Quiet: MSM at work
Power Line
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has made itself a national laughingstock with its cartoonish leftism and intellectual vacuity. No newspaper in the country converts Democratic Party talking points into editorials more quickly than the Star Tribune. The paper's editorial page marches in lockstep conformity with the Democratic Party's needs of the moment.
We're still waiting, for example, for deputy editorial page editor Jim Boyd to provide the explanation he said the paper owed readers for its unacknowledged flip-flop on the value of the filibuster. During the Clinton administration, the paper editorialized that the filibuster was "a putrid flood of verbiage" when it was used by Republicans to obstruct portions of the Clinton legislative program. Last year, however, the paper lauded the filibuster when it was used by Democrats and condemned Republican efforts to end it in connection with judicial nominations.
The Star Tribune even rolled out a column by former Vice President Walter Mondale invoking the sanctity of the filibuster and opposing any tampering with it. As a Minnesota Senator, however, Mondale had led the successful fight to reform the filibuster by reducing the number of votes necessary for cloture from 67 to 60. Mondale was, in fact, the leading Democratic opponent of the filibuster in the Senate. None of this merited a mention in the Star Tribune. That was then, this is now.
Last Sunday the Star Tribune published the column by Star Tribune metro columnist Nick Coleman on the "Midwest Heroes" advertising campaign defending the Iraq war; the advertising campaign was put together by Progress for America. John fisked Coleman's column (linked below), taking apart its factual assertions and tracing one of Coleman's basic errors to the Web site of a far-left orgaznization.
"The Swift Boating of Iraq has begun," Coleman opined. Recalling the media's treatment of the Swift Boat Vets, in which personal attacks on them substituted for an examination of their claims, Coleman's statement might have been accurate if confined to his own performance.
Coleman turned to "Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America," to rebut "Midwest Heroes." Coleman described Rieckhoff's group as "a nonpartisan organization." John addressed Coleman's description of Rieckhoff on Sunday, but it also caught the attention of Lt. Col. Joe Repya.
Col. Repya volunteered to return to active duty for service in Iraq at age 59. Col. Repya's previous service includes command of a rifle platoon in Vietnam and flying helicopters in the first Gulf War. (The Star Tribune has run ten of Col. Repya's "letter home" columns in connection with his current service.)
Col. Repya immediately wrote a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune in response to Coleman's column. I don't know how many letters the Star Tribune has received about Coleman's column, but I know it received Col. Repya's, and that it hasn't run it (or any other). Col. Repya takes up Coleman's description of Rieckhoff and several other points made by Coleman. Here is what Col. Repya had to say about Coleman's column:
<<< I recently returned from Iraq and must respond to Nick Coleman's ("Iraq War Vets Spin...") column.
Who is really spinning Minnesota? How about looking in the mirror, Nick!
You conveniently failed to mention that your major "nonpartisan" source, Paul Rieckhoff, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), was a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and a New York State Chairman for Veterans for Kerry. Ex-Gov Jesse Ventura as an IAVA board advisor also "nonpartisan"? Sorry, we're not buying that either!
Don't know what poll Mr. Rieckhoff was quoting but the Military Times 2005 Iraq Poll of our service members (released January 2006) has some interesting results.
A staggering 73% of the respondents believe it's likely the United States will succeed in Iraq.
Four of every five respondents said they believe media reports often are inaccurate.
I suggest before you spin more misinformation on a subject you know nothing about, you actually visit Iraq and see for yourself. You radical liberals and Moveon.Org types have to get over losing the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections. No, the War is not going "swimmingly," but most service members that have recently been in Iraq will tell you we are winning.
Unlike Vietnam, we won't allow you "cut and run" types to snatch Defeat from the jaws of Victory. The bottom line is most in the military know what is at stake in the War on Terror and believe you can't be trusted with our National Defense.
Joe Repya
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army
101ST Airborne Division (Air Assault)
Fort Campbell, KY
A veteran of Vietnam, the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom
>>>
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midwestheroes.com
progressforamerica.org
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