Republicans ReSurgent

Politico is reporting "Republicans have...shown a little more spring in their step this week as Petraeus has dominated the news cycle." The momentum has been building all summer with US troops on the offensive in the Surge. Then, during Congress' August recess, several prominent Democrats trip to the warzone and their positive statements afterwards seemed to buttress the Right's assertion that the tide had turned in America's favor. Former war-critics from the liberal Brookings Institute backed up this reality, with an oped in the New York Times that contended the attempt to bring security to Baghdad and the surrounding environs were bearing fruit.

With the return of Congress to Washington this month, and General David Petraeus prepping his mandated Report to Congress, the Democrats went on the offensive. Seeking to distance themselves from any positive message emanating from Iraq, they began attacking the messenger by claiming that the Report on conditions in the warzone since the start of the Surge wasn't coming from the General, but would be written by the White House. In pre-hearing statements Reid, Pelosi, and Durbin (the latter who previously reported good news from the war) all dutifully slandered the message as "The Bush Report".

These last-ditch desperation tactics would avail them little. The General quickly slapped down the notion the report was "ghost written", by declaring emphatically "...I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress."

Then, he outmaneuvered his critics by using their own talking point against them. On the issue of troops cuts, he declared that the 30,000 Surge forces in country since earlier this year would be home by next spring, with a Marine Brigade departing immediately. The difference from the Democrat's position being these extra troops would be leaving in triumph, rather than in abject and shameful retreat.

The next Republican victory was one not of their own doing, but a special gift from their critics in the antiwar Left. After receiving a substantial discount from the New York Times, the radical liberal group MoveOn.org placed an ad which some on the Right have likened to the activists' "McCarthy Moment". The slander struck at General Petraeus' good name and his years of selfless war service by dubbing him "General Betray-Us".

The attempt to discredit Petraeus and his report to Congress seems to have backfired, however, with Republicans emboldened by this affront to a man who was voted 86-0 by the Senate. They now call on Democrats to distance themselves from this treasonous assault, on one who has faithfully served his country in time of war, and is fighting and winning against the same enemy who attacked us exactly 6 years ago this month.

Sadly, this plea has fallen on deaf ears, providing the Right with even more ammunition to paint Democrats as weak or indifferent on matters of National Security. The earlier comparison to Joseph McCarthy must be particularly galling, since it was mainly the Left who once felt the sting of the rogue Republican Senator in the 1950's. McCarthy once used fuzzy math to slander and defame many innocent Americans, by claiming them communist sympathizers. History is repeating itself today from an unexpected source.