Who knew the moveon.org ad last week could prompt so many to say so much about so little? The ad in question that launched this so-to-speak controversy was in the NY Times edition of Sunday, Sept. 9...it was a factually correct, emotionally explosive shot across the bow before Gen. David Petraeus was to give his Congressional testimony and report on progress (real or imagined) in Iraq...the ad played on the general’s name (as in please don’t ‘Betray Us’ and it set off a firestorm of criticism among politicians and the mainstream media. When he was in first-in-the-solar-system primary land last week, Republican John McCain made it one of the rallying cries of his “No Surrender” tour and went out of his way to lambast moveon.org and Democratic presidential candidates for not repudiating the ad (the McCain campaign even went as far as to have a copy of the ad around in poster form to use as a righteous prop)...the sagging campaign of Saint Rudy Giuliani of 9/11 went even further and released his own ad condemning Clinton and moveon.org. At the NASCAR race in Loudon yesterday, Giuliani beat the drums hard according to an AP report:
“I know that MoveOn.org contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns. But it’s the way in which they contribute it, that’s really the offensive part. They contribute it, by and large, doing character assassination on Republican politicians and they get away with it,” Giuliani said.” But they should not be allowed to get away with it when they try to do character assassination on an American general who is putting his life at risk to protect America.”
Ironically, as a Talking Points Memo post from Saturday notes, Giuliani defended the honor of Gen. Patraeus by using his image without his permission a Pentagon no-no. And it was rich given the honored tradition of GOP character assassination in the past three decades to go after a citizen advocacy group but hey, all is fair in love and politics and unrestrained hypocrisy.
My own take on this as a former soldier is lighten up: this is a Democracy boys and girls and no one is above scrutiny, even a highly admired military officer. Petraeus, no doubt a talented and innovative commander who by every report I’ve read has shaken up the military status quo in Iraq, came to Washington to deliver what was at its core a political appearance to support the Bush administration’s policy. After all five years of war and bloodshed and with much more in sight, one has to ask: what’s the real controversy, an ad or another year of three or five years of war for reasons even President Bush can’t articulate with a straight face?
For more on the debate, check out Jane Hamsher’s take on Huffington Post and especially check out the comments by the so-called monolithic moveon.org mob.
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