Vick Stands Alone

The final two defendants in the dog fighting case of Michael Vick have decided to cop a plea.  At this point, Vick stands alone as the only defendant thus far to not plead “guilty”.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports, the NFL is still “gathering facts”.   Word from the Times and other sources, is that the league is considering a season long suspension of Vick.

Apparently, the league needs a little help in coming to the right decision.  To put what’s right, over what’s profitable.   The man should have been summarily dropped by the league.  Given the amount of money… and celebrity… involved, however, I guess I’m not surprised that they didn’t do that.
What will also not surprise me is the backlash the NFL will get from the fans, and the general population, should they decide to take the  path I’m hearing they plan on taking.

An interesting morning, as I do my morning routine. A slower news day than some, so the ‘sphere has some time to wallow in Karl Rove’s departure on 8/30 from the WH.

The amount of leftist vitriol being pointed to at the departure of Karl Rove by Democrats is revealing, not so much about Republicans as about Democrats.  The clear reasoning , if one can call it that, is the idea that he could not possibly have been as successful as he was through all of his career, from Texas, going forward, without cheating.  In their minds, there is no way he could have done what he did, in a legit fashion. Thus all the investigations and whatnot.
That point speaks very loudly to me, this morning, as I read some of the commentary surrounding this event.  It does so, because in the reading, one gets the impression that when Democrats make the judgment that he could not have been successful as he was without cheating, they speak from personal experience.  It’s the only way they have ever won, how could anyone else win legitimately, particularly over Democrats? Or so the mindset goes, anyway.
As you might expect, there are number of excuses floating around that don’t really mesh very well, that attempt to explain leftist anger toward Rove, who has become the Democrat’s Moby Dick. Ever since Texas, they’ve been trying to nail him on one thing or another, and it never seems to pan out.  Maybe the reason is that there’s nothing there, but you’d never get the Democrats to admit that.

Leaving aside the idea that the Democrats have been spending large amounts of tax money, and time which should have been spent on other things, on trying to bolster their political future by eliminating a White House aide, you would think that the democrats would eventually get the message that what they’ve been trying to do for over a decade to the man, now, simply isn’t going to happen.  You’d think they’d moveon.  But, perhaps, Ahab needs to get that whale. The narrative that they have built up around the man, far exceeds all reason and reality, but they can rid themselves of it, because it’s the only thing they’ve got, anymore.
A number of people charge him with being partisan, spitting vitriol, etc, and of course the indication from Democrats is, that this is unique amongst white house aides. Apparently, they don’t think James Carville was a White House aide. It’s a little discrepancies like that that let you know the Democrats are not telling you the whole truth, and perhaps are not  even telling themselves the whole truth.

In the end, what this amounts to, is not how grove arrived at the position he is in today, that of a successful political operative, but that he was, in fact, successful, that generates so much leftist anger.

But was it really the success of Mr. Rove, or was it the success of the ideas that he helped to champion?  I ask, because it seems to me that the democrats are spending far too much time giving far too much credit to people working behind the scenes. In short, their entire philosophy appears to be based on the concept that ideas don’t matter, salesmanship does.  Clearly, they hold Rove to be, if nothing else, the consummate salesman.  Admittedly, he is, perhaps, a pretty good one.  Such ability is usually listed among those who are perceived to have leadership skills.

But what if the whole thing is about ideas?  What if , as I’ve been saying for years, ideas matter, more than who is expressing them?

I raised the question the other day, about who it is that the Democrats are going to blame for Mr. Bush’s successes now that Rove is no longer in the picture.  The Democrats have been screaming that the White House was really being run by Mr. Rove.   This matched their vision of Mr. Bush has a witless figurehead.  If nothing else, the White House will be well served by Mr. Rove departing, because Mr. Bush’s continued successes, without Mr. Rove in the picture, can only lead to the conclusion that the Democrats have been targeting the wrong person all these years. Not that the Democrat leadership, the press, or most of the Leftie Blogs would never admit such a thing, mind you, but I suspect it will not pass unnoticed amongst the electorate.

