Poll: Reverend Wright Not a Factor
Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro take a look at the results of a new NBC/WSJ poll and find some surprises. Most notably, about half the people had never heard of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Pollster Peter Hart calls the NBC/WSJ poll a “myth buster” survey; it really breaks down a lot of the myths we've been hearing over the last week ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 27, 2008 14:50
Murtha: Surge is Working
While many war supporters have been pointing to security improvements in Iraq as evidence that the Surge is working for weeks, the meme got a significant boost yesterday from an unlikely source: Congressman Jack Murtha. U.S. Rep. John Murtha today said he saw signs of military progress during a brief trip to Iraq last week, but he warned that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 30, 2007 08:10
John Murtha King of Pork
John Murtha gets more pork for his district than any other Representative. If John Murtha were a businessman, he'd be the biggest employer in this town. The powerful U.S. congressman has used his clout on Capitol Hill to create thousands of jobs and steer billions of dollars in federal spending to help his hometown in western Pennsylvania recover from devastating floods ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 30, 2007 11:50
Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Phony Soldiers’
Media Matters has again successfully embroiled the blogosphere in a controversy with a press release. The latest, entitled "Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are 'phony soldiers,'" has gained wide circulation on the left. The lede: During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 28, 2007 09:12
Domestic Politics Hamstrings Iraq Policy
Public opinion polls showing Americans overwhelmingly frustrated with the war in Iraq and ready to begin withdrawal. Paradoxically, domestic political considerations are making it impossible to move off the status quo. John Murtha blames the Republican primaries: Rep. John Murtha predicted Monday that Democrats will not be able to pass any meaningful legislation to end the Iraq war until presidential primary ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 17, 2007 15:18
Civility, Hypocrisy, and the Rules of Political Debate
Glenn Greenwald argues that many of those now condemning MoveOn.org and/or demanding that Democrats condemn MoveOn.org for suggesting General David Petraeus would "betray us" are hypocrites, since many have used inflammatory rhetoric themselves. He's surely right in many particulars. Those on the Ann Coulter wing of the Right, who routinely throw around words like "traitors" and "treason" to describe mainstream ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 12, 2007 15:49
Haditha Charges Dropped Against Two Marines
Charges have been dropped against a Marine captain and lance corporal who had been accused of criminal wrongdoing in the killing of three brothers in a 2005 incident in Haditha. The Marine Corps has dropped all charges against a captain accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 civilians and another Marine accused in some of the killings, the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 9, 2007 16:30
House Democrats Push Another Iraq Withdrawal Bill
Another day, another Iraq withdrawal proposal. House Democrats have drafted new Iraq legislation they hope will appeal to Republicans fed up with the war: Start withdrawing troops in two months but leave it up to President Bush to decide when to complete the pullout. The vote will come next week, as members take up a $460 billion bill covering military spending for ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 25, 2007 18:40
Restoring the Draft No Panacea
Bringing back the military draft would make it easier to meet recruiting goals but the negatives would outweigh the positives, a new Congressional Budget Office study found. The report, requested by Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., chairman of the defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, says that drafting people could make it easier for the Army to reach its 2012 goal ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 22, 2007 19:48
Reporter Wants Out of Afghanistan, Blames Congressional Democrats
The Hill's Roxana Tiron reports that there's a growing number of congressional Democrats who want to pull American troops out of Afghanistan. When one reads the story, however, it's pretty clear that this still represents a tiny constituency. When they won control of Congress in November, Democrats pressed their case to withdraw troops from Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, but ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 26, 2007 07:22
