Senate Dems Betray Us, Join Republicans In Censuring MoveOn's Petraeus Ad

Posted by Jane Hamsher at 11:00 AM on September 20, 2007.

This post, written by Jane Hamsher, originally appeared on FireDogLake

I don't even know what to say in the wake of the passage of the Cornyn Amendment to censure MoveOn.

It became apparent yesterday when the Democrats allowed the competing McCain/Warner Amendment onto the floor (which gave Republicans cover for "supporting our troops") that they had absolutely no intention of letting the Webb Amendment pass. It was a complete fantasy to think that they would ever implement anything like the Kleiman strategy -- they do not want to be responsible for forcing troop reductions that could end the war. Because...why? Because the Republicans might be mean to them? Because they'd lose it as a campaign issue for 2008? Because they're so in the tank for all the monied industries feeding at the taxpayer trough due to the war that they just won't go there?

Just like the FISA bill, it was all a charade. And then today, they join with the Republicans in their little moment of mock outrage over MoveOn so we all just don't talk about how badly the war is going. The Democrats have the majority, and THIS is what they let happen?

Bush put Petraeus up there just like he did Colin Powell before him, hoping that he could hide behind a uniform he was never willing to wear himself and claim that anyone who wasn't supporting his pet project was being "anti-military." It doesn't matter who it was or what they said, ANYONE who questioned the word of A Man Called Petraeus was going to be pilloried for it. Nothing less than the complete silence of a domesticated animal would have satisfied them.

And that's what this vote regarding MoveOn means, make no mistake about it. It's not just MoveOn that is having their wrists slapped, it's all of us. All of us who stood together and had the temerity to fight their precious comrade in comity, Joe Lieberman. Those of us who want to push them into doing something on Iraq, which they really don't want to do. It is now the "Sense of the Senate" that the "uncivil" left are not entitled to free speech, especially if we're trying to exercise it to make their lives difficult.

MoveOn said what needed to be said, that the emperor has no clothes. Just like he didn't in 2002 when Bush hid behind Colin Powell and the country accepted his word and his credibility and allowed this godforsaken war to start in the first place. If anybody thought that anyone was going to lift anything more than a symbolic finger to end it ought to be disabusing themselves of that notion right now. Not only are the Democrats not going to criticize the President's brilliant war stratagem, they're going to come together in a Terry Schaivo moment and tell anyone who does to just shut the hell up.

The only one who got this right was Hillary Clinton. She's been on the receiving end of mock right wing outrage before, she knows how it works and she didn't get played by the typical GOP charade that even THEY aren't sincere about. Every word coming out of their mouths on the floor of the Senate this morning was pure santcimonious hypocrisy, dancing on the head of a pin as they tried to distinguish between this and the outrageous things it was perfectly okay to say about Abizaid or Kerry or Max Clelland. But thanks to the willingness of human Gumby dolls like Bill Richardson, Barack Obama and John Edwards who thought it best to bow down before the right wing when it gets its bluster on, the PR blitz nobody would have otherwise cared about kept gaining momentum until it reached this shocking abrogation of free speech with the help of 25 Democrats.

I should actually qualify that -- it wasn't Edwards who bagged MoveOn, he had his wife do it. I suppose that's better somehow. Maybe not as good as Barack "I never met a fight I couldn't duck" Obama who was there to vote on the Boxer Amendment, but couldn't be bothered to stick around and vote against Cornyn. But close.

Well, part of the joy of being a right wing bully is standing up there and knowing you're full of shit, and everyone listening knows you're full of shit, and STILL you force the Democrats to their knees. And it works every time. No doubt they appreciate the Democrats doing their part in this "bipartisan" effort.

The bottom line is that the Democrats would rather just play along with that little kabuki than mount a meaningful fight on just about anything, but particularly ending the war, and they're pretty angry at us for insisting that they do otherwise. Today they got to tell us so.

Tagged as: bush, petraeus, moveon, senate, obama, cornyn

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.