At which point, three things will happen.

* Mr. Bush’s legacy will have been secured

* People will start paying attention to the ideas that with the guidance of Mr. Rove and others, he has been expressing… and implementing, for a decade and longer.

* A huge boost will be given to anyone running against the Democrats.

Good Lord…

ROCHELLE, Ga.  â€” AP—  A woman was arrested after she called local police to help “get her money back” after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she purchased.

Juanita Marie Jones, 53, called Rochelle Police late Thursday night after she purchased what she thought was a $20 piece of crack cocaine, according to police reports.

She told officers she broke the rock into three pieces and smoked one, only to discover the drugs were “fake.”

She took Officer Joel Quinn and Deputy John Shedd of the Wilcox County Sheriff’s Office into her kitchen and showed them the drugs, police said.She was promptly arrested on charges of possession of cocaine.

I think what we now have an operative description of “stupid”.  I’ll bet she votes Democrat, though.

Leaving aside, for just a moment, the woman’s lack of brain power, do have two questions to ask, that none of the press coverage got into:

1. What was she smoking?
2. If what she was sold was in fact not cocaine, how can she be charged with possession thereof?

InstaGlenn:

SHE’S RIGHT: “The wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday admonished those who question her biracial husband’s credentials as a black man, calling the issue ”nonsense.'”

But in an age of identity politics, it’s unavoidable.

(Sigh)

Honestly, Glenn, you’d be better off if you allowed yourself the privilege of telling the truth on the matter ; That it’s the Democrats themselves who brought this upon themselves.  The Democrats have for generations depended upon the politics of faction for their bread and butter.  Ultimately, it ended up being why blacks get into the habit of voting Democrat in the first place… Their detriment, in my view.  by this, I’d do not specifically intend to mean faction in the way that Washington dealt with it in his farewell address.  I do intend my statement to suggest, and to decry, that the democrats have said one minority group against another, and reap the benefits of that strife .  Instead of all of us being Americans, we are black Americans, white Americans, native Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans, polish Americans, etc. etc. ad nauseam.

And here, to my mind, is where Washington’s words take the greatest of force:

They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Look, there are many things I would rather be , then a supporter of Obama. but in this, at least, Mrs Obama does have it right; The last I understood, we were supposed to be judging people not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.  There is enough in the way of questions in my mind about the content of his character, without questioning whether not he isn’t “Black Enough”.

Now;  all that said, I view this criticism that Obama isn’t “black enough” not to have a great deal to do with race, but rather more to do with culture.  Specifically, in this case, he has adopted mainstream American culture , for the most part, rather than black street culture.

When the discussion is framed that way several questions occur .  Among them;

• Does anybody really think that someone deeply immersed in black street culture is actually going to be president?  Snoop Dogg, President of the US, as an example?
• Or is it that those claiming  Obama isn’t “Black enough”, view him as being independently successful, and thereby disqualified as being truly black?  See also, Clarence Thomas.  Put another way, must one be dependent on governmental largess to be “black enough”?
• How many making these judgments, are black themselves?

A post that I wrote about the beginning of this month raised the question “What exactly is a jury of your peers”?  Does someone on a jury have to have the same skin color, job, socioeconomic standing, and so on , for their judgments on guilt or innocence to be valid?  Or does the phrase suggest, rather, simply a fellow American?

It seems to me, that pretty much the same question can be asked of someone attaining elective office.  Does someone trying to attain have to have the same skin color, job, socioeconomic standing, and so on , as the person they represent,  might they be equally well represented by someone who qualifies simply as a fellow American?

Personally, I’d like to see these questions put before the congressional black caucus.  I suspect that the resulting dancing will make “Stomp the Yard” look like a test pattern by comparison.

Newt Gingrich on the world that works and the world that does not work, video.

Hat tip:  Allah Pundit, Hot Air.

