(Cartoon found at Cox & Forkum)There is a reason that Harry "Baghdad" Reid is spiraling downward (19% approval rating) in a freefall with no net beneath to catch him as well as a reason that Congress is showing such dismal approval ratings, quoted from LA Times, Congressional approval ratings are the lowest in a decade.
The Democratic politicians and their supporters can lay blame anywhere they want, completely ignoring the truth, because they are incapable of admitting the truth.
They blame Iraq, they blame the Republicans, they blame their base, they blame our base....they blame everyone, except themselves because they also have never learned how to accept responsibility for their words and actions.
Not only does Baghdad Reid show complete incompetence in everything he approaches and loses but he, as well as Pelosi and the Congressional clowns, are so busy trying to embarrass the president and bending over to their far far left liberal base, they are ignoring the job they were elected to do.... LEGISLATE.
I am going to start with the immigration issue and go backwards in time as we follow Harry's complete stupidity from the beginning of his term as majority leader and when all is said and done, perhaps one day, Baghdad Reid will understand that his freefall is of his own making because after screwing up once, he could have learned, then twice, he SHOULD have learned, but the way he continually sticks his foot in his mouth hoping to calm the anger from his far left liberal supporters, the more the moderate Democrats and the Independents which now probably hold the majority, turn away from him and he loses their approval.
Immigration:
David Broder from Wapo will get kicked around from the liberal blogs, I am sure, but he lays the blame for the immigration issue, right where it belobgs... on Baghdad Reid.
The Dorgan amendment lost by one vote the first time but passed by a single vote the next time -- as four conservative Republicans supported it in hopes it would become a "poison pill" that killed the fragile bipartisan consensus behind the bill. Reid himself supported the "killer" amendment.
He may be playing with fire. A poll that Andy Kohut completed for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press four days before the Senate fiasco on the immigration bill found a striking increase in disapproval of Democratic congressional leaders. In January, 39 percent approved of them and 34 percent disapproved. In early June, disapproval topped approval, 49 percent to 34 percent. Among independents, the disapproval score was 58 percent to 26 percent.
Reid may think that Bush will suffer if immigration reform is killed. But the public is likely to put the blame where it principally belongs -- on the leader of the party that runs the Senate.
The immigration bill is simply the latest test in which Baghdad Reid and well as the other Democratic and some Republican politicians failed miserably.
Now lets start with todays issue and work backwards a bit.
Reid about IRAQ and our Military:
Title of The Politico piece "Reid labels military leader 'incompetent' says it all, but lets look into the piece some anyway:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent" during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported.
Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview.
This is but the latest example of how Reid, under pressure from liberal activists to do more to stop the war, is going on the attack against President Bush and his military leaders in anticipation of a September showdown to end U.S. involvement in Iraq, according to Democratic senators and aides.
Reid, who was bashed by Republicans for suggesting earlier this year that the Iraq war was "lost," is lashing out at top commanders while putting the finishing touches on a plan to force a series of votes on Iraq designed exclusively to make Republicans up for reelection in 2008 go on record in favor of continuing an unpopular war.
First lets take a look at who Bagdad Reid is disparaging here.
General Peter Pace:
General Peter Pace was sworn in as sixteenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sep. 30, 2005. In this capacity, he serves as the principal military advisor to the President, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council. Prior to becoming Chairman, he served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Pace holds the distinction of being the first Marine to have served in either of these positions.
[...]
In 1968, upon completion of The Basic School, Quantico, Va., General Pace was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Republic of Vietnam, serving first as a Rifle Platoon Leader and subsequently as Assistant Operations Officer. He was later assigned to Marine Barracks, Washington, DC, where he served in a number of billets, to include Security Detachment Commander, Camp David; White House Social Aide; and Platoon Leader, Special Ceremonial Platoon.
General Pace has held command at virtually every level, and served in overseas billets in Nam Phong, Thailand; Seoul, Korea; and Yokota, Japan. While serving as President, Marine Corps University, then Brigadier General Pace also served as Deputy Commander, Marine Forces, Somalia, from December 1992 - February 1993, and as the Deputy Commander, Joint Task Force - Somalia from October 1993 - March 1994.
