Unhinged Murtha and His Plan for Defeat

For a while last year, John Murtha was looked at as the kooky uncle people tolerated at Thanksgiving. Pretty annoying, seemingly a bit senile, but not in any position to cause much harm, outside of clearing the dining room pretty quickly while he goes on some insane rant nobody can comprehend.

Well, times have changed and the political landscape has given him far more power than he deserves or knows how to handle. Now he's dangerous and threatens our military future in Iraq and elsewhere. The crazy uncle has brought some unwanted guests to dinner in the form of a slew of anti-American groups and it's time to take this guy on.

The Washington Times notes in Murtha's Plan for Defeat that his words are on tape for all to hear.

When the House votes today on the resolution denouncing Mr. Bush's plans for additional troops to combat al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Iraq, members should be under no illusions about what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership are trying to do: to make it impossible for American troops to properly do their job in Iraq. In an interview yesterday with MoveCongress.org, a Web site for a coalition of anti-war groups, Mr. Murtha, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, explained that by placing conditions on $93.4 billion in new combat funds, he would make be able to effectively stop the troops in their tracks. "They won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. There's no question in my mind," Mr. Murtha said.

"We will set benchmarks for readiness," a top Democratic leadership aide told the nonpartisan Politico.com Web site, which summarized the Democrats' strategy this way: "If enacted, these provisions would have the effect of limiting the number of troops available for the Bush surge plan, while blunting the GOP charge that Democrats are cutting funding for the troops in Iraq."

Aside from doing severe damage to the war effort in Iraq, the Democrats' political strategy to cripple the war effort by attaching thousands of legislative strings to war funding may also be unconstitutional. Noted attorney and constitutional scholar David Rivkin makes a strong case that Congress cannot act like a "puppet master" appropriating and authorizing funds while attaching conditions that would effectively transform the president into a marionette. If Congress wants to cut off funding, it must do so honestly and directly, rather than dishonestly through micromanagement. In addition to paving the way for a geopolitical catastrophe for this country, the Democratic leadership may be setting the stage for a constitutional confrontation with the White House.

The Democrats appear to want to relive history, when they doomed millions to death and tyranny under Communist rule in Southeast Asia, a shining moment for the anti-war left. They really were proud of their actions and oblivious to the misery and human suffering they enabled. Now they want to do it all over again, but it will present this country with a grave future if we do not defeat the enemies abroad. Remember that come election time.