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Jane Galt is amusing, this morning:

This morning I saw that Paul Krugman had written a column on the little difficulties we’re currently having with our financial markets. And I thought, before I even opened it “You know, I bet that somehow, some way, this is the fault of the Bush administration.” I wasn’t sure that Mr Krugman would actually accuse George Bush of sneaking out of the White House at night to suck liquidity from the markets using his rich friends’ ridiculously expensive Miele vacuum cleaners. But I was sure it would be something.

Ta-daa!  You should worry about the crisis because, that’s right, the Bush administration will muck it up.

Look, I’m not an economist.  I didn’t even stay in the Holiday Inn last night.  But instead of taking the word of those panicking, I actually had time to run the numbers, for myself. After running those numbers, for myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that the panic is unfounded. It is also, I don’t doubt, politically motivated.  (Consider, who is that’s reporting this stuff to us .  Is this the same press that has been trying to poke a hole in the Bush administration for the last seven years?  As Brother John Bates said: “I think it be.”)

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I mean,as a preface, you’re not going to expect anything less than this from Krugman, are you, really? The fact of the matter is is that he is always been more of a partisan hack than an economic one.  No, admittedly, he is a hack in both worlds. His goals, however have always been clear. He’s always been transparently partisan.
The fact of the matter was and remains that the amount of the mortgage market that we’re talking about is so small as to be ignored, particularly when a Democrat is in the White House.  I will guarantee you under those conditions, Krugman would be as silent as the grave.  Make no mistake, political partisanship is where this particular panic is coming from.  In the end that’s the only thing Krugman’s ever been good at.

Admittedly, Krugman is not the only person involved with the spreading of this panic.  He simply happens to be a convenient target at the moment.  However, he is not alone.

But let’s talk about reality.  (Wow… reality… what a concept!)

The fact remains, that 96% of the mortgage market is at this point, considered stable, and not at risk. Subprime loans, by my read, do not make up that remaining 4%. (There are a portion of mortgages which are not subprime which are also at risk. This is normal, gang… not to worry.) The remainder are higher risk loans by definition, and the institutions making those loans knew that going in.  Forgive me if I don’t panic over loans which are basically no better than speculations, going bad.  There is always some risk involved.  That’s the name of the game.  But how did they get there?  Such loans, interestingly enough,are being encouraged by the Federal government in the interests of “consumer fairness”.  I could blow an entire paragraph and a half as regards governmental intervention on such matters, but I will leave that to the reader.
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We should, for the moment, rather than getting into the fundamentals, stick to identifying the scope of the problem.  Let’s put this in some degree of perspective, shall we?  At the moment, there are something along the lines of 44 to 45 million mortgages in the U.S..  Of those, less than 14% of them are in the subprime category.  Of those, something on the order of a little over 10% are delinquent on payments.  Of those, the majority are in the process of working problems through their local banking institutions.  So, at the bottom line, only around 6 tenths of a percentage point of the total mortgage market is currently in foreclosure. How much of a swing caused all this panic? Well, we were at around 5 tenths of one percent last year at this time, so in all, the answer is about one tenth of one percent. The problem is not nearly as large as the usual suspects are making it.  A swing of 1/10 of 1%, is not cataclysmic.  Yet, that’s how the hacks are projecting it. When someone blows something this far out of proportion , blowing something this small into a major panic, you can bet they have something to gain by that panic occurring.
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Blaming three digit swings in the Dow on these matters is fairly easy for the hacks involved.  Then again, the three digit swings in the Dow are not all that hard to produce ; there have been 36 of them since the beginning of the year, and none of the reasons involved were earthshaking then, either. More than any other factor, those large swings have to do with the fact that the Dow is so much larger in the first place.  The numbers sound impressive, but when taken as a percentage of change, they’re not really any larger than previous corrections of the market, when the Dow was below 10,000.During that time period, this three digit swing, would probably have been considered nothing more than a market correction, which indeed is exactly what it is.

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Of course, If you create the panic, and create that swing, and if it’s hyped the right way there are political and legislative gains to be made off the resulting investor panic. To say nothing of financial gains, to the savvy investor. (Personally, I was busy buying, myself.  Some fairly decent bargains out there at the end of last week… that’s the name of the game, folks.) I submit we are seeing precisely that, just now.