After an assignment as the Director for Operations (J-3), Joint Staff, Washington DC, then Lieutenant General Pace served as the Commander, U. S. Marine Corps Forces, Atlantic/Europe/South. He was promoted to General and assumed duties as the Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command in September 2000.
As the Vice Chairman from October 2001 to August 2005, General Pace served as the Chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Vice Chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board, and as a member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee and the Nuclear Weapons Council.
General Pace's personal decorations include: Defense Distinguished Service Medal, with two oak leaf clusters; Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal with Combat V; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; Meritorious Service Medal with gold star; Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V"; Navy Achievement Medal with gold star; and the Combat Action Ribbon.
General David Petraeus:
There is simply too much in his career to list here without this becomg a three page post, so I am going to list the medals and awards this man has earned over his lifetime serving our country and you can go to the link and take a look at his outstanding record yourself, which speaks for itself.
* Defense Distinguished Service Medal
* Distinguished Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Clusters)
* Defense Superior Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Clusters)
* Legion of Merit (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters)
* Bronze Star Medal (with “V” Device)
* Defense Meritorious Service Medal
* Meritorious Service Medal (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters)
* Joint Service Commendation Medal
* Army Commendation Medal (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters)
* Joint Service Achievement Medal
* Army Achievement Medal
* Combat Action Badge
* Expert Infantryman Badge
* Master Parachutist Badge
* Air Assault Badge
* Ranger Tab
* Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge
* Army Staff Identification Badge
* NATO Meritorious Service Medal
* State Department Superior Honor Award
* Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm
Go read about his distinguished career and then reread the words from Harry boy.
Bottomline here, these are two men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our country and have impeccable records.
They have also done more for our country than Baghdad Reid has, or ever will be capable of doing and yet he dares to disparage these men?
From The Corner:
John McCain says:
It's incredibly disappointing that Harry Reid would make such disparaging remarks about both the highest ranking officer in the U.S military and the commander of our troops in Iraq. Generals Pace and Petraeus are two leaders who have spent their entire lives in service to their country and Senator Reid needs to clarify his criticisms, which can only be described as highly inappropriate and regrettable.
Clarify his criticisms? I think his meaning is clear enough and he should not be handed the "out" of acting like he simply mispoke. This, in addition, to his prior words and actions shows he is consistently saying "fuck you" to our troops, our military and everybody that supports them and their mission.
Obviously Harry thinks that information and analysis from Wapo is far more comprehensive than intelligence given to us from General Petreaus, and this basically underlines the whole problem with the Democratic party today.
This isn't the only time Baghdad Reid has opened his mouth and inserted his foot concerning Iraq, many will remember his comments declaring Iraq as "lost" as well as the public outrage and protests that followed.
Harry Reid:The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.
I have said time and again that Reid and party are the Tokyo Rose's of today.
After Harry "Baghdad" Reid uttered those words encouraging our enemies and demoralizing our troops, troops supporters came back at him with full vengence and rightly so.
Lt. Jason Nichols, a Naval officer who is currently serving in Baghdad, issued a public letter to Reid on his declaration of defeat:
Senator Reid:
When you say we’ve lost in Iraq, I don’t think you understand the effect of your words. The Iraqis I speak with are the good guys here, fighting to build a stable government. They hear what you say, but they don’t understand it. They don’t know about the political game, they don’t know about a Presidential veto, and they don’t know about party politics.
But they do know that if they help us, they are noticed by terrorists and extremists. They decide to help us if they think we can protect them from those terrorists. They tell us where caches of weapons are hidden. They call and report small groups of men who are strangers to the neighborhood, men that look the same to us, but are obvious to them as a foreign suicide cell.
To be brief, your words are killing us. Your statements make the Iraqis afraid to help us for fear we’ll leave them unprotected in the future. They don’t report a cache, and its weapons blow up my friends in a convoy. They don’t report a foreign fighter, and that fighter sends a mortar onto my base. Your statements are noticed, and they have an effect.
