In Joe Lieberman's recent 350-word USA Today editorial describing the sunny happyland in Iraq right now, he managed to mention Gen. David Petraeus' name no fewer than 7 times. Fully 4% of the words in his entire piece were "General," "David" or "Petraeus." The creation of such a cult of personality surrounding the man Bush hand-picked to carry out the esacaltion of the war is nothing particularly unique to Sen. Lieberman, either; the ever-shrinking gang of true "loyal Bushies" (which has just lost another loyal advisor in Matthew Dowd) have all followed the McCain-Lieberman lead in linking the new General to a call for legislators to ignore the vast majority of the country who continue to demand of their leaders a timeline for withdrawal of troops - not an escalation of the war.
The "political cease-fire" that Lieberman continually calls for is more accurately described as a partisan roadblock, one which has prevented the bipartisan majorities in both houses, with strong popular support, from truly "getting things done" in D.C. I would only guess that such roadblocks - abusing the filibuster and supporting a highly unpopular presidential veto to defy Congress and the will of the American people and keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely - weren't exactly what Lieberman voters thought they were getting when they voted last year for a "bipartisan" Senator who would "get things done."
Really: what, exactly, has Sen. Lieberman "gotten done" so far for the people of Connecticut this Congress, besides throwing up partisan obstacle after partisan obstacle to those who seek a bipartisan way forward on Iraq?
But the constant invoking of Petraeus' name - as well as Lieberman's constant plea for just six months more to see whether the escalation is working - takes on a whole new meaning in light of this report from Andrea Mitchell today that Gen. Petraeus recently met with Republican Senators only to discuss the political strategy behind the war:
This morning on the Chris Matthews Show, NBC News' Andrea Mitchell revealed that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, met "very recently" with the Senate Republican caucus to discuss their strategy on Iraq legislation.
"Petraeus went to the Republican caucus and told them, I will have real progress to you by August," Mitchell said. The Republicans claim they told him that after August, they will end their support for the war. "They have told him at a caucus meeting as very, very recently, that if there isn't progress by August - and real progress means not a day of violence and a day of sanity - that they will pull the plug."
Was Sen. Lieberman present at this meeting? Does he agree with this GOP assessment that August is the "drop-dead" date for his pet "surge"?
U.S. troops have been dying at a rate of over 80 per month over the first two or three months of the escalation. Two servicemembers from Bridgeport have been killed in Iraq in the past two weeks alone.
Hundreds more will die in the next five months as the Lieberman-McCain sham escalation continues, all in the name of propping up the president politically.
How many more of his constituents is Sen. Lieberman prepared to send to sacrifice life and limb in the name of advancing his own "petty partisan politics"?
MLN is powered by