Reid attacks Commanders!! GOP Chairman

[Stravo]

This is one of the latest bullshit emails I have received from the GOP ever since I signed my dad up to receive spam accidentally. I don't block it because sometimes there's comedic value to what I receive.

Dear Pedro ,

Harry Reid doesn't understand that there are some lines you just don't cross.

It was bad enough when he said "this war is lost." It was bad enough when he brought bill after bill to the Senate floor trying to force us to surrender Iraq to the terrorists. It is bad enough that he has declared the President's new strategy in Iraq a failure, even though our military leaders say that we won't know the true results until September.

But now Reid has simply gone too far. During an interview with liberal bloggers, he called Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace "incompetent." He made similar comments about General David Petreaus, the man leading our troops in Iraq.

There is room for him to express reasonable disagreement about our path forward in Iraq. But to attack our military is unacceptable. To attack General Petraeus, the man actually leading our troops on the ground, is reprehensible. And to call General Pace, a man who has served our nation for his entire adult life with honor and distinction, 'incompetent' is beyond the pale.

Why would Reid attack our men and women in uniform? One simple reason: to play catch-up with the fringes of his liberal base. The far left was furious that President Bush held firm and successfully forced Democrats in Congress to pass a clean war funding bill last month. Now, the Democrats have to make up ground with their extreme base.

There's nothing wrong with a healthy political debate about Iraq. But playing politics with our troops' lives and insulting the professional military leaders who are trying to bring those men and women home safe and victorious is just too much. Contact your Congressman and Senators. Urge them to reject Harry Reid's attacks on our military, and to trust our men and women in uniform as they continue to fight to keep the American people safe.


Sincerely,


Robert M. "Mike" Duncan
Chairman, Republican National Committee

I don't need to make comments, but I do need to smile. Thanks "Mike" I needed that laugh.

[SirNitram]

You know, I don't think anyone's ever given a source for this 'REID SAID HE WAS INCOMPETENT!' quote. I'm kinda curious where it comes from. And what was actually said.

Because of course, you should question the competency of the military leadership in a war, especially a war going badly.

[Vympel]

Of course, McCain made similar comments. Not a peep from the GOP.

[Patrick Degan]

False indignation. How unoriginal. The reply of course should be a direct challenge for Duncan to produce the quote and that until he does so he stands as an outright liar.

[Vympel]

I don't see how it makes a difference whether it's true or not. These generals shouldn't be beyond criticism by the political leadership. I'd call them incompetent and more besides.

[Chris OFarrell]

I don't see how it makes a difference whether it's true or not. These generals shouldn't be beyond criticism by the political leadership. I'd call them incompetent and more besides.

How dare you! It's not as if the Military are servants of the elected Government, who are elected by the people...oh...wait...

[Glocksman]

False indignation. How unoriginal. The reply of course should be a direct challenge for Duncan to produce the quote and that until he does so he stands as an outright liar.

Linky

Okay, as we noted below, we've been trying to find out as much as possible about the conference call that Harry Reid held with liberal bloggers that's created so much noise today.

Now we've obtained a tape of the relevant chunk of the call. Reid did call Pace "incompetent," so The Politico story was factually right about that. But the context does raise questions about whether its placement and headline were overblown.

In the call, The Politico reported, Reid blasted General Pace as "incompetent," and used "similarly disparaging language" to attack General Petraeus. We spoke to as many people as we could on the call to see what was actually said. And a number of liberal bloggers on the call told us that they didn't remember Reid saying these things.

Now we've finally found someone who taped the call -- and this person provided us with a recording of it, on the condition that we not make the audio available, and only post the transcript. The relevant part follows:

REID: Look what this Justice Department has done. And now, with the Surgeon General, we have a man here who has written articles that I think are a little questionable as to in our modern society. He's a medical doctor. And don't worry, he's gonna be looked at very closely.

BLOGGER QUESTION: What's the next step on Gonzales?

REID: Well, I guess the President, he's gotten rid of Pace because he could not get confirmed here in the Senate. Pace is also a yes-man for the President. I told him to his face, I laid it out last time he came in to see me. I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was. But he got rid of his Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, but he still hangs on to this failed Attorney General. And I guess he's gonna [inaudible]. We're gonna keep focusing on it. Every day that goes by, it seems he keeps giving. Now we've learned that the immigration judges are all graduates of Regent University I guess.

REID AIDE: Guys, I think we have time to take one more question...

So The Politico's John Bresnahan, who wrote the original story, was right; Reid did call Pace incompetent. On the other hand, it was in the context of a discussion of Alberto Gonzales and other administration incompetents, not Iraq. The reference to Pace was an aside -- brought up solely to highlight Bush's loyalty to Gonzales. Reid's focus here wasn't on Pace or the commanders.

Seems to me that the larger context suggests more clearly than the shorter snippet posted earlier by Bob Geiger, another blogger on the call, how pumped up the Politico story and headline were. Nonetheless, the truth is, Bresnahan's story was factually accurate. Though it's still unclear what Reid said about Petraeus, which is the more controversial aspect of the story, since Pace is on his way out and Petraeus is the key guy in Iraq. We were only able to obtain a tape of a limited chunk of the call.

Still outstanding question: Why didn't Reid's office just confirm that he'd said this? Why play this one so cute? A lot of people wanted confirmation, and a lot of liberal bloggers were out there saying that they didn't remember Reid saying this stuff. Couldn't Reid's office have just spared a bunch of people a lot of grief and effort by just confirming it?

Like any good spinmeister, Duncan's 4000 RPM email has the grain of truth to it, but it certainly doesn't tell the entire story.
I think Taylor Marsh summed it up best:

There is no doubt that Reid said what he said. The question now is, why in the world did Reid let this hang out there all day without confirming it? Since he did the honorable thing and told Pace to his face what he thought of him, why not also confirm to someone, anyone? Also, since Reid believes it why not take the opportunity to also come out and stand by your story strongly at least in a statement? And why sidestep the question at a press conference? Again, the strongest thing to do when you've leveled a charge like this is stand up and stand behind it. Reid's silence all day while the rest of us tried to get to the bottom of this was ridiculous. It makes no sense.