Finally, you are mistaken when you say we are losing. We are winning, I see it every day. However, we will win with fewer casualties if you help us. Will you?
Respectfully,
LT Jason Nichols, USN
MNF-I, Baghdad
His own State (Nevada) newspaper editorials ripped him apart calling him "Bozo the Clown".
An American Soldier that went to ground zero after 9/11's attack and then joined the service a year later again to fight for his country had some words for Reid as well as other Americans.
Just Watch
American Soldier says,
Video Here
I don’t understand the stance that the populace has taken towards our military. I feel as if I went off and did the wrong thing at times. Why can’t people see that we fight for a greater cause? We sacrifice so you can have freedoms. We don’t die and get maimed because we have done something wrong or our society has accepted something wrong. We fight the global war on terror. You all remember 9/12/01. You know what it felt like to lose people or feel helpless.
The days after 9/11 I went to ground zero and I helped savage what I could. I helped in the various rescue missions. I did what I could. I felt helpless like everyone else. People cried out towards me to help them. I could do nothing then but I swore I would do what I could in the days to follow.
It wasn’t more than a year later that I volunteered to enter the service again and soon after be deployed to fight for my country. I did what I did to help those who asked me those long days after 9/11. I swore it to them and I swore to myself that I would do what I needed to do.
Now, 6 years later I feel like the public is turning their back on me. Why do I feel this way? I know there is a community who will support me always but I reach out to those who oppose me. Why do you try to hurt me? Why do you try and take from my fellow brother who is forward and outside the wire right now?
I came so close to dying that I feel as if I’ve been given a second chance at life. I look back and I clearly remember how close it came. I could have been one of the many grave scenes in the film above. However I am not. I am alive and breathe life in and exhale my compassion. You wish I would just go away but I won’t. I am a warrior and I may die an old man who wore his Iraq Veteran hat with my many medals on it. Just like the generation before me.
Don’t hate me with such vile hatred. The bad man in the middle night will not hurt you because I have taken his life before he could reach you….remember that!
More heartfelt words from a Blue Star Mother: (Beth from Blue Star Chronicles)
It starts with this:The argument regarding funding for the war on Capital Hill is frustrating for those of us with children serving in the bowels of Baghdad.
Further excerpts show this:Nancy Pelosi declares that it’s sad that President Bush thinks that al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Even while she makes these sneering statements our Soldiers, our sons and our daughters, are fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq. High level Iraqi operatives have been captured in Iraq and the Congressmen and news media either ignore it or spend their time discussing whether or not our Troops, our sons and our daughters, will mistreat them while they are being held for questioning.
The Troops, our sons and our daughters, are having their time down range extended. In many cases indefinitely. They are having to do repeated rotations. It’s a volunteer Army, that’s their job. But doesn’t it just grate on you to hear the criticism of every move they make? Doesn’t it just make your head explode to know that news media and progressives are just waiting for one to slip up, in the fog of war, and make a mistake so they can slander the American Military for the world to hear? Don’t you want to scream at those Congressmen and tell them to quit using our sons and our daughters for their own political gain?
In yet another excerpt she says:There is a disconnect between the people in this country and our Soldiers fighting this war. We have little to no real help from other countries. Our Soldiers are in the dangerous areas. Our Soldiers are carrying the heaviest part of the load for the Western world.
Our country forgot about 9/11. Everyone has moved on. Everyone except our enemy who still declares their intention to destroy us and the American Soldier who stands alone between them and us.
Please read her whole piece and take a look at the picture she has up.
I think our military, their friends, supporters and families have let their feelings be known.
That wasn't the end of the backlash though, against Reid, Pelosi and at that point the whole Democratic party.
A Nevada Group (Oppose Reid.com) started a petition on Baghdad Reid and then followed through with Move America Forward to hold a protest with "Surrender Monkeys" waving white flags at Carson City and Las Vegas, Nevada as well as protesting Pelosi in San Francisco at her office.
