Joe Klein in love: "Why Bush Is (Still) Winning the War at Home"

[Rose Siding]

"I was up there in the cockpit of that airplane coming into Baghdad," the President told the press corps assembled on the White House lawn after his dash into and out of the war zone last week. "It was an unbelievable, unbelievable feeling." In fact, George W. Bush's body language—let's call it the full jaunty—was reminiscent of his last, infamous cockpit trip, onto the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 to announce the "end" of major combat operations in Iraq, beneath a mission accomplished sign. His public language is more cautious than it used to be, but he seemed downright frothy in a private session with the congressional leadership after his press conference.

He called the new Iraqi Defense Minister an "interesting cat" and Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the deceased al-Qaeda leader, "a dangerous dude." Bush had reason, finally, to strut.
.....
What can the Democrats do? They can play politics or be responsible. The political option is to embrace "cut and run"; call for an immediate withdrawal, as Kerry did; and hope the public is so sick of Bush and sick of the war that it will punish the g.o.p. in the fall. But embracing defeat is a risky political strategy, especially for a party not known for its warrior ethic. In fact, the responsible path is the Democrats' only politically plausible choice: they will have to give yet another new Iraqi government one last shot to succeed

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1205323,00.html?promoid=rss_klein

Bush is jaunty and frothy and Dems should stay the course with him. That's what passes for the left at Time.

[Greeby]

1. Sheesh, I'm with Bill Maher on this sort of thing

"At least when Clinton got blown, it was in private"

[Cha]

19. So true..thanks to Bill Maher

for observating that so eloquently.

If anyone calls joe klien anything but the rw hack that he is..they need to read this blowjob.

All I've ever known from joe klien I've hated so I don't know where that "left" came from? Probably the same place that it's a "liberal media" and we all know they are all rw mediawhores.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "...a party not known for it's warrior ethic." WTF. BS propaganda

coming right out of Republicon Chickenhawk HQ.

The Dems are loaded with vets who served America honorably.

The repubs have shameful military records, and then they go out of their way to trash and insult the men and women who have actually served America with honor.

With propaganda suck ups like Klien, Repubs hold up phony codpiece heroes:

George AWOL Bush
Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney
Rush "Anal Cyst whimp-out draft dodger" Limbaugh
Bill "Chickenhawk Draft Dodger and sex pervert" O'Reilly

etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

As long as the "press" reports this propaganda shit, America is in trouble.

MEMO TO JOE KLIEN AND THE MEDIA: Try telling us the truth for a change

[rman]

3. What war at home? War on civil liberties, war on democracy?

He's still winning those because he's still in power.

And it's guys like this Joe Klein who try to help him by telling the opposition party that it's irresponsible for them to engage in politics.

[blm]

4. Klein is an ASS - - Kerry developed the first withdrawal plan last October

and submitted another one in March after Iraq's THIRD ELECTION and after Civil War was taking hold. NEVER do you see a reporter mention the most IMPORTANT STEP IN KERRY'S PLAN - a DaytonAccord type summit with all the regional leaders of the surrounding countries and the leaders of the insurgency.

By saying his plan is "cut and run" and politics, they help the WH storyline while ignoring what really NEEDS to be done to help Iraq.

[pooja]

5. We need to set major deadlines

You don't tell your boss, well I'll get it done when I feel like it. There are deadlines. Even school children have deadlines to turn in asignments.

As soon as we stop fighting the people who live there and work as their peacekeepers we will be able to withdraw. The Iraqi's need to say... Please send troops here to help stabilize this part. Please help train Iraqi troops in this region. When Iraq is asking, then we are no longer occupying and we are becoming a peace mission.

[pretzel4gore]

6. goddammit you people....

klien's your enemy. he hates and despises YOU. He wants your kids murdered wherever, however. He has proven an effective destroyer of what the USA once was, and he will not/cannot stop waging war on the USA; so stop fukking pandering to the punk, ok

[Edgewater_Joe]

7. Joe Klein: The Lieberman of Journalism

Can we find a Ned Lamont to beat his smarmy ass with?

[Bjorn Against]

13. You should really put the word "journalism" in quotes

Because Klein is no journalist, he is a hack.

[KoKo]

8. Dems love war...Wilson, WWI, Roosevelt, WWII, Truman, Korea, JFK/

Johnson, Vietnam.... How many wars have Dems cut and run from? Pretty soon they will be trying to spin that Roosevelt and Truman were really Repugs!

:rofl:

Painting Dems as pacifists when it was Nixon that took us out of Vietnam. Don't 'cha just love that old Spin Machine.

[Old and In the Way]

9. Whatta suck-up. It really is getting embarrassing to watch this

literary fellatio.

[Cocoa]

10. Bush called their defense minister an "interesting cat"

is he channeling Sammy Davis Jr.?

[Cosmocat]

11. It is just flat sad ...

how far the media has sold out ... It ain't about the reality, it is about them getting a rush on the power ... AND, how many of these clowns have this homo erotic thing for Bushco that leaves them gasping like teenage girls when he is on one of his little ego trips ...

[The Magistrate]

12. One Odd Feature Of This, Ma'am,. Seems Worth Noting

Why political commentators speak of "playing politics" like it were a bad thing for politicians to do puzzles me. If "playing politics" means anything, it means taking a position that can be expected to be beneficial to the politician who takes it, and difficult for other politicians to effectively oppose, whether or not one actually believes in it. That would seem the nature of the trade, and a person who does it well ought to receive the same praise a carpenter who builds a sturdy and attractive porch would expect.

By identifying calls for withdrawl from Iraq as "playing politics", Klein would seem to be actually stating openly that this is the position most popular and appealing to the voters, and that therefore it is the position the Party should take, even if it is not felt with any great fervor by the politicians taking it, because it is what the people want. It would seem that the only element of "responsibility" in the course he contrasts as "responsible" is some odd conception of political life in which the Democratic Party has a "responsibility" to lose an election....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[ariellyn]

14. So Rove and Bush are to be commended for playing politics well? nt

[The Magistrate]

15. Viewed From Certain Angles, Ma'am, Definitely

Competence in a field is worth recognition; that is a quite neutral appreciation. The competence of an enemy had better always be recognized, and if it is not precisely an object of praise, must be an object of technical respect, or there will never be much chance of success in the conflict.

"Animals are on special diet. Please do not feed."

[ariellyn]

16. I don't disagree. I wish that we could say the same for those on

our side. Unfortunately, it takes a village built over a few decades, it seems, to reach the skilled levels of politics we are seeing today. I hope that we never become as corrupt as Republicans, no matter how skilled we may become.

[IndianaGreen]

17. I remember a smug Joe Kline commenting on Primary Colors

on every national talk show, pretending being impartial while he was the anonymous author, a fact known to the media hacks that put him on their shows.

This is the credibility that this man has with me!

[long_green]

18. I love how Klein plays "cut and run" as a stated Democratic

policy without acknowledging that the term "cut and run" is the result of the GOP's playing politics. What a goddamn tool.