Murtha Sends Pigs; Democrats Flying

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) made the most obvious of observations, and for that it will cause much vexing among House Democrats.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of the leading anti-war voices in the House Democratic Caucus, is back from a trip to Iraq and he now says the "surge is working." This could be a huge problem for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, who are blocking approval of the full $200 billion being sought by President Bush for combat operations in Iraq in 2008.

Murtha's latest comments are also a stark reversal from what he said earlier in the year. The Pennsylvania Democrat, who chairs the powerful Defense subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee, has previously stated that the surge "is not working" and the United States faced a military disaster in Iraq.

Murtha told CNN on July 12, following a Bush speech, that the president's views on the success of surge in Iraq were "delusional."

"Well it's delusional to say the least," Murtha told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "As I said earlier, and you heard me say it, it's a failed policy wrapped in illusion. Nothing's gotten better. Incidents have increased. We have had more Americans killed in the last four months than any other period during the war."

He finally acknowledged that the Surge is working. Welcome to the real world Murtha.

It's been working for months, and it might have been nice if you sided with the US on the issue instead of Democrats providing sound clips for the enemies of the US - not to mention aid and comfort in knowing that if the insurgents simply hold out until the Democrats cut funding to the war effort, they could win in Iraq.

That isn't sitting well with the Democrat leadership, which has been casting about for months on end about the doom and gloom claims that the Iraq situation was a muddled mess.

The House has yet to approve appropriations for the US military, which means that all the gains made by the military in Iraq may be for naught if the money runs out.

Others noting Murtha's about face: Hot Air and Blue Crab Boulevard.

UPDATE:
Someone must have taken pliers and a blowtorch to Murtha because he's attempting to backtrack and rephrase his comments.

Following a headline-grabbing uproar, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, moved swiftly Friday to clarify earlier remarks that seemed to suggest the Iraq surge policy was working.
The surge, he said in a statement, “has created a window of opportunity for the Iraqi government,’’ but so far the Iraqi government has “failed to capitalize on the political and diplomatic steps that the surge was designed to provide.”
“The fact remains that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily, and that we must begin an orderly redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as practicable,” said the chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee.

The Democrats cannot in any way admit that the situation in Iraq is improving because it would mean that the issue goes to those GOPers who have backed the effort. Democrats are doing nothing but playing politics with the issue.

Actually, Democrats are doing nothing - which is also playing politics with the issue since they're not allowing a vote on a clean appropriations bill to go forward.