A Huffington: "Dems' Template for Success: Follow John Murtha... and

... George Washington

Ever since the run-up to 2004, I've been urging Democrats to stop thinking they can win by running on domestic issues, and to go after the Republicans on their supposed strength -- foreign policy and national security. It's not the economy, stupid. It's the war in Iraq and the fact that our wartime president's perverted security priorities have, in truth, left us all far less secure.

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... the Democrats need to make 2006 a referendum on the war. Their message needs to be bold and unambiguous. And unified. Fortunately, they already have a template for success: follow Jack Murtha. He should be their clear leader on Iraq.

Not only is Murtha unassailable (see how fast the GOP's attempted Swift Boating of him ran aground), according to a source close to the Pentagon: "He is speaking in coordination with military commanders on the ground, the same people he has spent his entire political career looking out for. This was their way of sending a message to the White House that this war is killing them -- that they've done what they can do but can't keep doing it because it's hurting the armed forces."

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So, once and for all, Democrats need to fight the battle between the DLC hawks who lack the imagination to see that you can simultaneously be strong on national security and against the war in Iraq and those George Washington Democrats who take to heart the Father of Our Country's admonition about avoiding foreign entanglements.

Follow Jack Murtha.

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/dems-template-for-succes_b_11597.html

Democrats should, at all costs, avoid following Hillary Clinton and her have-it-both-ways rhetoric. "I do not believe that we should allow this to be an open-ended commitment without limits or end," she wrote in an email to supporters this week. "Nor do I believe that we can or should pull out of Iraq immediately." Talk about covering all your bases -- and standing for nothing.

The party must also aggressively reject the afraid-of-their-own-shadow bleating of DLC anachronisms like Marshall Whitman who described Bush's stay-the-course bullheadedness as "expressing resolve" and Murtha's position as "offering surrender" and "manna from heaven" for Republicans.

... establishment -- most of whom have never served in uniform -- would stab the Democratic Party in the back and attack the courage of people like Vietnam War hero Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi for their stand on Iraq."

That's what's really going on. We have a divide in this country between ordinary hard-working people throughout America who want their government to reflect their interests, and the politicians/pundits in Washington who have made an art form out of denying reality, whether it comes to national security policy or economic policy. Sure, there are some courageous politicians fighting for us in Washington, like Murtha, Pelosi and some others. But there is no denying that a growing divide is what defines our political system. And until we close that divide through the ballot box, ordinary Americans will never be represented as we should be in the halls of power.

From Iraq Shows The Growing Divide Between Washington & The Rest of America by David Sirota on December 2, 2005

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/iraq-shows-the-growing-di_b_11601.html

The Democratic Leadership Council has really gone over the line. In today's Washington Post, their staffer Marshall Wittman - who used to be a Republican operative and top official at the Christian Coalition - said that Democrats who are pushing for an exit strategy from Iraq are "offering surrender." This is an organization that continues to say it wants to "help" Democrats - but as we can see, they aren't interested in anything like that.

Link:
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/12/dlc-slanders-murthapelosi-as.html