Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

A high school classmate of mine, who is a career fighter pilot, sends me this story, saying:

It appears to support your
"Moon Bat" labeling of certain individuals. I have some stronger feelings
but...given my current occupation will reserve them until I retire!

It's Rep. Jim "Baghdad Jim" McDermott, who along with David Bonior made the infamous trip to Baghdad immediately before the war, and claimed that Hussein was more trustworthy than President Bush.

The article begins:

The Washington congressman who criticized President Bush while visiting Baghdad last year has questioned the timing of the capture of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told a Seattle radio station Monday the U.S. military could have found Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said: "Yeah. Oh, yeah."

The Democratic congressman went on to say, "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."

Right, Rep. McDermott. Because war, especially the actions of your enemies, is something you usually plan to a finely-honed "T".

When interviewer Dave Ross asked again if he meant to imply the Bush administration timed the capture for political reasons, McDermott said: "I don't know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they've been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they'd find him.

It's just a matter of time until everyone dies, too. That doesn't mean many of us know when or where.

I digress:

"It's funny," McDermott added, "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."

I looked in Google to see if Rep. Baghdad Jim McDermott had anything to say about Al Gore's last minute rolling out of George Bush's drunk driving conviction during the 2000 election.

Nope. Not a thing.

Of course, not everyone in Washington is a moonbat:

State Republicans immediately condemned McDermott's remarks, saying the Seattle Democrat again was engaging in "crazy talk" about the Iraq war.

"Once again McDermott has embarrassed this state with his irresponsible ranting," GOP state Chairman Chris Vance said in a news release. "Calling on him to apologize is useless, but I call on other Democrats to let the public know if they agree with McDermott -- and Howard Dean, who recently said he thought it was possible that President Bush had advance knowledge about 9/11. The voters deserve to know if the entire Democratic Party believes in these sorts of bitter, paranoid conspiracy theories."

Of course, not all of them do.

On Monday, Democrats joined the criticism of McDermott.

"With all due respect to my colleague, that is a fantasy," Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said of McDermott's comments. "That just is not right. ... It's one thing to criticize this administration for having done this war. I mean, that's a fair question. But to criticize them on the capture of Saddam, when it's such a big thing to our troops, is just ridiculous."

McDermott spins:

McDermott, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, called the timing of Saddam's capture suspicious but said he was not alleging it had been intentionally delayed.

"Everything was going wrong, and they got a real Christmas gift, if you will, in that the troops did a magnificent job and found" Saddam, he said.

"Everything was going wrong".

The war - defined as "taking Iraq, and destroying all organized resistance" - was a raving success. The guerrilla war is brutal and difficult - and inevitable - but the shifting patterns of attack indicate it's going the right way. The economy is improving at a nice, if unpredictable, And the Democrats seem bent on nominating a nutbar loose cannon.

Er, yeah. Things are going awful for Bush.

Again - McDermott and his supporters are invited to pony up the evidence.

Someone commented in one of my threads yesterday - moonbats are such easy targets. Oh, believe me, I know - the City Pages and the usual array of lefty blogs provide enough material for a blog on their own.

But some weeks, moonbats are like potato chips; you can't stop with just one...

Posted by Mitch at December 17, 2003 05:19 AM