Awesome. Simply awesome.

Ho-lee. Shih-tah.

I can’t speak to the real political ramifications of what the Republicans did to the Democrats today but in my novice opinion they laid absolute waste to the demos. If you have a “D” in front of your name, you got owned today.

A little background: the whiny, pissy Democrats have had their panties in bunch about the war recently. Now – no one is saying that the transition to democracy in Iraq has gone smoothly; that it’s an all out success so far or anything of the sort. As a matter of fact, Bush and his administration are starting to come under fire from other Republicans for their handling or the situation over there. But the Democrats have been especially noisy lately. The latest salvo was fired by John Murtha of Pennsylvania.

Before going into what he’s said, let us remember one thing: many of the people calling for a quick exit, etc. are the same folks that voted FOR the war using the same intelligence reports that the Bush people had. Murtha was one of those that voted to approve the use of military forces and just this week he reversed course and called for our troops to be pulled out of Iraq. He has instant credibility, right? He’s someone that saw the value of military action now realizes the futility of the struggle and wants to cut and run. Well, yes and no. No one doubts that this former Marine was a bad ass and, most likely, still is. But they are questioning his POLICY. People – an immediate withdrawal now would be an absolute disaster. Period. Almost all American realize this (80% of the public – even counting those that disagree with the war – believe an immediate pull out would be a catastrophe by the last report I saw today). Nevertheless, the Democrats have been posturing to keep their kook base happy; to keep the misguided 20% happy. “We should pull out now!!” they carp. It’s simple political posturing and they haven’t been called on it.

Until today.

What the Republicans in the House did was say, “you want out of Iraq? Fine. This is a democracy, let’s vote on it.”

In other words, put your money where your fucking mouth is or shut the shit up.

This is one of the boldest political moves I’ve ever been witness to. So what happened? The vote to pull troops out of Iraq immediately got shot down 403-3.

403-3.

Where’s your conviction now, demos?

The article explains, “Republicans hoped to place Democrats in an unappealing position -- either supporting a withdrawal that critics said would be precipitous or opposing it and angering voters who want an end to the conflict.” The Republicans knew that any Democrat that voted to pull troops wouldn’t ever get elected again and that’s why this was a brilliant move to me. The 3 that did vote for the pull out must have been from the butt fucking-est parts of San Francisco or something, where that kind of radicalism is commonplace. Those that voted against the pull out now look like all talk and no action in the eyes of the constituents that are against the war.

Awesome.

There was some controversy specifically regarding Murtha. I say again, this dude was a bad ass and I’m not questioning his service or his love for his country but, dude – this statement from a Marine Colonel currently serving in Iraq (who called in to his representative in Ohio: Jean Schmidt) had to sting: “[the Colonel] asked me to send Congress a message -- stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message -- that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.”