The press is talking about how the Iraq vote hurt Kerry-It's not about him

[bigtree]

He didn't lose, the troops did. No certain withdrawal. The republicans voted for more occupation and more war. More soldiers sacrificed for republican's political ambitions. More war as a political strategy. the lives of our soldiers put at risk to help republicans hold onto power.

U.S. Republicans embrace Iraq war as issue

WASHINGTON Just a few weeks ago, some Republicans were openly fretting about the war in Iraq and its effect on their re-election prospects, with particularly vulnerable lawmakers worried that its growing unpopularity was becoming a drag on their campaigns.

But there was little sign of such nervousness on Wednesday as Republican after Republican took to the Senate floor to offer an unambiguous embrace of the Iraq war and to portray Democrats as advocates of an overly hasty withdrawal that would have grave consequences for the security of the United States. Like their counterparts in the House last week, they accused Democrats of espousing "retreat and defeatism."

That emerging Republican approach reflects the success, at least for now, of a White House effort to bring a skittish party behind Bush on the war after months of ambivalence in some vocal quarters. As President Bush offered another defense of his Iraq policy during a visit to Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, Republicans acknowledged that it was a strategy of necessity - an attempt to turn what party leaders have feared could become the party's greatest liability into an advantage in the midterm elections.

The approach might yet be upended by more problems in Iraq, as Republicans were reminded this week with reports about the abduction and killing of two American servicemen. Polls show a slight majority of Americans continue to think that entering Iraq was a mistake, and pollsters say independents voters are particularly open to the idea of setting some sort of timetable for withdrawal - the very policy Democrats have embraced and Republicans are now fighting.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/22/news/web.0622debate.php

[LSparkle]

1. This stinks like a Rove turd ... he's back to smearing with his crap again

I feel like I'm in "Groundhog Day."

[William Seger]

9. Yup

It's the Rovian "brilliant" strategy of turning your opponents strengths into weaknesses and your candidate's weaknesses into strengths. Of course, this "brilliant" strategy is accomplished by simply declaring it so, and having the goddammed incompetent MSM parrot that as if it were true.

[emulatorloo]

2. Some people care about America, others care about the Republican Party

Seems like maybe the media is more concerned with the RNC.









Interesting related article on Rove's campaign w the Senate Repugs:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22400661.htm

White House rallies Republican lawmakers on Iraq
22 Jun 2006 19:37:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Steve Holland and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - The White House is waging an aggressive campaign -- complete with a debate prep book, high-level meetings and daily updates -- to persuade U.S. congressional Republicans to stand firm with President George W. Bush in support of the unpopular Iraq war.

The election-year initiative has paid off so far, with Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate supporting Bush's war position that there can be no speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops as some Democrats advocate.
But the true test will come in November when American voters, many of whom believe the war was a mistake, decide whether to keep Republicans in control of the U.S. Congress.

-----

DU thead here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1486737

ON EDIT ADD LINK

[blm]

5. The Corporate media is just an extension of the RNC in every election year

since 2000. They no longer feel any constraints to be fair or factual.

[bigtree]

7. Karl Rove's Biggest Mistake

Stephen Schlesinger
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-schlesinger/karl-roves-biggest-mista_b_23550.html

The guru of the Republican Party, Karl Rove, fresh from skirting an indictment in the Valerie Plame case, has manically plunged back into the political game again. He is up to executing one of his oldest tricks -- using his venerable playbook of turning a weakness into a plus. Somehow he has convinced the entire Republican Party that the Iraq war is a winner in the 2006 Congressional elections, not a loser.

This I gotta see. With polling data showing for months that the American people oppose the war, Karl Rove is going to apparently single-handedly make "cut and run" into the slogan that defeats the Democrats this Fall? This is up there with his Social Security crusade that turned out to be such a great success last year. Let's hear Rove convince the parents of the two US soldiers who were tortured and killed earlier this week or the relatives of the four American soldiers slain yesterday in Iraq -- or the American public which has watched this repeated mayhem for months now -- that the Bush plan to stay indefinitely in Iraq is the answer to this forlorn, mistaken war. Sacrificing more American troops simply to uphold Bush's honor no longer computes in a conflict that now has lasted (since 9/11) longer than the American involvement in the entire second World War.

[keta11]

3. Its unfortunate how much "political gold" Bush and his Nazi Party

have mined out of 9-11 and the War on terror. It is difficult for me to understand how otherwise reasonable Americans can be downright stupid when it comes to understanding that Bush only attacked Iraq because Rumsfeld had run out targets in Afghanistan, and he waned to continue to be a "War President.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Go ahead embrace that monster if you want to.

It's only a matter of time until the US is driven out of Iraq on a rail. The republican "plan" officially calls for an open ended/ open checkbook endless occupation. Enjoy it, assholes.

[bigtree]

10. Rove's Risky Embrace

Thursday, June 22, 2006

The actual war remains one in which people die every day, sometimes in the most gruesome ways, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. It's a war that according to the polls the public now thinks was a mistake, feels it was misled into supporting, and would like to see ending on some sort of timetable. It's a war that has raised questions about American devotion to human rights. It's a war we may not be able to win.

But Rove thinks he can win the war over the war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/22/BL2006062200793.html?nav=rss_world/mideast

[William Seger]

13. Rove's gamble

Rove is betting that he can just keep saying that opposition to the war is a political loser, and supporting Bush* is a political winner, and most of the MSM will uncritically report that as a well-accepted fact. So far, I'd say he's winning that bet. That still leaves open the question of whether a majority of Americans will resist the brainwashing, but....

[blm]

6. Kerry doesn't care how they spin it - they've spun against him for 35yrs

now.

But the DNC better start caring about how the corporate media spins EVERYTHING against Dems, no matter what. GOP control of media must become a focus at some point and DEALT with..... soon.

[malaise]

8. The press should talk about Electoral Fraud

in Ohio -that is what hurt Kerry. Fugg MSM.

[blue cat]

11. BINGO! N/T

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Yeah, sure. My new signs in my yard will be: A vote for the GOP is a vote

for endless war and death. Maybe, that will be an advantage for them.

[kentuck]

14. The press is wrong...

This has helped Kerry more than anything he has done in the last year, imo...

[5thGenDemocrat]

15. How does this hurt Kerry?

He's from Massachusetts, for chrissake. The singular most liberal electorate in the Union and the only voters whose approval Kerry needs to have. My guess is a call for Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, et al, to be sent to the Hague for war crimes trials would win a majority approval in the Bay State.
Kerry said what he said because he believes it and because he has the political cover to do so.
John
And, though this looks like a defeat just now, the resolution wouldn't have gathered as many votes (14, right?) even a year ago. We can try again in a few months.

[Avalux]

16. This is bullshit. Democrats had a victory today.

What I saw on CSPAN over the past couple of days was the first real debate on Iraq on the Senate floor in 3 years. Democrats offered two different options for Republicans and they chose neither.

Republicans chose to tie themselves to Bush's failed Iraq policy instead, now they're on record that they prefer stagnation and no direction. Does not bode well for them.

Today was a good day.