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The reaction of Bernakie and company can only be described as an attempt to calm the water.  Functionally, their efforts would have no effect at all.  Then again, the panic itself wasn’t based in the real world, either. So, it will likely have the desired effect.
In the end, this whole situation will have blown over, inside of 72 hours.  And, we will have gone on to the next crisis.  (Which likely will be speculation from the rabid left, that something must be deathly wrong at the white house, or Karl Rove wouldn’t have left.  Ignoring of course, that most of the Clinton administration had left at this relative point in time, too…. but I digress)

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Those people screaming about “allowing ” the banks to go into such rarefied territory, and those screaming even louder that the Federal government should step in with money to back up those risky loans, should consider that prohibiting banks from engaging in business in that fairly risky sector, will have racial, social and political repercussions…. and certainly the Federal government stepping in with a bailout, will create a panic all its own.  But, of course, it will project the Democrat run Congress, as the saviors of “the poor” yet again.  And I wonder, if that isn’t the goal of causing the panic, in the first place.  After all, as Krugman found long ago… you can always blame the Bush administration for the fallout, either way.

The recent Harald Ford versus Markos Moulitsas video has been recieving recent attention. Yet Ken McCracken, Willisms. argues that Mrs. Clinton does not need Moulitsas and will be looking to Sister Souljah him at the earliest convnient moment.

This is interesting. Moulitsas argues that the Kossacks can not be dismissed. McCracken argues that the Kossacks will be dismissed. Need I say, both can not be right.

As Bit noted, Mrs. Clinton is not an articulate public speaker. Yet whle not glib, Mrs. Clinton has never been shy about attacking her percieved villiians when she sees the need. The Sister Souljahing of Moulitsas will be interesting.

Addendum, Bit:

As I noted last night, associating herself with such people is damaging to her general election possibilities.  But the general election is not what she is involved in at the moment.  She is involved in seeking the nomination of a party which is currently being dominated by the Kossacks. Therefore, I would suggest that such an attack will occur if and when Mrs. Clinton obtains the nomination.

(AP)- Karl Rove, President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration.

A longtime member of Bush’s inner circle, Rove was nicknamed “the architect” by the president for designing the strategy that twice won him the White House.

Oh, NO!

Who will the left  be able to blame?

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza is reporting Tommy Thompson has quit the presidential race. Rather unsurprising, since he said that if he didn’t finish well in the Iowa straw poll he wasn’t going to bother running any further .  He finished sixth.  He is leaving, will have no impact whatsoever on the race, in reality.  His leaving the race is simply recognition of that reality.

Frankly, one wonders if name recognition wasn’t part of the problem; Noting the recent mixup in the press between statements of Fred Thompson and Tommy Thompson, Dale Franks qips:

Oh…uh…wait a sec…Ah.  It’s Tommy Thompson.

Carry on.

Meanwhile, Captain Ed says:

So long, Tommy, we barely knew you

It’s true, we didn’t. Then again, not many CARED, either.

Ed says that Thompson looked positively painful on the stump.  Err, Tommy, that is.

I met several political reporters and pundits in Madison earlier this year, and one told me that Tommy gets stage fright and freezes in appearances like the presidential debates. That doesn’t mean Tommy would make a bad leader — by all accounts, he was a good Governor — but it does make him unelectable in a presidential general election.

There are things about Thompson’s politics that I didn’t like.  So, I am just as happy that he is no longer in the race. He seems a likable sort, but he seems too centrist for my taste.  But I must say, the captain has a point.  I spent a lot of years behind a microphone, a lot of that dealing with nonprofessionals in interview situations.That experience taught me that intelligence, has nothing to do with the degree of affliction of Mike fright.

