of us who are not voters in Mississippi or West Virginia have nothing to say about the voters in those states who give the likes of Trent Lott and Robert Byrd seniority.

It is the collective Republicans who elect to give Trent Lott national prominence. Perhaps the Democrats are learning, Byrd is in the background and notice how John Kerry appears to have been sidelined by Senator Schumer today?

All of this behavior is pathetic and goes toward an answer to Roger’s question. Why would ANY honorable, intelligent citizen, let alone a superstar such as VDH, subject him/herself to being a member of this club? Thankfully Jon Kyl and Jeff Sessions are on deck, but alas juniority does not cut it.

Nov 15, 2006 - 7:03 pm 25. Sandy P:

Isn’t Murtha tied to defense contracts via her nephew?

Nov 16, 2006 - 5:53 pm 26. JDFlanagan:

You asked why individuals such as Hastert and Murtha end up in Congress rather than men like Victor Davis Hanson. I suppose that this is a triumph of the division of labor in society. Men of ideas spend their days developing those ideas. Men who can build bridges and skyscrapers do so. Those who fit into neither of these two groups, but are generally amiable and good in groups of people end up in Congress (or as street mimes). Imagine the chaos that would ensue if our elected representatives were instead assigned to a bridge repair crew. Sometimes I’m thankful that they are where they are.

Nov 17, 2006 - 11:43 am

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