HuffPo: "If Democrats are smart, they will keep Murtha front and center --

[understandinglife]

... making him the face of the party for the 2006 race in the way the GOP utilized Gingrich to nationalize the 1994 elections.

As he proceeds on his barnstorming offensive, Murtha does what the Democrats should have been doing for years (are you listening, Hillary?): show how the war on Iraq has actually undermined our national security.

"The annual expenditures for the War on Iraq dwarf those of the combined budgets of all other programs in place to fight terrorism," he wrote in his letter. "That is a gross misallocation of resources and has important consequences for making our population safer from terrorist attack. The dollars used to pay for an 8,000 mile logistical pipeline to Iraq could be reapplied to fixing our many vulnerabilities at home in the transportation sector, or at chemical plants, river levees, or nuclear power plants...

"We should be conducting a war against the terrorists in which America's borders are effectively guarded to keep out terrorists, and programs are in place to ensure that none of the millions of cargo containers that enter American ports contain explosives that could render one or more of our great ports inoperable and debilitate our economy, not a "War on Terror" where our finest young people are sacrificing their lives and limbs to implement the visions of "intellectual geopolitical strategists" who fantasize about Jeffersonian democracies being installed in Middle East cultures that have had authoritarian regimes during their entire two millennia of existence...

"It is time to 'change the course' of our Iraqi policy. It is time to wage an effective war against international terrorism. The American people know it. It is time for the administration and the Congress to catch up with them..."

Expect more of this impassioned and spot-on reasoning when Murtha is profiled on "60 Minutes" this Sunday.

From Jack is Back: Murtha Takes the Fight to Bush -- and Across America by Arianna Huffington on 11 January, 2006

More at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/jack-is-back-murtha-take_b_13651.html

Good strategy. Truth works.


Peace.

[AX10]

1. John Murtha will do for us what Newt did for the GOP in 94'!

That's great. Democrats in charge of congress!!!

[w8liftinglady]

2. excellent column-we need to stay focused on the real issues

[caledesi]

3. Thank you UL. Will read later. Looks good! nt

[earthside]

4. Not in Colorado!

I agree with Huffington.

But here in Colorado, our timid Congressman from the 2nd District, Mark Udall, has withdrawn his co-sponsorship of the Murtha redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq resolution.

Udall, who wants to run for the U.S. Senate three years from now, is an example of a wimpy Democrat more interested in getting Republicans to vote for him than in keeping liberals and progressives in his camp. With that strategy, 2006 is going to mean the radical Republicans are going to keep control of the House.

We all need to back anybody running for House or Senate that stands on principle and supports the withdrawl of U.S. troops from Iraq and an end to this immoral war.

Risk-averse Democrats are losers. And that means the country will be the biggest loser.

Thanks, but no thanks, Mark Udall.

[fooj]

5. Keep the eye on the prize...

OUR DEMOCRACY!!!

Peace.

[AuntiBush]

12. Trying...

It's getting hard to hang-on. But when Murtha speaks, everyone seems to listen intently.

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. Sadly the DLC will do its damndest to destroy Murtha.

The shitheel rethugs that they are behind their masks. Go read marshall Whittmanns blog for look at their filthy roots.

[understandinglife]

8. The DLC doesn't begin to have what it takes to withstand Murtha, ..

... Conyers and others and they're about to learn that lesson, hard. And, "We the People ..." are going to be the instructors.


Peace.

[Independent_Liberal]

7. That would be great! Murtha can be our Newt Gingrich!

Bring on the Murtha Revolution! He's my Congressman, by the way.

:)

[Marleyb]

15. He's your congressman?!!

If you could give him the real info on the pentagon missing trillions I think he might start the revolution all by himself! I want to fax him the info but I cannot find a fax number for his local office and our 'representatives' are in their home districts right now.

Reps Murtha and Moran don’t know about Missing TRILLIONS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x74735

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.

"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

[BigBearJohn]

9. Talk about a breath of fresh air... sanity... that's what we NEED!

[ClayZ]

10. K & R

Thanks undrestandinglife!



:kick:

[HardWorkingDem]

11. Oh, like this is going to happen as long as the Biden's and Joementum's...

are around and hogging the tv cameras.

See, this is the problem with our group of egotistical blathering Dems out there that can't keep their mouths shut. Really, does anyone really listen to Biden anymore without rolling one's eyes?

What is really baffling is how the Dems ignore how effective it is to have a major spokesperson (a president) rather than a group of 535 people (congress) to fight over the tv cameras and air space. One loud, barking dog is much more noticeable than 535 yipping Chihuahuas.

[DemReadingDU]

13. K&R

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. Too many "leading" Democrats are STILL waffling on Iraq. They don't want

plain-talking truth. They are still too busy talking out of both sides of their mouth.