Some of the smartest people I know would freeze up tighter than a diesel engine on Buffalo winter morning, when the microphone gets placed, and those lights go on. Often the phrase “deer in the headlights” is applicable.  On the other hand, the people that I to this day consider some of the biggest blinking idiots I’ve ever run across in my lifetime, could handle being in that spotlight with no trouble it all. That experience is also why I never jumped on the president for his on Mike gaffes. After a while, you learn to read through the delivery ability, or the lack of it.

And the connection to the president, here, makes a point that perhaps Ed should have gotten into a little bit deeper; the affliction doesn’t make one unelectable, necessarily; That comes as a matter of degree.  I agree with the captain, however that the degree with which Mr. Thompson suffers from that brain freeze when the Mike goes on, does tend to make him unelectable, in the general election. the man must have had some serious training going into his gubernatorial election, or he had a complete idiot running from the party opposite.

And certainly, it will be pointed out by many, including me, that such is an affliction that his namesake does not suffer with.

Afterthought and aside: You know, maybe I ought to get into this topic a little bit deeper.  How much can we detect by one’s style of delivery behind the microphone?

I’m not going to get into all of this tonight, because I’m on my way to bed. But as an example, one person in the presidential race who has yet to impress me with their prowess behind the microphone is Hillary Clinton.  She invariably comes off as overly formal and overly stiff, regardless of the venue.  She strikes me as someone who is measuring her words carefully, for fear of being trapped in them later.

That topic does interest me.  So much of the public voters decided by the ability, that it would be foolish not to make some observations about the delivery ability behind the microphone, of the various candidates.

Sullivan must be rubbng off on Bainbridge. Speaking of primary polls run in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa:

What’s considered a solid hour’s reading in Iowa? The back of a cereal box.

New Hampshire? Smaller than Iowa. Whiter than Iowa. And, as Alexander Theroux once observed, ” is literally shaped like a dunce cap.”

South Carolina? The birthplace of secession?

…

How is it that we persist in allowing these unrepresentative, yahoo infested, pissant states decide who gets to run for President? The notion that the Ames straw poll matters would be preposterous were it not so pernicious.

That’s OK, Stephen… they don’t like you much, either.

There are a number of possible reasons for this.  Perhaps it has something to do with California not being able to provide for itself in terms of electricity… or any other kind of energy for that matter…. you end up having to ship it all in… usually at everyone else’s expense. Yet we’re supposed to take your word for what should and shouldn’t go on the grid, and your criticisms about how those of us in flyover country are wasting energy.
Perhaps it has something to do with California’s taking far more than its 12% of the US population justifies in terms of Federal taxes, which everyone else in the country ends up paying for.

Perhaps it’s because California, is busy telling everybody else how to drive, how much they should be paying for fuel, and how big their automobiles ought to be, and so on, when they still haven’t figured out how to deal with their own traffic system yet, and who is pretty much the most polluted state the country.  (Ever see LA skies, Steven? Neither have I, though the smog cleared enough once where I almost did, while stuck in traffic on the 405…) Yeah, sure, we’ll take your advice on this kind of thing, absent a law.

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And I’ll bet, smart as you are, you haven’t thought of a damn one of these.  When you get your head out of your backside about how you have to deal with the “little people”, perhaps someone will take you a little more seriously.

Until that time… That you figure someone from outside LaLa land should take you seriously,would be preposterous were it not so pernicious. To coin a phrase.

Others: Mellow Drama Iowa voice, Lileks

The wiinner is …  The recorded vote tally went to Mitt Romney.  However considering all that Romney invested in Iowa and time and money, and lack of front line opposition. did Mitt win much more than a claiming race at the county fair?

The winner out of Iowa?  I’d say it  would either be Mike Huckabee or Fred Thompon.

Why Huckaee?   Iowa only cost hif fifty-eight dollars a vote.

Why Thompson?  He didn’t run.  Therefore he didn’t lose, and Romney wasn’t all that timpressive when he had the field all to himself.

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Yes, I saw the supposed showdown between Markos Moulitsas and DLC’er Harold Ford.  Nothing about it was surprising. Michelle notes it and links Hot Air.

