Swiftboating Petraeus

Here is a term I hesitate to use, but I also applied the label "McCarthyism" last week to describe the tactics used by MoveOn and other radical liberals to defame the Petraeus report with slander before they even heard the speech. Listen to Froma Horrap at Real Clear Politics:

Democrats need their "Sister Souljah moment" with the outer
left, and they need it now. The MoveOn.org ad -- "General Petraeus or General
Betray Us?" -- was simply unacceptable. Not only was it dumb, but it created a
distraction for Democrats trying to challenge Bush policy in
Iraq...
Democrats showed great respect for Petraeus, even as they
asked hard questions. But they had that silly ad hanging around their
necks.
You can't get more "antiwar" than Illinois Rep. Janice Schakowsky. But
even she had to take time out to respond to reporters' questions about the
MoveOn ad, calling it "not an accurate statement."
Delaware Sen. Joe Biden
was on television calling Petraeus' claims of progress "dead, flat wrong." But
he, too, had to interrupt his message to distance himself from the MoveOn
statement.

So far none of the Democrat front runners for President has had the courage to denounce the MoveOn ad, though this wasn't true about the Party in 2004, as Extreme Mortman reveals to us:

MoveOn ran an ad questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era service
in the Air National Guard. In August 2004 John Kerry denounced it. Kerry:
“The ad is inappropriate. This should be a campaign of issues, not
insults.”Three years later and the military-related insults haven’t
stopped. Who would have thought John Kerry would remain the sole marquee
Democrat with the courage to denounce MoveOn?

Likely it's from fear of losing the radical group's fundraising support, which has been substantial if you reread Horrap. But Republicans have used this fear of liberal backlash against the Dems, as John McCain proves:

Senator Clinton said that believing General Petraeus’
testimony requires a ‘willing suspension of disbelief.’ I think it willingly
suspends disbelief to not repudiate an advertisement run by a radical left wing
organization that impugns and dishonors the integrity of a man who has served
his nation with dedication all of his life. If you’re not tough enough to
repudiate a scurrilous, outrageous attack such as that, then I don’t know how
you’re tough enough to be President of the United States.

So now MoveOn has gone from a great asset to the Clintons' and other Democrats, to an Albatross around their necks. Time to let this bird fly or just concede the next election to Republicans, which would be fine by me, but I still believe in a 2 Party system of government.

Interesting-A Complaint has been filed with FEC over "Betray Us" ad.