RUSH: The Democrats have withdrawn their plans to de-fund the war, and the LA Times — and their kook fringe on the left — is going to be beside itself over this. They don’t have the votes; they can’t do it, and it adds up to the fact that there is not popular support among the American people for so doing. Zilch, zero, nada. They are backing off of it. There’s an LA Times story today that the divisions in the Democrat Party are even deeper when it comes to hamstringing the military, budget-wise. When you read this story, you have one conclusion: Is this a Democrat quagmire yet? Is the Democrat Party in the midst of a quagmire? The Senate is frustrated they can’t get anything done. We have Dingy Harry sounding more and more like that cry baby, whining Tom Daschle — sound bite coming up. Pelosi? They’re just not able to do anything that they promised they were going to do. They’re finding it tough to govern.
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RUSH: I’m getting e-mails from people. “What do you mean, the Murtha plan’s going to go forward but there’s a provision in it that lets Bush ignore it? You just make this stuff up.” No, I have the San Francisco Chronicle here: ?Dems to Push Tough Bill on Redeployments — Measure Says Troops Must be Fully Rested, Equipped, Trained,? blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the same old thing. “House Democrat leaders who have decided they cannot de-fund the war are now defending the Murtha plan,” the slow bleed plan, and said yesterday they’re going to ?press ahead with legislation requiring all U.S. troops be fully equipped, trained and rested before being sent back to Iraq. Despite rumors that Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco was backing away from the plan, which Republicans have decried as a ‘slow bleed’ on the war, the speaker said Murtha’s proposal on troop standards would be debated next week in committee and that she hopes to move it quickly to the floor.?
But here’s the money line: it’s all worthless and irrelevant. ?The proposal, however, would allow President Bush to waive the rules if he wanted to deploy troops faster or under different standards than allowed by the measure.? So they’re going to put forth the law; they’re going to advance it; they’re going to say, “But, by the way, the president doesn’t have to abide by any of it.” It’s right here in the San Francisco Chronicle. This is not going to sit well out there with the kook fringe on the left.
This hasn’t gotten a whole lot of play, ladies and gentlemen. But Carl Levin, at an Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, said, “I think we ought to take action on all fronts, including Syria. I think we ought to take action on all fronts including Syria and any other source of weapons coming into Iraq. Obviously Iran is the focus, but it shouldn’t be the sole focus.” He asked John McConnell about whatever steps are being taken to cut off weaponry coming from Syria. He asked this question: “I was just wondering. Does the military have a plan to, if necessary, go into Syria to get the source of any weapons coming from Syria?” Our source on this is RedState.org, one of our favorite blogs here. They write that he wasn’t arguing against such a plan. ?I think we ought to take action on all fronts including Syria.? I haven’t seen this anywhere, have you? On the same day the Bush administration says, (paraphrasing) ?You know what? We didn’t mean it six weeks ago when we said we weren’t going to talk to the Iranians and Syrians. We’re going to have a good neighbors meeting. Well, the Iraqis are going to have a good neighbors meeting and they’re running our foreign policy now, so we’ll join ’em under the palm trees there for the good neighbors meeting.? That same day Carl Levin is wondering whether or not we have a battle plan for Iran and Syria! Go figure. Anyway, that’s the news out there.
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RUSH: I also mentioned Dingy Harry is starting to sound like Daschle: he?s concerned. He’s upset. Senate Democrats are going nowhere. I’ve told you Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is running the Senate. He’s the most powerful man there. We put together a little montage to illustrate this. Dingy Harry’s remarks after meeting with his fellow Democrats regarding their new resolution for the war in Iraq…
REID: The last vote we had on this, virtually every Democrat voted for. So don’t — no one should be concerned about the Democrats not sticking together. We have stuck together on our approach to Iraq. We will continue to do that. We are so concerned about what’s going on and so determined to change the course of the war in Iraq, we’re going to continue to talk and do what we can to make sure that’s the case. I would hope that at a time in the near future that I will be able to offer an amendment on behalf of the Democratic caucus.
RUSH: I’m sure you can. That’s really bold leadership there. Well, we’ll continue to do that. We’re concerned. I mean, there’s a word popularized by the Puffster, Puff Daschle. (Doing Daschle impression) ?Uh, we’re concerned, Tim. Very, uh, concerned about what’s going on. We’re determined to change the course of the war in Iraq. We’re going to continue to talk, uh, and do what we can to make sure that’s the case.? Do what we can? You got the majority, Dingy Harry! We’re going to do what we can? He knows the score in the Senate.
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RUSH: All right. We have about a minute here, and we’re going to Medford, Oregon. Mary, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. Hey, I just wanted to tell you: I am a mother of a 20-year-old Marine who is serving his second time in Iraq, and when I heard that these people, these liberals and some Republicans were going to cut funding and support to my Marine and the guys that I know that are there, I just went ballistic. So I wrote a bunch of letters, handwritten letters. So when I heard yesterday that they reversed their decision, I told my family that it was because I wrote all those letters. So, anyway, my point is I think that a lot of people have let them know that that’s just the wrong thing to do. Punishing our soldiers!
RUSH: Well, there are two things at work here. There’s no question that tagging them as owners of defeat has reverberated and got back to them, but there’s also something else. They’re figuring out here that the November elections were not the mandate to do this, that they claimed. They have failed to mobilize public opinion on this to make it happen. That’s an indication.
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RUSH: Bad news for the Democrats here. The story is from the Associated Press. ?The Baghdad security operation,? i.e., the surge, ?has been under way less than three weeks, but it has already registered a success: a sharp drop in the number of bullet-riddled bodies found in the streets ? victims of sectarian death squads. The number of bodies found so far this month in Baghdad ? most of them shot and showing signs of torture ? has dropped by nearly 50 percent to 494 as of Monday night, compared with 954 in January and 1,222 in December, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press. ? U.S. commanders have also said Sunni and Shiite extremists were shifting from the capital to surrounding provinces such as Diyala. All that may have also led to a drop in the execution-style killings. Bombings and other violence continue in the capital despite the crackdown; on Tuesday three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb on the southwestern outskirts of the city.? No problem there because we’re going to go talk! We’re going to have a good neighbor meeting with the people that produce these bombs and we’re going to get this stopped.
(singing) ?Like good neighbor, State Farm is there??
?Nevertheless, execution-style killings are clearly down. This shows a big reduction in terror and killing operations in Baghdad.? Now, I know what the Democrats are going to say, ?Well, of course they’re down. The enemy’s moved out. Sadr is gone, taking a bunch of people with him. They’re laying low. They’re not going to hang around and be targets.?
There might be some validity to that, too, by the way. We did announce to the world what the strategery was going to be.