Ford himself, any more, is fairly unremarkable… Being to me of approximately the same value as a slightly turned cabbage roll at the $7.50 all you can eat Chinese buffet .  And I’ve already commented at some length about Kos being worth less than what I scraped off my shoes last night, so, I mostly would not comment on it at all, except for the thought that struck me watching these two:

Postulate with me the kind of politics necessary to create the illusion that Harold Ford is sane. Further, postulate with me what would drive Ford to what Allah labels “ass kissing”. Indeed; the skin tone of Harold Ford, seems perfectly deployed, to prevent people from seeing that “brown nosing” had nothing to do with his race.

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On the other hand,consider what would be required to get Kos to completely reversed his field on Hillary Clinton.  As Allah points up, it was only a few months ago, (what, may?)… that he basically burned Hillary Clinton to the ground in an OP Ed.  Now he’s also weakness and light, where Hillary is concerned. The expenditure of Kos’ saliva in that long distance tongue bath, must’ve kept the water coolers at CBS busy for the following hour.  Must be why she showed up in the first place, to that hate festival in Chicago… to get him to behave himself when her name comes up. If that’s the case, one suspects that Harold Ford will no longer be a target, either, since by his appearance on CBS with Kos, he’s raised the power of the Kossacks.

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I suspect favorable press is doled out in the same fashion that the New York Times. So long as the Times, or in this case, Kos is seen as a power broker, he’s cool with it, regardless of any other factor.. even if he’s complained about the individual the past.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that , Kos already has too much power on the left, than is good for the left.  So, I say, more power to him. It’s like I have always said; the worst thing you can give a Liberal is precisely what they ask for.

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Continuing to give them precisely what they ask for, will result in a Reaganesque landslide for the Republicans.

Very few of us ever get to say were the absolute best at what we do.  Merv Giffin was one of those few.  Griffin was unmatched as producer of game shows.   Griffin produced both Jeopardy and Whieel of Fortune. 

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Merv Griffin, the entertainer turned impresario who parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion- dollar empire, has died. He was 82. Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his the family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment

.Rest in peace, Merv

If you’ve not updated to version 2, you should. Trust me on this.

(The Politico) Former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) is joining the board of a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities, a group with links to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) that has drawn scrutiny for its ties to defense contractors and lobbyists.

Cleland, a Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs in the war, will serve on the board of the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals With Disabilities, a nonprofit agency in Murtha’s hometown of Johnstown that helps with job assistance and training. The group was founded in 2001 by Carmen Scialabba, who served for many years on Murtha’s congressional staff.

Birds of feather crap together….

The reason someone like Chambliss, whom this writer has never been more than lukewarm over, was able to make Cleland is a former senator, is that the latter spent too much time waving the “I served in Vietnam” flag and too little actually performing the will of the people. The people finding out that Cleland’s wounds were not suffered in combat… which is why he was never awarded a purple heart, after so many years of his waving that “served in Vietnam” flag, while using those wounds as a bully pulpit to slander the Georgia National Guard, and the President of the United States , didn’t much help his credibility, either.  To say the circumstances surrounding his injury were “ginned up” a bit would be to say that William Shatner had a tendency to over dramatize, a little.  Indeed, in that respect, at least, their talents appear to be similar.  Of course, drama sells.  Which, let’s face it, is the only reason that Cleland got into office at all.

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So now that he’s out, we find him involved with John Murtha.  Gee, big shock, given that the credibility of Mr. Murtha isn’t exactly unimpeachable either.  Particularly when he still has not withdrawn, and apologized for, his slanderous comments against our troops in Iraq.  These points seemed particularly weighty, considering the long time that questions have existed regarding the legit a messy of the metals he claims to have been awarded. Questions, we presume, will remain, until such time as Mr. Murtha decides to release his military record to the public.  The obvious suspicion is Mr. Martha is hiding something in that record, that he’d rather the voters not know about.  (Rather like John Kerry, in that respect.  ) What we do know about the incidents surrounding those awards, is suspicious at best.  The Pittsburgh Post- Gazette reported a while ago that casualty records conflict with Murtha’s accounting for those medals. As I investigate this aspect one name that keeps popping up is Harry M. Fox, who worked for representative John Saylor.  In 1968.  Fox claims that Martha asked Saylor for assistance in obtaining the purple hearts, but that Saylor office turned him down for lack of sufficient evidence of his ever being wounded. (Here’s a start on your own search of these matters)
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For all of his playing the game within the military, though, Murtha certainly has figured out a way to game the system from his current position… And is, according to Wired on August the 3rd…

