This Is Interesting
Susan Estrich, who has advocated strongly for all-out attacks by Democrats on Republicans in the past, is someone the nutroots love to hate. But she's been about as liberal as it gets in politics for a long time. And she is arguing that the scorched earth MoveOn smear ad on General Petraeus is a very, very big problem for the Democrats. (This will, undoubtedly, endear her further to the nutroots).
In two days of hearings on Capitol Hill, he probably didn’t change any of the views held by members of Congress about the war in Iraq. But he almost certainly impressed a lot of people sitting at home by displaying all the traits Americans hope for in a military leader.
He was, to put it simply, good, a man who came across as brave, honorable, and true, and that’s the problem.
On Monday, the day Petraeus was to begin his testimony, in the great tradition of Washington politics, MoveOn.org blasted him before hearing a word of it. In a full page ad in the New York Times, that became the talk of Congress, the talk shows, and cable news (as it was supposed to), the liberal group accused Petraeus of "cooking the books," and charged that he was betraying the American peoples' trust by spinning the facts to support the White House.
That is, by the way, how MoveOn itself summarized the ad, in an email to its supporters sent the next day, giving notice that it wasn’t backing down.
The ad made some Democrats uncomfortable because of its harsh tone, and gave Republicans a juicy distraction to attack. With polls showing that most Americans trust the military to deal with the war in Iraq far more than they do either the president or Congress, MoveOn’s choice of targets put those Democrats who need the support of both the hard left and the mushy middle squarely between a rock and a hard place.
She's pointing out the obvious. The further to left the candidates veer, the more unattractive they get to the folks in the middle. This is harsh reality, even though the nutroots think otherwise. That is why the candidates have always tried to run to the center in the general election. Those who have not have been thumped very, very badly.
By attacking Petraeus, who comes across as decent and honorable, unlike many politicians, the left has set the Democrats up to be hammered with that. And Rudy Giuliani pounded on Hillary! Clinton for exactly that today. The far left has caused a real problem for the Democrats here.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 13 September , 2007 @ 6:37 pm
This is why I say, let ‘em rant. They will dig their own political graves talking like this. Running an ad in the NYT is not the same thing as preaching to the Kos choir.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 13 September , 2007 @ 7:58 pm
I wonder who Estrich thinks she is kidding. Her complaints about MoveOn - who are her ideological children, really - are hypocritical, to say the least. Has she forgotten the pants-down presidency of William Jefferson Clinton and the way Democrats like her circled the wagons around him when credible allegations of malfeasance in office, obstruction of justice, sexual misconduct and rape surfaced? Does she not recall how the Clinton White House set out to destroy anyone who got in the way – tactics indistinguishable from MoveOn’s?
And what is Estrich’s alternative, anyway? Pretend to be moderate? Say what you will about the brownshirts who comprise MoveOn - their naked hatred for anyone who does not agree with them 100% is unmistakable. My guess is that Estrich will come crawling back to the MoveOn plantation sooner or later.
By daveinboca, Thursday, 13 September , 2007 @ 11:52 pm
As I mentioned earlier on Blue Crab, the nutroots are in their bubble-boy echo-chamber mode on MoveOn and simply want their Pavlovian lock-step solidarity unbroken by realists and non-fantasists—a dying breed in the Dem Party, sadly.
Estrich and other veterans of REAL campaigns disturb the nutroot stoned/slacker torpor or excite their meth-fueled thrashings and gnashing of teeth.
Reality is something the ultra-left Kossack-nutjobs resolutely ignore, and when it rears its head among them, they react by flight or fight.
By FedUp, Friday, 14 September , 2007 @ 2:56 pm
GO, DEMS! Help the Republicans out… We need all the help we can get and you are doing a fine job… Nancy… Harry… Teddy… Bobby Byrd… Murtha… keep it up!