HOW QUICKLY THEY TURN!

Guests on the Weekly Gang-up:
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist,
Byron York, White House correspondent for National Review and author of "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy"; Byron York? Kudos!,
Linda Wertheimer, NPR Senior National Correspondent.

Poor Rep. Murtha, like all "useful idiots" of Lenin fame once no longer useful your fate is either to be cast aside or just plainly stabbed in the back. I guess, to paraphrase the late Ann Richards, he was born with a "political foot in his mouth". On the way to the elections a funny thing happened to Rep. Murtha. He not only accused American troops of atrocities, without the benefit of trial or presumption of innocence, but he also asked for a "redeployment" of those same troops to the "strategic" location of Okinawa! As result he became the darling of the liberal media and the Bush-hating left.

On the way to the elections Murtha was their man but now that the Democrats want to present their version of a kinder and gentler, and not to mention "conservative" Democratic Party, he is no longer useful. The ink on the ballots was not dry yet when Democratic apparatus in the media was bringing back what they kept silent throughout; Rep. Murtha's involvement in ABSCAM. The question is, will the Democrats be able to hold on to the pretend and superficial "conservative" coalition they have put together, when the likes of James Carville and the Clinton "ex machina" is already calling for the head of Howard "Yee Haa" Dean?
The Democrats who were so apparently willing to overlook Rep. Murtha's propensity for corruption are still mum about Rep. Jefferson of Louisiana being caught with $90,000 worth of "culture of corruption" in his freezer, not to mention the use of National Guard assets during Katrina's worth phase of rescue to retrieve that money from his upper class neighborhood. They are also silent about the possibility of having an impeached federal judge as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Yet, their are aghast at the rehabilitation of Sen. Trent Lott, who not only had to go through serial apologies but had to have his head roll in order to appease the racially sensitive gods for unprepared remarks during a birthday celebration for the late Sen. Thurmond.

However, in a similar event in nature, Sen. Christopher Dodd said of former KKK leader Sen. Bird, that Sen. Bird was "a man good for all times". Did those times include the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights struggle? Was Sen. Bird good for all times? Why the double standard in the media which led to a two week barrage against Sen. Lott until he resigned?

All kinds of generals and pundits, also on the way to the elections, were paraded through the liberal media echoing the words and position of Rep. Murtha. Now the same media is parading the same generals and pundits saying that an immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, er.., I mean Iraq, would be disastrous. Yes, the Democrats have finally achieved their parallel with Vietnam that they so had been wishing to have.

In an ironic twist of fate the analogy or parallel that opponents of the intervention in Iraq have been looking for from the beginning has been found: Democrats are seeking a political solution to a military problem. Irony of ironies, they have created for themselves a Nixonian quandary. Soon we will be hearing of a new version of "Peace with honor".