Check out this line from the AP:
One of Congress? most hawkish and influential Democrats called Thursday for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq
Then check out Murtha’s recent history: (h/t Mark O’Malley)
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is actively lobbying Democratic National Committee (DNC) delegates to select former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as their next chairman.
The endorsement of the leading antiwar presidential candidate by one of the Democrats’ most prominent early supporters of the Iraq invasion signals a rehabilitation of Dean’s image in the House and greatly increases his prospects of leading the party, many Democratic lawmakers and aides said.
And:
Of Pennsylvania congressman Jack Murtha, who was supporting new House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi: “There’s a great guy standing behind her, Jack Murtha.”
And:
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told his Democratic colleagues Tuesday that he feared the war in Iraq is unwinnable if the U.S. military does not dramatically increase troop levels, provide more ground support and seek significant international involvement.
But Murtha ? a Vietnam veteran, an early Democratic advocate of President Bush?s authority to invade Iraq and one of Congress?s staunchest supporters of the military ? expressed serious doubts that those remedies are even faint possibilities, given current military deployments, a lack of support from NATO allies and widespread outrage over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war.
[…]Coming from a senior appropriator with close ties to the Pentagon, Murtha?s bleak analysis led many colleagues to surmise that he believes a democratic Iraq is a lost cause.
And:
Frustrated by defense secretary Don Rumsfeld?s ability to escape blame for rosy predictions about Iraq, Congressional Democrats are training their guns on Rumsfeld deputy Paul Wolfowitz.
Congressman David Obey of Wisconsin started the drumbeat by charging that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are ?raving romantics.? He urged President Bush to let them ?return to the private sector.?
While Obey is a hard-core liberal, tea-leaf readers saw a more ominous sign when Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, a bipartisan voice on defense matters, followed up by snapping, ?Wolfowitz is gone.?
A Senate Democratic aide says insiders are counting the days: ?I can?t believe he can take much more of this. He is losing credibility up here on the Hill.?
And:
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and one of her party’s staunchest advocates of a strong military exhorted President Bush on Tuesday to fire advisers who helped set U.S. policy in Iraq.
Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said that since Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1, American policy there has been riddled with miscalculations over armed opposition and the extent of rebuilding, costing U.S. lives and billions of dollars.
“We can’t allow these bureaucrats to get off while these young people are paying such a heavy price,” Murtha, a Vietnam combat veteran and senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said at a news conference with Pelosi. They did not name individuals they would like to see fired.
And:
John Murtha, who is not a rich man, gave his alam mater nearly $100 million last year.
His secret: The money was yours.
Murtha, an 11-term western Pennsylvania Democratic congressman, quietly slipped his gifts into the huge defense appropriations bill passed by the powerful House subcommittee he chairs.
“Academic pork” is the name of his game, and it has become a popular pastime in Congress.
A decade ago, fewer than a dozen universities were bold enough to ask key lawmakers to earmark grants exclusively for them. Now hundreds do it. The cost to taxpayers has soared from $11 million in 1982 to more than $650 million this year.
Some of the ways that money is spent are raising eyebrows – like a planetarium for a Michigan community college that has no astronomers, and money for a Chicago gear research institute already under criminal investigation for possible misuse of past federal grants.
And:
Doyle and Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, opposed the House bill that allowed the Schiavo case to move from Florida to federal court. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair voted in favor of the measure.
And:
A leading military authority in Congress, saying the move would represent a major change in U.S. policy, Wednesday cautioned against sending U.S. troops into Somalia without a clear-cut objective. “My feeling is it’s a mistake with the present conditions as they are,” said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. Murtha, at a news conference, said there is “no clear-cut mission. The rules of engagement are not clear, and we have no purpose in being there. It’s not in our national interest. And for those reasons I, at this point, oppose deploying troops to Somalia as bad as the situation is.” Murtha made his comments as the United Nations was considering authorizing a multinational military force that would try to safeguard relief efforts for starving civilians in that country.
Tell me again how this man is a Democratic conservative? He’s a liberal moonbat who parades around in a costume. Judging from his past his treachery should not be a surprise.
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It looks to me like Murtha is spot on target with his analysis. Look at the last one, was he wrong about Somalia? Get real.
As an aside, when Dick Cheney says that the Democrats had the same intelligence the White House did, he makes a good point. Everyone Congressman and Senator should get the same intelligence that the Whtie House sees. Otherwise, no one with any competence to decide public policy will see the information. If the security community thinks such a wide distribution would risk leaks, well, it doesnt’ matter, because our security seems to be leaky enough as it is.