Scumbags

Yes, scumbags. I'll shout it from the rooftops.

Scumbags.

The chickenhawk administration ordered a secret smear campaign against Rep. John Murtha in retaliation for his call for beginning a troop withdrawal from Iraq.

HuffPo:

The Huffington Post has learned the Bush administration recently asked high ranking military leaders to denounce Congressman John Murtha. Congressman Murtha has called for the Bush Administration to withdraw US troops from Iraq.

The Bush Administration first attacked Rep. Murtha for his Iraq views by associating him with the filmmaker Michael Moore and Representative Jean Schmidt likened him to a coward on the floor of the House of Representatives. When those tactics backfired, Dick Cheney called Murtha "A good man, a marine, a patriot and he's taking a clear stand in an entirely legitimate discussion."
Though the White House has backed off publicly, administration officials have nevertheless recently made calls to military leaders to condemn the congressman. So far they have refused.

Rep. Murtha spent 37 years in the Marine Corps earning a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts and a Navy Distinguished Service Medal. His service has earned him the respect of the military, and made him a trusted adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents and leaders of the armed forces.

Good for the military leaders. Here's a president whose connections got him a cushy Texas Air National Guard gig for which he didn't even bother to show up because he was on a coke bender most of the time, and a vice-president who had "other priorities" -- and they sneak around back trying to get the military to denounce a decorated 37-year veteran because he disagrees with them.

Scumbags.

That's the kind of people Americans have leading them.

The only thing hopeful here is that if these military leaders are refusing to obey Bush's orders to smear an opponent, they might refuse to take to the streets to shoot dissenters in cold blood, and they might take action should Bush decide to declare himself dictator-for-life -- a scenario that grows more plausible by the day.

We're left with hoping for a military coup against these guys. How pathetic is that?

UPDATE: The tactics are always the same, too: The Swiftboating of John Murtha continues, via "Cybercast News Service":

Having ascended to the national stage as one of the most vocal critics of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha has long downplayed the controversy and the bitterness surrounding the two Purple Hearts he was awarded for military service in Vietnam.

Murtha is a retired marine and was the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress. Since 1967, there have been at least three different accounts of the injuries that purportedly earned Murtha his Purple Hearts. Those accounts also appear to conflict with the limited military records that are available, and Murtha has thus far refused to release his own military records.

A Cybercast News Service investigation also reveals that one of Murtha's former Democratic congressional colleagues and a fellow decorated Vietnam veteran, Don Bailey of Pennsylvania, alleges that Murtha admitted during an emotional conversation on the floor of the U.S. House in the early 1980s that he did not deserve his Purple Hearts.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, Randi Rhodes was discussing the case of a wounded Iraq war veteran Murtha had visited who was denied a Purple Heart because his wounds were from friendly fire. A few Vietnam vets called in and wanted to send their own Purple Heart medals to this young man. It's clear that these medals are often a trigger for great meaning and emotion for these guys, and if Murtha mentioned something about "not deserving his medals," I suspect it was more about survivors guilt than anything else.

But this is what the chickenhawks did to John Kerry, isn't it? Impugn a veteran's medals and therefore impugn his service. It's amazing, isn't it, that these days it's progressives who are fighting for the honor of American veterans, while chickenhawks who never saw a uniform are calling veterans traitors and trying to dig up dirt on them simply because they disagree with a middle-aged cokehead with hula jaw who spent his own so-called service time banging hookers and doing blow.

Murtha responds:

"Questions about my record are clearly an attempt to distract attention from the real issue, which is that our brave men and women in uniform are dying and being injured every day in the middle of a civil war that can be resolved only by the Iraqis themselves."

"I volunteered for a year's duty in Vietnam. I was out in the field almost every single day. We took heavy casualties in my regiment the year that I was there. In my fitness reports, I was rated No. 1. My record is clear."