Rep. John “cut and run” Murtha’s Thanksgiving greeting

Before Congress’ #1 Defeatocrat Rep. Murtha made a statement in which he tried to spin the House’s defeatist war funding plan earlier today, he started off with the following “greeting” of sorts:

This week, around our Thanksgiving tables, there will be two families: One who say they support the troops, and they do, but they have sacrificed very little. They haven’t had their taxes raised, they haven’t been drafted, and they don’t really participate in the war. The other are military families who have husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in the war theater. It’s them who shoulder the burden of the President’s Iraq policy. America owes them our thanks in this Thanksgiving weekend.

It’s always so classy to take cheap shots at your political opponents during the holidays, isn’t it?

Duane Patterson has the video.

Also, did anyone else catch this bizarre statement (h/t: Fat Tone) made by Murtha during his joint presser with Rep. Obey? (emphasis added):

The Pennsylvania Democrat conceded violence was down dramatically and some normalcy was restored on Iraq’s streets, but he said U.S. victory remains unattainable as long as Baghdad fails to pass national-reconciliation laws

“To change the political law, it doesn’t seem to me you need the military stability,” Mr. Murtha told reporters on Capitol Hill.

You don’t? That sure is an odd statement to make, considering that military stability is vital to political stability, which is vital to political reconciliation …

Beyond Murtha, let’s take a look at what’s happening and what will happen if the Democrats don’t come up with a clean war spending bill:

The military plans to furlough civilian employees and cut all Army and Marine Corps bases to bare-bones operations early next year because of a funding impasse with Congress, according to a memo provided to Politico.

Democratic leaders accused the Bush administration of using scare tactics, and said they will not be strong-armed into giving the White House a blank check on the war.

In the memo, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates instructs the secretaries and of the Army and Navy to “start appropriate planning to reduce operations at all Army bases by mid-February of next year and all USMC bases by mid-March of next year.”

The plan would leave “bases Ò€¦ all but shut down, only able to provide the most basic safety and security measures for those who reside there” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

“The most immediate impact will be felt next month, just before Christmas, in fact, when we’ll begin notifying roughly 200,000 civilians and contractors that we can no longer afford their services; and that, absent additional funding, they will be furloughed, or temporarily laid off, within a matter of weeks” Morrell said.

“It is imperative that lawmakers reconsider this matter as soon as possible and send the president supplemental funding legislation, free from objectionable policy provisions, in order to insure that we can continue to support our troops and their families, as well as protect our nation’s security.”

But what’s imperative to Democrats is, even in the face of the turnaround we’re seeing happen in Iraq, appeasing their anti-war base. It’s party before country to the anti-war left, as usual.

Can we question their patriotism yet?

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