Phony Democrats, part 2
The auction of the Senate Democrats' letter falsely attacking Rush Limbaugh concluded yesterday with a winning bid of $2,100,100 by Betty Casey of the Eugene Casey Foundation, to be matched by Rush, for a total contribution of $4,200,200 to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. The New York Times brings its characteristic passion for accuracy to the story on the auction. In the very first sentence of its story, the Times misreports:
After Rush Limbaugh referred to Iraq war veterans critical of the war as “phony soldiers,” he received a letter of complaint signed by 41 Democratic senators.The Times gets the "41 Democratic senators" right, but it is incapable of a fairly reporting Rush's remarks. It regurgitates the Hillary Matters lie maintained by the 41 Senate Democrats who signed the letter to Clear Channel condemning Rush.
The auction of the letter for the benefit of the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Fund was of course Rush's ingenious response to the Democrats' impugning his support for the armed forces. It was his way of embarrassing the senators who, while absurdly attacking him for his lack of support for the armed forces, have not hesitated to undermine our efforts in Iraq, for example, by declaring defeat. The Times is nevertheless happy to let Harry Reid make the auction a sort of joint venture with Rush, quoting Reid on the floor of the Senate yesterday:
“I strongly believe that when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people,” he said.The Times could have served a useful purpose if it had been able to disclose precisely how Reid put aside his differences with Rush and attempted to accomplish something good for the American people. Did it include seeking to have Rush muzzled? (Rush responded to Reid on his show yesterday: “It wasn’t your letter that raised this money. It was your abuse of power that is responsible for raising this money.”) Did Reid send the Democrats' letter to Clear Channel as a charitable act? Did the Senate Democrats pitch in with a contribution to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Fund?
Before we leave the subject, I want to revisit a few of the Democrats' greatest hits expressing support of our armed forces. They provide useful context for the phony "phony soldiers" controversy orchestrated by Hillary Matters and executed by HM's dutiful Democratic poodles. Here are a few statements previously made by signatories to the letter attacking Rush:
Harry Reid (on "the surge"):
Now I believe, myself, that the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows: that this war is lost, that the surge is not accomplishing anything.More Harry Reid:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed Thursday that he told liberal bloggers last week that he thinks outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace is "incompetent."Dick Durbin (on Guantanamo):
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.Hillary Clinton (to General Petraeus):
[T]oday you are testifying about the current status of our policy in Iraq and the prospects of that policy. It is a policy that you have been ordered to implement by the president. And you have been made the de facto spokesmen for what many of us believe to be a failed policy.Edward Kennedy:Despite what I view as your rather extraordinary efforts in your testimony both yesterday and today, I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.
Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management.John Kerry:
Education -- if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.More John Kerry:
And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the -- of -- the historical customs, religious customs.Barack Obama:
We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.Charles Schumer (on "the surge"):
[L]et me be clear, the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge. The inability of American soldiers to protect these tribes from al Qaeda said to these tribes we have to fight al Qaeda ourselves. It wasn’t that the surge brought peace here. It was that the warlords took peace here, created a temporary peace here.
