RUSH: James Taranto at the Bestoftheweb.com, Wall Street Journal.com. ‘A leading Democratic lawmaker lashed out at the former leaders of Germany and France, calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a ‘political prostitute.’ The Associated Press reports from Washington: ‘I am so glad that the era of Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder in Germany is now gone,’ [California’s Rep. Tom] Lantos said to applause. He said when the United States asked Schroeder to support its decision to go to war in Iraq ‘he told us where to go.’ ‘I referred to him as a political prostitute, now that he’s taking big checks from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. But the sex workers in my district objected, so I will no longer use that phrase,’ Lantos said. … Lantos said Chirac ‘should go down to the Normandy beaches. He should see those endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David representing young Americans who gave their lives for the freedom of France.’ He said under the successors of Schroeder and Chirac, Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France, relations with the United States ‘will take a very positive turn.” Well, now, isn’t this fascinating? Isn’t that fascinating? Why, I thought it was our fault that the French and the Germans hated us. I thought it was Bush’s fault. I thought he had destroyed our reputation and our image around the world. Now we find out it’s Chirac and Schroeder who were to blame, from Tom Lantos, Democrat, California?
You know, Republican voters have been sitting around I think since the budget battle of 1995 for some of this return fire. Look at Petraeus. These guys all voted for Petraeus in the Senate, Senate voted for Petraeus to be the new chief over there in Iraq, head up the surge and do all this. Now all of a sudden Dingy Harry and Ellen Tauscher, congresswoman from California, ripping Peter Pace, the chairman of Joint Chiefs, and they’re ripping Petraeus, Dingy Harry ripping Petraeus. And you know why they’re doing that? Because everybody’s pointing out, ‘Wait a minute. You unanimously confirmed his appointment to do exactly what he’s doing. Now you’re pronouncing it a failure?’ The Democrats reaction, ‘All right, you going to remind everybody, you going to remind everybody that we unanimously supported Petraeus, fine, we’re going to take him out. We’re going to politicize this. We’re going to politicize everything. You keep reminding the American people of our hypocrisy, we’re going to take you guys out. We don’t care how long it takes. We’ll do it, and you’re not going to stop us.’ And that’s what they’re doing, and, by the way, Pace is out! Pace been thrown overboard by Bob Gates, the defense secretary. I just told Mr. Snerdley, I think Carl Levin is running the Pentagon, the Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. It appears to me that Gates is new-toning it here trying to give Levin everything he wants, including the heads of the top commanders that the Democrats don’t like.