RUSH: Speaking of Dingy Harry, as you know, some bloggers originally this week reported that he had said that General Peter Pace and General Petraeus are ‘incompetent,’ and Tony Snow said, ‘If he said this, I wish he’s apologize.’ The Drive-By Media said, ‘Hey, you don’t know if he said it!’ Reid didn’t deny it. Now he’s confirmed it. Dingy Harry yesterday ‘questioned the competence of the senior American commander in Iraq,’ that would be General Petraeus, ‘and the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace.’ By the way, Peter Pace was offered a chance to retire, and he said (paraphrased), ‘Nope, you’re going to have to force me outta here. I’m not quitting on the troops.’ So they forced him out. ‘The White House spokesman quickly condemned [Dingy Harry]’s comments, which came nearly two months after he provocatively said he believed that the war is lost. Asked if he thought Petraeus was incompetent, Reid said, ‘Not as far as I’m concerned’ … Reid also said Thursday he was happy that Peter Pace was forced to step down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He said, ‘I talked to him in my conference room, just him and me. I told him how I felt, that he had not done a very good job in speaking out for some obvious things that weren’t going right in Iraq.’ Reid later issued a carefully crafted statement in which he called Pace ‘a distinguished military veteran and public service.” Now, let’s put this all together.
There’s an article in the Washington Post today, it’s by Thomas Ricks, in which Dingy Harry claims that General Petraeus isn’t in touch with what’s going on in Baghdad. General Petraeus is not in touch with what’s going on in Baghdad. Well, now, for one thing, General Petraeus is the top US commander in Iraq. He works and lives and breathes the air of Baghdad and Iraq. He meets its people. He works with its leadership. Dingy Harry on the other hand works at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington. He breathes the foul air of the Beltway. He meets lobbyists. He works closely with left-wing bloggers, the NAGs, other abortion rights groups, environmental wackos, and others. As such, he’s not in touch with what’s going on in his own country! It is astounding to me that the majority leader in the United States Senate would go after our top US commander in Iraq, when by every objective account General Petraeus is doing fantastic and very difficult work, and everybody in the Senate voted for him for this job. They confirmed him. He has been completely honest in what he’s said. He’s been heroic in the work that he’s doing. Do you know what the grave sin that General Petraeus has committed is? He wants to win the war in Iraq.
It’s the same thing with Peter Pace. These guys have to be gotten rid of because they’re not following the Democrat plan on this, which is defeat — and, by the way, he compounds this, Petraeus does, from time to time by pointing out some of the progress that we’re seeing in Iraq. Now, if you’re a politician who has a deep political investment in losing this war, then somebody like Peter Pace, somebody like General Petraeus needs to be attacked. My question is, ‘Where the hell are elected Republicans on this?’ Where is the Republican National Committee on this? Harry Reid is saying some of the most destructive, inaccurate, harmful things about true heroes in this country — and the Republicans remain silent. The only thing we get out of Republicans is from Trent Lott, who’s worried that talk radio’s ‘running the country’ and it has to be ‘dealt with.’ Where are the Republicans on this? One more thing related to Dingy Harry and his blast at General Petraeus for not being in touch with what’s going on in Iraq. Senator Reid’s last trip to Iraq was in March 2005. I double-checked this. Dingy Harry’s last trip to Iraq was two years ago, March 2005, more than two years ago, actually. Now, who do you think has a better sense of what’s happening in Iraq, somebody that’s been there for the last year and a half, running the show, or Dingy Harry, who hasn’t been there since March of 2005?
By the way, in an Algore moment, would you like to know what Dingy Harry said at the time of his last visit to Iraq, March of 2005? Dingy Harry said, quote, ‘I came away with the feeling that we cannot leave Iraq.’ He was one of seven Senate Democrats and Republicans that took a week-long trip to the Middle East and several countries near the region. He said, ‘I came away with the feeling we cannot leave Iraq. If we do, the terrorists will have won.’ That’s Harry Reid, the guy who now wants the terrorists to win, the guy who is invested in their defeat, the guy who says that neither Pace nor Petraeus are doing a good job, the same man who said he didn’t like Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court opinions because he didn’t think they were very intelligent. Harry Reid’s a disgrace. Harry Reid has fallen in with the kook fringe base of his party, and he has assigned himself the task of uttering their deranged ideas and their deranged words and giving their deranged ideas and words the power and imprimatur of coming from the Senate majority leader, just like Algore in 1992. We played that speech for you. Algore in 1992, campaigning for vice president, made it clear that George Bush H. W. Bush wasn’t taking Saddam’s nuclear weapons desires, his use of weapons of mass destruction, his consorting with terrorists seriously enough. Algore today, as a Nobel Peace Prize, nominee, is telling an entirely different story.
Dingy Harry, just two years ago, ‘I came away with the feeling we cannot leave Iraq. If we do, the terrorists will have won,’ and he’s right about that. So which raises the obvious question: Why is he promoting policies that will lead to a victory for sure terrorists? We’re waiting on an answer, Dingy Harry, but we’re not going to get an answer to that question. No. Instead, we have to get rid of Peter Pace and David Petraeus — and of course, for some reason, Robert Gates over at the Pentagon says, ‘Okay, fine. You want to get rid of Pace? I’ll get rid of Pace for you.’ Carl Levin, Armed Services Committee chairman, Democrat senator, Michigan? It appears to me he’s running the Pentagon now — and this is the policy that Bush cares more about than anything, that and amnesty, and the Republicans are silent. You know, the 2008 presidential election and congressional elections are not that far off now, and they are giving nobody any reason to vote for them. In fact, they are doing just the opposite. They are angering their own base. They’re taking actions here splitting the party. The people they should be anger at and fighting, their real enemies, the Democrats, cause nary a reaction. Their friends, the people who elected them, the people that donated money to them, the people who have supported them when they are attacked are now considered their big ‘problem’ that has to be ‘dealt with,’ and that’s you, the American voter.