…the biggest pig at the Defense Department trough.  According to a new database, pulled together by Taxpayers for Common Sense, Murtha has gobbled up more money in pet projects than any other Congress-critter in the 2008 military spending bill.

Murtha’s $150 million includes $15 million for the “Military Molecular Medicine Initiative,” $6 million for the “Center of Excellence for Remote & Medically Under-Served Areas,” and $2.5 million for Navy lasers.

Despite Murtha’s hogging, Congressional appropriators appear to be “keeping with the House commitment to reduce earmarks by 50 percent,” Keith Ashdown of TCS tells The Hill.

Which, if you think about it, makes Murtha’s moves even worse.

Indeed it does.  Run that situation up against the political opportunism that Martha has been engaging at the expense of our military, and his abuses rise to the level of the obscene.  I am hardly alone in noting this.  Even MSNBC, hardly a bastion of Conservatve thought, reported last November:

“Rep. Murtha has basically been on the wrong side of public integrity issues during his career,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of watchdog group Democracy 21.

Critics claim Murtha has amassed power in part by handing out taxpayer money to special interests, including to clients of defense lobbyists who give him big campaign contributions.

Then, there is video from an FBI sting in 1980, known as Abscam. Murtha was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal bribery scandal, which led to the conviction of one U.S. senator and six members of Congress.

“Each packet contains $10,000 in $1,000 bills,” says an undercover FBI agent on the tape as he offers a bribe to Murtha. “I went out, I got the $50,000,” continues the agent as he opens a drawer and shows the money . “From what you’re telling me, you’re telling me that’s not what, you know, that that’s not what you…”

“I’m not interested,” interrupts Murtha.

“OK.”

“At this point,” clarifies Murtha.

“OK.”

“You know, we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t, you know,” says Murtha.

Murtha refuses the cash and talks about his need to be cautious because of his ambitions.

“I expect to be in the (expletive) leadership of the House,” he says on the tape. “And you have anything said about you, then you’ve got a problem.”

A couple examples from The Conservative Voice who says:

This year, Murtha inserted several “earmarks” (specifically designated appropriations) into various defence bills giving millions of federal research dollars to companies owned by the children of Democrat Congressman Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania’s 11th district adjoining Murtha’s 12th.

Last year, Murtha strongarmed the Navy into transferring the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco, which had a contract with a company called Lennar, Inc. to “redevelop” the 500-acre site bringing millions in profits to Lennar. The Senior Vice-President of Lennar is Laurence Pelosi, Democrat House Leader Nancy Pelosi’s stepson.

Could this move be why Murtha has the secondary leadership position he holds in the House, a position he was appointed to by Pelosi?
No surprise, then, that he didn’t support even the watered down version of the recent ethics bill.  The man obviously wants nothing between him and tax money.
Where is this heroic marine that Murtha keeps trying to position himself as?  Instead of doing what he can to make sure we have a victory in Iraq, and being a leader, he’s too busy with one hand trying to arrange for our surrender in Iraq, and with the other stuffing his pockets, and the pockets of his friends, with OUR money. This, apparently, is what passes for leadership within the Democratic party today. That he still has an office in government is a slap in the face to all Americans.  Particularly, those in uniform.

Lets see here.  A coward, a crook, and a “war hero” of rather questionable legitimacy.  That’s John Murtha.  I sometimes wonder if the Democrats understand how tall a cliff it is that Murtha is leading them over.