Posted on 11/13/2006 7:26:30 PM PST by blam
Democrats' rise in popularity at risk of being undone by Left
By Toby Harnden
Last Updated: 2:20am GMT 14/11/2006
An anti-war icon of the Vietnam era will address Democrats in Congress today as the party struggles to prevent its victory in the mid-term elections being marred by bitter divisions and a lurch to the Left over Iraq.
Senator George McGovern, who led the Democrats to a disastrous defeat in the 1972 presidential election with a platform of American withdrawal from Vietnam, will urge an immediate pull-out from Iraq at a meeting due to be attended by more than 60 senators and congressmen.
George McGovern: speech
The emerging Democratic consensus on bringing troops home from Iraq is a sign of the growing influence of those on the party's Left.
This threatens to undermine the chances for a new spirit of bipartisanship that President George W Bush and Democratic leaders called for after his election defeat.
It could also harm Democratic chances in the 2008 presidential election if the party is seen as too radical.
Senator Carl Levin, the new chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said yesterday: "Most Democrats share the view that we should pressure the White House to commence the phased redeployment of US troops from Iraq in four to six months.
" Mr McGovern's address comes after Nancy Pelosi, due to be the new speaker of the House of Representatives, said she would back Congressman John Murtha, one of America's most vehement critics of the Iraq war, as her deputy.
Her support for Mr Murtha, a former marine officer who served in Vietnam, guarantees that there will be an acrimonious contest for the post of House majority leader. Mrs Pelosi also intends to block Congresswoman Jane Harman, a moderate, from chairing the House intelligence committee.
Mr McGovern will speak to members of the Left-wing Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose ranks were swelled in the elections. The 64-strong caucus will provide many committee chairmen in the new Congress when it is convened in January, by which time the caucus expects to have eight new members.
Mr McGovern, 84, advocates removing US and British troops from the Middle East and establishing a transitional police force made up of Muslims from the region.
A year ago, Mr Murtha became an anti-war hero after calling on Mr Bush to end US military involvement in Iraq.
The favourite for the post of majority leader had been Congressman Steny Hoyer, who is known to have a frosty relationship with Mrs Pelosi.
Let 'em talk. 6 months from now: "I voted for what?"
Good plan,George.Give these "cops" nightsticks and two way radios and everything will be just peachy.
Mr McGovern, 84, advocates removing US and British troops from the Middle East and establishing a transitional police force made up of Muslims from the region.
Voter's regret will set in soon.
What was his excuse in 1972?
I already had signs made up and ready to go.
I post them on the back of my truck and change them every three days, or so.
They are their own worst enemies. They must maintain the pantomime of seeming centrist and moderate while all of their true instincts lead to the far Left and out of touch with mainstream American culture.
Bullshit! The people who voted for the Democrats did so knowing full what they were and what they stood for.
Hey George, I think some funding for Middle East midnight basketball might help as well.
I hate to post two in a row, but I'm sitting here smiling, remembering all the hippie songs etc and how ridiculous the Dems policies were then - and now too, and to see him dragged out to spew his crap has got to make some Dems and mostly "swing voters" REALLY SORRY they voted "for change".
Sometimes people have to have the reality of their decisions shoved right up close to their nose in order for them to smell the stink. People get the government they deserve and sadly too many Americans deserve the Democrats in control but even more sadly our soldiers do not deserve any of this.
Rush is right.
The bigger a flop you are, the more you are lionized by the Left and revered as an "expert". LOL
If we didn't have Carter, we wouldn't have gotten Reagan. Cry it from the rooftops, Dems!
I don't think they did. It is appalling how many people say "I don't vote for the party, I vote for the best person." They don't stop to think that these newly elected local, perhaps conservative, Dems won't have any clout in Wash. Their numbers are there strictly to shore up the far left leadership. Until people realize
that voting like that puts a San Francisco liberal two heartbeats from the leadership of the free world, we are in a mell of a hess.
There are locals here in AL that are good conservative Dems, but I can't vote for them. A vote for them is a vote for Hill, Chucky,Dirty Harry, Leahy,Kennedy, Bidon, and the rest of of the objectionable donkeys. There can be no "best person" in the Dem party, or we get govt. health care, higher taxes, negotiations with terrorists, no energy independence, a reduced military, etc.
vaudine
What was his excuse in 1972?
Did our soldiers deserve the extra 20,501 dead they suffered after McGovern lost and Nixon tried to find a way out? The end result was the same, Americans didn't care to send their sons to fight and die for Vietnamese, and the fall of Vietnam didn't matter to Americans. It's sad to think that several hundred, if not thousand, more of our soldiers are going to die in the Middle East before Bush remembers why he campaigned in 2000 against nation building.
What? Have you never met a "Democrat" who was against high taxes, against gun control, against illegal immigration and pro-military--and still votes Rat? I have.
I in fact heard on the radio that Susan "Ostrich" admitted on TV that the Dems fooled people by running alleged moderates...
You forgot midnight basketball for the Muslim youth.
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