WaPo Admits It: The Democrats Screwed Up:”Democrats Were Ill-Prepared for Unplanned Disclosure, Republican Attacks”

by Jonathan Weisman and Lyndsey Layton ^[1]

Washington Post ^[2]Staff Writers
Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page A05

The plan was bold: By tying President Bush’s $100 billion war request to strict standards of troop safety and readiness, Democrats believed they could grab hold of Iraq war policy while forcing Republicans to defend sending troops into battle without the necessary training or equipment.But a botched launch by the plan’s author, Rep. John P. Murtha ^[3] (Pa.), has united Republicans and divided Democrats, sending the latter back to the drawing board just a week before scheduled legislative action, a score of House Democratic lawmakers said last week.

…

Murtha’s credentials as a Marine combat veteran, a critic of the war and close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ^[4] (Calif.) were supposed to make him an unassailable spokesman for Democratic war policy. Instead, he has become a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans and members of his own party.

…

But the sub head quoted in the title of this post is revealing:

“Democrats Were Ill-Prepared for Unplanned Disclosure, Republican Attacks”

Let’s break this down into two separate lines:

“Unplanned disclosure;”

Meaning, that they were planning on keeping it secret.  They didn’t want the American people to know that they were going to try to defund the military while they were still in the field.  They knew it wouldn’t be popular.  They knew it would cost them at the polls.  They knew it would make them look like the the un-Americans they are.

“Republican attacks” ;

The bottom line here is this is still an attempt to deflect some of the ire away from the Democrats who are desperate to get America to cut and run… who are desperate to have America Lose this war… and from them onto the Republicans who merely pointed out the problems with the attempted defunding of our soldiers in the field, by the Democrats.

This is not merely John Murtha’s screw up alone. nor is it Nancy Pelosi’s screw up alone. Nor is it merely the two of them together. This is a screw up that proportionally encompasses the entire Democratic party. As Sir Laurence once said; “who is the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool who follows him?”