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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Important Business Afoot

posted by on September 20 at 10:28 AM

Congress has voted to condemn MoveOn’s oh-so-controversial Gen. Petraeus ad in the New York Times. Unfortunately—but not surprisingly—there were a lot of Ds who voted yea.

091107ad.jpg

David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo has this to say about the vote:

Correct me if I’m wrong here. But by my calculation, more U.S. senators (72) voted today to condemn a newspaper ad attacking Gen. Petraeus than voted yesterday (56) to lengthen the time off troops get from the frontlines in Iraq, thereby reducing individual soldiers exposure to actual attacks.

RSS icon Comments

1

Stupid ad. Stupid vote.

Posted by Sean | September 20, 2007 10:54 AM
2

Who has an approval rating three times lower than that of Bush? The US congress. Why? Because we all know they're complicit in the giant cluster fuck that is the war on terrorism et. al.

The D's in congress are beyond oblivious. Fuck them all.

Posted by seattle98104 | September 20, 2007 10:55 AM
3

Iraq is a fiasco, all branches of the federal government are a national disgrace and the economy could go down the tubes any minute, so this is just the latest ploy from the Distraction Machine.

"Oh, look at these shiny keys I'm dangling in your face, America."

Another hot prob is that Republicans will do anything to placate their ever more insane and fanatical base, while the Dems' wise strategy is to repeatedly kick their base in the nuts!

I wish someone would just pull the plug on this bad theater.

Coup d'etat, anyone?

Posted by Original Andrew | September 20, 2007 10:56 AM
4

Where did our own Senators stand on both those issues?

Posted by monkey | September 20, 2007 10:58 AM
5

Of course they voted for it. It's a meaningless symbolic gesture that they lose little by voting "Yes" to. I'll save my outrage for their inaction on actual war-related legislation.

Posted by tsm | September 20, 2007 10:59 AM
6

"Lookout Darth Cheney, it's a Coupe De Ville!!"

Posted by Original Andrew | September 20, 2007 10:59 AM
7

Agree with comment 1. The ad was stupid, but I can't believe our dumbfuck congress is spending its time on this.

Posted by Gabriel | September 20, 2007 11:00 AM
8

if senator okie dumbfuck, r-oklahoma, can put a 'hold' on patty murray's wild sky wilderness bill, why couldn't patty murray have put a 'hold' on this one & prevent her fellow dems from looking like the spineless centrist sellouts they are?

i want a list of names, because that's 21 dems who voted yea.

Posted by maxsolomon | September 20, 2007 11:11 AM
9

I heard that the Dems are proposing a conemnation of this ad as well as the attcks on John Kerry, Max Cleland, etc. Yes, this is a stupid waste of time, but at least it addresses stupidity on both sides. And MoveOn? Please. Do we really need this kind of bullshit from the left? Shouldn't we be trying to elevate the debate?

Posted by julie | September 20, 2007 11:16 AM
10

maxsolomon @ 8,

See that's the crux of the issue: It's all political theater and very little actual work is being done. Certainly, little to nothing has actually been done in the last ten years that has helped most Americans, quite the opposite.

Also, today's Democrats are a center right party, not the "Left" at all, so we're dealing with the false choice of either the Right or the psycho, loony Far Right. Either way, the result is the same.

Posted by Original Andrew | September 20, 2007 11:21 AM
11

@9 Yes, that one was defeated.

Posted by Gabriel | September 20, 2007 11:27 AM
12

If that many Senators would vote to stop funding the Iraq War, we wouldn't need ads like that.

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 20, 2007 11:32 AM
13

Of all Dem senators, only Feingold, Cantwell and Biden supported netiher measure. (Both measures condemn the MoveOn ad.)

Cantwell and Biden did not vote on either measure.

Posted by RonK, Seattle | September 20, 2007 11:33 AM
14

Unfortunately, most MoveOn supporters miss the point. The ad became the issue instead of the war. The Republicans used the ad to change the subject to, not supporting our troops by insulting a brave general, instead of talking about failures of the war. Petraeus should never have been the REAL issue.

