Not in *his* name.
I believe the term was "Absolute Moral Authority?"
By Moe Lane Posted in 2008 — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
And I can't wait to hear the earnest explanations of why it shouldn't apply in the case of Colonel Thomas Manion, possible Republican challenger in PA's 8th Congressional District:
Fallen Marine's father to run against Congress' only Iraq war vet
KIMBERLY HEFLINGWASHINGTON - The father of a Marine killed in Iraq announced Tuesday he is running for the Pennsylvania House seat held by the only Iraq war veteran in Congress.
Thomas Manion, a Republican who recently retired as a colonel in the Marine Reserves, is unhappy with positions Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., has taken against the war.
Manion's son, 1st Lt. Travis L. Manion, 26, of Doylestown, Pa., died April 29 during his second Iraq tour while living with an Iraqi unit he was leading and training. He said his son's death was a wake-up call to step forward and serve.
[snip]
Manion, a pharmaceutical executive, said his son died while fighting as part of the surge and had expressed confidence in it before he died. While "nobody wants the war to end as much as I do," Manion said stability in Iraq is essential for stability in the Middle East, and U.S. military leaders should be given an opportunity to make that happen.
Of course, there's a certain unfairness involved in my waiting. It's not as if the apologists can admit that they only want to let the troops or their loved ones speak when that speech can be used against a Republican.
Oh, some of you didn't like reading that? Good. I don't like hypocrites who save having principles for Democratic Presidential administrations. So it's all good.
Read on.
Let us start, of course, by making the obvious point that Rep. Patrick Murphy needs to go, if only for the reason that our current success in Iraq is despite his best efforts, not because of them. I'm glad that he served, and I'm sure that he did so honorably, but as a legislator he flunked two rather easy tests: opposing the war, and opposing the surge. A six-term Representative might get away with being this hardline: a one-term with a 1,500 vote margin out of 250K? Not so much. I look forward to Col. Manion's campaign against him, provided that he gets endorsed Thursday, and wins the primary in April.
I also encourage his campaign to put together a website and begin the donation solicitation process as quickly as they can. While the Internet does not always provide the level of voter support that it promises, it does offer unparalleled opportunities to collect money, and the sooner that's started, the better. RedState is, of course, always happy to hear from any GOP campaign ready to report on their progress or needs; there are also sites such as Slatecard and of, course, the NRCC. But get cracking on that.
Moe
PS: And, before I forget:
You're fooling yourself if you think that the GOP will win back this seat you're better off trying to keep as much as you can against the inevitable Democratic tide this is precisely what we want you to do you know and everybody knows that we're going to beat you Republicans in November so just give up already and admit that we're right admit that we're right adMIT THAT WE'RE RIGHT! ADMITTHATWERERIGHT! ADMITTHATWERERIGHTADMITTHATWERERIGHTADMITTHATWERERIGHT!!!!!!
There. Wasn't that nice of me, getting the Usual Suspects' Usual Talking Points out of the way? That way, they don't have to waste our time and theirs duckspeaking them.
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Not in *his* name. 13 Comments (0 topical, 13 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
And that's saying a lot.
This is one insufferably smug fellow. Based on his vast warfighting and diplomatic experience (gained through his time as a junior-grade Judge Advocate General officer while deployed!), he thought himself qualified to propose the "Murphy Plan for Iraq."
What an arrogant twit.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay) Even if the local GOP doesn't nominate COL Manion to run for the House seat, we should all support whoever runs against Murphy.
(couple of hours away) to help out on the Ground. I will be joining this fight, no doubt about it.
The HinzSight Report
Managing Editor
Wow, this is huge.
Even if he loses, he'll attract a LOT of attention, and can and will make the Democrats pay for their demagogary.
John Bolton for President
"FEAR THE 'STACH!!!"
We're happy to add him to the Slatecard directory.
Hopefully someone on his team will email us his info: directory AT slatecard.com
Murphy is beatable. He's made a lot of mistakes that aren't playing well in his district.
David
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David All
Slatecard
TechRepublican
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If he gets the endorsement of the local GOP tomorrow, he probably will.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I should point at that Republicans, too, suffer from a desire to have the military and their families only argue their point of view. As a soldier who is against the Iraq war, I came under some heavy fire here, not all of it reasonable or anything close to respectful (although I think most of it was).
Just thought it would be fair to mention that, please don't take it as any kind of defense for Rep. Murphy, who in all honesty I can not remember very much about.
So noted. Thanks for providing it.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I clearly stated my comment wasn't meant to be a defense. In fact, I disagree with the premise of this piece: I don't believe such a thing as an "absolute moral authority" exists, apart from God anyway. I try not to defend anyone who uses soldiers to add "moral" force to their arguments...especially when the military is split on the issue. Neither side owns the military opinion.
Again, I clearly state I wasn't defending anyone, so I'm kind of surprised your immediate reaction was to accuse me of defending anyone or anything here. I think defending either side's often irresponsible use of the military as moral shields is, as you put in the blog, indefensible.
And that was the only point I was attempting to suggest--neither side should do this.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
In that case. Because what you said really was what Moe thought it was, regardless of intent.
Also, if you are still serving, remember that this is a political site and you should be watching your words anyway, as per regs. Just a reminder.
"Guns don't kill people...
"...But they sure help!"
-Paul Giamatti, Shoot 'Em Up
Murphy has some ethics problems too. He received a huge advance payment of $100,000 for his book, which is unusually large for a one term Congressman. Check out the majority accountability project.
PS: Is this Manion guy wealthy? That is probably more important, these days.
I live in this district. It is somewhat gerrymandered, in that it includes all of Bucks County, which is still reliably Republican and was won by former Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, but also a few slivers of heavily blue-collar and Democratic northeast Philly and the more liberal Montgomery County. Murphy concentrated his campaign on these Democratic areas and got a big turnout. Fitzpatrick also ran a terrible campaign.
This district is very winnable, though Murphy has already raised a million dollars. He has voted in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and the liberal House leadership, way out of line with this moderate-to-conservative district. He took hundreds of thousands from moveon.org and refused to condemn it for the atrocious "General Betray-us" ad. He has been in New Hampshire campaigning for Barack Obama (should be interesting to see how much the Clintons help him once Hillary wins the nomination) who has very little support in this district. He campaigned as a "new Democrat" and even joined the Blue Dogs but has voted hard-left. And he promised, with much hubris, that he would "end the war in 6 months" if he was elected, and of course he hasn't.
The Democrats did a good job creating Murphy out of whole cloth and selling him to the people in this district, but now that they have seen him in reality I don't think they like him very much. Tom Manion seems like a real grownup in comparison and an ideal Republican candidate.
Bush lost it to Kerry by 3%, but it's in Bucks County, which is one of those Philly collar counties that's ancestrally Republican.
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." - Bill Shankly