The News Media had a Field day with these protests, finally reporting on the protests against Reid and Pelosi as shown here in "These Colors Don't Run".
To push the point home about how Reid continuously ignores anything he doesn't agree with, we showed you the IBD/TIPP Poll: War Is Not Lost, And Victory Is Important.
Look at the graphs, the questions but more importantly the numbers. (Click the graph and the other graphs and questions will pop up for you).
The Global Defense Group also had a reaction to Reid's words.
Are we beginning to see why Dick Cheney holds double the approval rating at this very moment as Reid does?
Dennis Miller had some very good advice for Baghdad Reid, his last comment from the video says it all...
Following the line about this being said with NO due respect, the hilights of the video are when Miller calls Reid a "whiney hack", a "dim bulb", tells people that the "bad guys look to Reid", refers to his mouth as an "ashen piehole", tells Reid he "barely matters" and suggests to Reid that he "Never EVER speak out loud in public again".
This is what Reid will be remembered for, this is his legacy and every single Democratic voter that tries to defend the indefensible comments Reid makes, proves the points we have made about them, they cannot admit when one of their own does wrong and if they cannot admit something that is plain for everyone to see, who on earth is going to trust their analysis on any other issue?
Take a good look at the approval ratings for Congress that we started this post with and especially, the spearate poll from Rasmussen dealing with Ried's 19% approval rating.
Harry "Baghdad" Reid is not just in a freefall, he actually jumped off the cliff with no parachute and as he is spiraling downward, still doesn't have a clue that he is hitting the ground in a big thump... yes, he IS that clueless.
So is anyone that thinks defending him is a worthwhile effort.
Does anyone wonder why the moderate Democrats as well as the Independents are now running as fast and as far as they can get from the disaster that has become the Democratic party?
The numbers speak for themselves and if this had been one poll, I would have waved it off because I am not big on making judgements by poll numbers, but as I showed you yesterday, there are multiple polls, from different pollsters and all of them are saying the same thing.
This is the worst Senate and Congress and in 5 1/2 months they have managed to alienate everyone except their far far left liberal base.
[Update] Despite the lefts best efforts to deny what Reid said, shown here and here and here. Baghdad Reid CONFIRMS his words, I wonder if they will update their readers with the truth or simply allow them to believe the lies they fed them to begin with?
He just wants everyone to forget about it though...HAH!!!!
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed Thursday that he told liberal bloggers last week that he thinks outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace is "incompetent."
Reid acknowledged similarly disparaging Army Gen. David Petraeus, head of Multinational Forces in Iraq.
But Reid, whose comments to bloggers first appeared in The Politico, also told reporters: "I think we should just drop it."
Yeah Reid and people in hell want ice water too.
He then tries to remove his foot, so that he can replace it with the OTHER FOOT!!!
Reid's admission came as reporters peppered him with questions about Pace and Petraeus, overshadowing a Capitol Hill press conference designed to highlight Democratic attempts to improve fuel economy and energy efficiency.
Reid said he told Pace face-to-face recently that he had performed poorly as an adviser on the conduct of the Iraq war.
"I believe that General Pace would not be if he had come forward to be reappointed the chairman of the Joints Chiefs. It wouldn't have happened and I'm not going to get into what I said or didn't say. There is a long list of people including Senators (Carl) Levin and (Jack) Reed and others who have talked about General Pace long before I did. I think we should just drop it. The fact is, he's not going to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, for which I'm happy," Reid said.
What a moron.
Please, if any of those liberal sites decide to actually acknowledge Reid's words and tell their readers the TRUTH, please leave me a link in the comment section.
[Update #2] Wow, as much as I dislike most of what Greg Sargent writes, give him a little credit, he DOES acknowledge that Reid said it after obtaining a tape of the conference call, BUT, then turns around, as any good little apologist lapdog would and claims that it was a "context" thing.
LOLOLOL.
See what I meant above when I said they cannot even admit when one of their own does wrong? They always try to "excuse" it, or "explain" it, they can never acknowledge that Reid simply, once again, said something, incredibly stupid and leave it at that.
.