News So Real it Must Be True
Jules Crittenden
Cheney’s al-Qaeda swipe stings:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday phoned President Bush to air her complaints over Vice President Dick Cheney’s comments that the Congressional Democrats’ plan for Iraq would “validate the Al Qaeda strategy.”
Pelosi, who said she could not reach the president, said Cheney’s comments wrongly questioned critics’ patriotism and ignored Bush’s call for openness on Iraq strategy. ...
The quarrel began in Tokyo, where Cheney used an interview to criticize Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., over their plan to place restrictions on Bush’s request for an additional $93 billion for the Iraq war to make it difficult or impossible to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.
“I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al Qaeda strategy,” the vice president told ABC News. “The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people … try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit.”
Pelosi phones Bush to complain
about Cheney’s painfully accurate criticism
Allahpundit
He had the gall to suggest today that the Democrats slow-bleeding us into withdrawal might be something Al Qaeda would approve of. Quote:
“I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the Al Qaeda strategy,” the vice president told ABC News. “The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people … try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit.”
In fact it’d be the Sadrists who’d win because we quit, but we needn’t quibble over details. The insinuation having been made that the left’s scary-smart redeployment plan might possibly, conceivably have adverse consequences that benefit terrorism (a charge leveled against the right by Murtha as recently as 10 days ago), Madam Speaker rushed to the phone to dial up the president. She says she couldn’t reach him, but I like to think he just didn’t take the call.
Here’s Zawahiri from his latest tape. The translation is Laura Mansfield’s:
[...]
She also knocked Cheney for spinning the British withdrawal as a positive development with a line I find almost inscrutable: “If it’s going so well, we’d like to withdraw our troops as well.” In the first place, she knows the situation in Basra isn’t what it is in Baghdad. In the second place, what conclusion naturally follows from what she said? Cheney’s whole point is that we can’t withdraw from Baghdad because it isn’t going well. And her point is that that’s true, it isn’t — but let’s withdraw anyway. ...
Politico: Lieberman Says War Vote Could Prompt Party Switch
Greg Tinti
Is this thinly veiled threat Lieberman putting the Dems on notice that they'll lose control of the Senate if they pursue Murtha's slow bleed plan?
Let's hope so.
"I have no desire to change parties," Lieberman said in a telephone interview. "If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don't feel comfortable with."
Asked whether that hasn't already happened with Iraq, Lieberman said: "We will see how that plays out in the coming months," specifically how the party approaches the issue of continued funding for the war. ...
Murtha's Slow Bleed Plan Could Send Lieberman to Republicans
Kim Priestap
It sounds like Lieberman is making a veiled threat to change parties from Connecticut for Lieberman to Republican, putting the GOP back in control of the Senate, if Murtha's Slow Bleed plan is approved. The Politico has the scoop:
[...]
The nutroots made it clear they didn't want Lieberman as a Democrat, forcing him to run for reelection to the Senate on his own ticket. Their gamble failed miserably when Lieberman ran independently from the Democrats in Connecticut and won, proving that he is a man of his word and willing to take risks. Surely, the Democrats must know by now that Senator Lieberman does not make empty threats, so they would be wise to rethink their support for Jack Murtha's "Slow Bleed" plan.