It's a classic killing of the messenger. Even if you believe, as I do, he was a patsy for Bush from the get go. It most certainly alienated many moderate voters who the democrats will need to win the congress and white house. It marginalized MoveOn's future message in the eyes of the public. It was like something the right would do along the lines of character assassination. It lowered MoveOn to the level of a Rove like public relations tactics.

The right parlayed this into this rather stupid vote that pushed Democrats into a lose lose situation no matter how they voted on the resolution. MoveOn and others should admit (to themselves) it was a public relations mistake to run the ad in the first place and, no pun intented, move on.

The left remains in nearly complete denial about the harm this ad has done. See my blog at link below for my original post on this matter.

Posted by artistdogboy | September 20, 2007 11:34 AM
15

Here's how our Senators voted on the Cornyn amendment:

Cantwell (D-WA), Not Voting
Murray (D-WA), Nay

As best I can tell, Cantwell didn't "chicken out" on this particular amendment. She also didn't vote on the Boxer amendment, which would have "balanced" the Moveon.org slap-on-the-wrist by bemoaning Saxby Chambliss's hateful and despicable ad against Max Cleland, the swiftboaters, and disgusting attacks on retired generals like Zinni and Shinseki. I don't think Maria's anywhere near the Senate today.

Posted by N in Seattle | September 20, 2007 11:38 AM
16

Uh yeah, the ad really hurt the antiwar movement as reflected in those polls showing that most Americans thought Petraeus' testimony was total utter bullshit.

From a purely marketing standpoint, I'd say the ad was very effective in that people remember it and are discussing it.

BTW, since the Dems control Congress, how did this huge waste of time get to the floor for a vote anyway?

Posted by Original Andrew | September 20, 2007 11:40 AM
17

That ad was ridiculous. It should be condemned!

Posted by Michael | September 20, 2007 11:40 AM
18

Dog Boy is right. I have contributed to MoveOn multiple times in the past, but I've decided not any more, primarily because of bullshit stunts like this which are becoming more and more their norm. I've MovedOn...

Posted by GoodGrief | September 20, 2007 11:41 AM
19

oh thank goodness our country and its troops are safe from stupid attack ads!

Posted by NELBOT | September 20, 2007 11:41 AM
20

MoveOn is a worthless organization that's wasting a lot of time and energy, but then again, so's Congress.

Posted by Cascadian | September 20, 2007 11:46 AM
21

MoveOn's NOT worthless. they called Petraeus on his toady BS. he IS demonstrably betraying us, & the sacred cannon fodder of the holy american military death machine, by giving president narcissistic sociopath cover.

they SHOULD have come back with another ad calling all the GOP senators TRAITORS. stop backing down & seeking the high ground - the GOP would cut off your head & shit down your neck if they could. pacifism don't work in politics.

Congress is worthless.

Posted by maxsolomon | September 20, 2007 12:09 PM
22

Another sign of the Facist America: Someone puts an ad out standing up against the BS put out by the administration and everyone freaks out.

That is why this war is not going to end no matter who is in the White House. No one is willing to stand up and stop it. But everyone is willing to say it should stop.

At least Moveon took a stand and did something which is more than congress has been willing to do. Want to end the war? Congress simply needs to not allow the funding bills to come to the house for a vote. Committee chairs can do that. (Please see how Vietnam ended for an example)

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | September 20, 2007 12:18 PM
23

meanwhile more soldiers died in a pointless war while the WH tried to gin up more LIES for a third-front war on Iran ...

and projected future costs are ... $10 billion a year, just for the Iraq part.

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 20, 2007 12:38 PM
24

I didn't realize we were still caring about what our congress had to say about anything anymore???

Posted by Brandon Dismuke | September 20, 2007 1:05 PM
25

@22

Cato the Younger Younger, I always like what you have to say.

Posted by Lake | September 20, 2007 2:40 PM
26

I agree with most of you that MoveOn should not be criticizing Generals. The testimony of Petraeus should not be open to questioning from U.S. citizens, the majority of which are anti-American for opposing the war. General Petraeus is right in everything he says, just like all the previous U.S. Generals fighting in Iraq, and using facts to say differently only comforts bin Laden.

Posted by Ebenezer | September 21, 2007 12:43 AM
27

Ebenezer.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. ~William G. McAdoo

Posted by truthseeker | September 21, 2007 8:01 AM

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