Murtha Predicts Huge Congressional Gains

Considering the Democrat Congress has an approval rating of 18%, I'd say the cranky old fart is going way out on a limb here. Plus, much can and will likely change the next 14 months.

God help us if he's right.

Murtha predicts election triumph for Democrats

WASHINGTON -- Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha acknowledged yesterday that the public is deeply dissatisfied with Congress' inability to bring an end to the Iraq war, yet he predicted that Democrats would pick up as many as 40 to 50 House seats in next year's election.

"You're going to see a big Democratic win," Mr. Murtha, D-Johnstown, told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.

Mr. Murtha, chairman of the powerful House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and one of the most prominent congressional anti-war critics, was at the press club to give a stinging critique of Gen. David Petraeus' report last week on the troop "surge" and President Bush's decision to gradually reduce the size of the American force in Iraq to 130,000 troops by next summer.

He admitted that Democrats likely will be unable to win more support from wavering Republicans this fall for a change in the president's war policy. Some Republicans, he said, have come to him privately to express support for a withdrawal timeline. But he argued that many GOP lawmakers would hold firm in public at least until the presidential election is in full swing next year.

National polls have consistently shown a dismal public approval record for Congress. A Gallup Poll from last month put the figure at 18 percent.

"Believe me, I get battered at home by people who say, 'Get this thing over with,' " Mr. Murtha said. "There's a lot of anger out there. A lot of people are very unhappy with the Democrats because we haven't been able to get anything done."

Which begs the question: If you can't get anything done, why should people continue voting for you? It isn't all about Iraq. The Democrats have accomplished nothing domestically and have spent most of their time enmeshed in pointless investigations that are heading nowhere, they have no agenda other than bashing Bush, offer only defeat in Iraq, are beholden to the kook fringe from MoveOn, and have zero vision for the future other than subjugating us to socialized medicine.

Why would anyone want to vote for that?

Via the Political Wire.