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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (7566)	10/23/2006 3:02:48 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224718

Murtha's Anti-war Stance Recalls McGovern's Bid By Tim Jones Tribune national correspondent October 22, 2006 JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- John Murtha, the gruff Marine and Vietnam War veteran, remembers Sen. George McGovern, a decorated World War II bomber pilot, barnstorming the country in 1972 as the Democratic presidential nominee, calling for the pullout of all American troops from Vietnam. "I did not agree," Murtha said, firmly embracing a diplomatic nicety. But now Murtha, a 32-year Democratic veteran of Congress and one of the best friends the Pentagon has in Washington, is on the campaign plane to dozens of congressional districts, echoing a McGovern-esque call to get the U.S. out of Iraq. "The spin from the White House is that there will be chaos if we pull out. It's chaos now, for Christ's sake," Murtha grumbled. "This is the most important issue in the election. You can't solve any other problem unless you solve the war. "And they call me unpatriotic," Murtha said, shaking his head. Next month's midterm elections will be a test of national tolerance for the war and could, as opinion polls suggest, negatively affect the chances of Republicans maintaining control of Congress. The 74-year-old Murtha is leading an almost singular political charge to bring the troops home. Eleven months after Murtha stunned Washington with a call to withdraw from Iraq, there is no boisterous band of incumbent Democratic brothers joining the old Marine against the barrage of cut-and-run and defeat-o-crat charges. "It took a long time to realize that George McGovern was way ahead of everyone else," he said. As McGovern, who won only one state in the 1972 election, will testify, being ahead of everyone is not necessarily an essential ingredient in successful election campaigns. And that may explain why Murtha, a prolific bring-home-the-bacon pol who ran unopposed in this southwestern Pennsylvania district two years ago, isn't only being challenged but is hearing his military and patriotic credentials called into question. In Johnstown, a one-time steel-producing center that proudly wears its wounds from the great flood of 1889 and remembers its war dead with several prominent public memorials, the war has cleaved the city, much as it has the country. Recent dueling rallies on successive days alternately praised Murtha as a profile in courage and defender of the troops, and derided him as a practitioner of treason. The complexity of Iraq war public opinion bears a strong resemblance to Vietnam, 34 years ago. In a late September Gallup Poll, 37 percent of respondents said pull the troops out of Iraq now. In February 1972, the Gallup Poll had 40 percent supporting immediate withdrawal from Vietnam. The majority in both polls favored a mixture of solutions, including a slow withdrawal and staying the course. "If you're looking to the American public for guidance on Iraq, you don't really get it. ... The public doesn't have its own solution," said Frank Newport, Gallup Poll's editor in chief. "Right now you see the same kinds of issues as in Vietnam." As Democrats sense Republican vulnerability, they are speaking out more forcefully but still with no consensus as to when and how the U.S. should leave.