What passes Ms. Pelosi’s test for leadership?
“With respect to Iraq in particular, I salute your courageous leadership that changed the national debate and helped make Iraq the central issue of this historic election,” Pelosi wrote in a personal letter to Murtha. “Your leadership gave so many Americans, including respected military leaders, the encouragement to voice their own disapproval at a failed policy that weakens our military and makes stability in that region even more difficult to achieve. The enthusiastic response of Americans all across this nation gave an enormous lift to our Democratic efforts, and your unsurpassed personal solicitations produced millions of dollars which were new to the effort. Those resources made a huge difference and particularly for the candidates on whose behalf you campaigned.”
Pelosi added: “Your strong voice for national security, the war on terror and Iraq provides genuine leadership for our party, and I count on you to continue to lead on these vital issues. For this and for all you have done for Democrats in the past and especially this last year, I am pleased to support your candidacy for Majority Leader for the 110th Congress.”
Courageous leadership. The kind that passes extra-judicial verdicts on combat Marines. The kind of national security voice that recommends that American combat power withdraw to support the nascent Iraqi democracy from neighboring Okinawa. Japan. The man who holds out as an avatar of perfect foreign policy President Clinton’s withdrawal from Somalia – a withdrawal that as much as anything else encouraged Osama bin Laden to see the US as a “paper tiger,” ripe for defeat:
“After leaving Afghanistan, the Muslim fighters headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking that the Americans were like the Russians,” bin Laden said. “The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat. And America forgot all the hoopla and media propaganda … about being the world leader and the leader of the New World Order, and after a few blows they forgot about this title and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat.”
And we know where that took us.
I’ll admit to you that this is a little bit personal for me. Many of you know that my sister died last year. She’d spent over 20 years in Congress as an aide, and a number of years after as a lobbyist. She adored Mr. Murtha and – as a conservative herself – withstood heavy criticism from very senior conservative partisans who wanted her to distance herself from the man back in the heady days of a unified Republican government, when there was no benefit to supporting him but for the fact that in her mind it was the right thing to do. Because he was a friend, and it didn’t matter what party he was from. Because you didn’t cut friends off. You stood by them.
And when she died, the rest of her friends had a celebration of life party for her on Capitol Hill. Mr. Murtha was an invited speaker. When his turn came, he didn’t speak about their friendship, or about all the things that she had done, or the life that she had lived, that coal miner’s daughter who never went to university and who nevertheless became a Capitol Hill powerhouse.
No. He spoke about an alleged ethical lapse ten years in her past. A political hit job architected by a partisan prosecutor designed not to attack her, but to have her “roll over” on another friend she’d known for thirty ears. She refused, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending herself before pleading out to a misdemeanor to close the whole thing out. Well, that and signing a pledge not to sue the government for wrongful prosecution.
She was a big girl, and that was the world that she lived in and she knew the way the game was played. But in her mind a certain decency still obtained, a certain degree of decorum. There were things you didn’t to, not to friends. I doubt that she’d ever have imagined though, that a man she considered a friend would take the opportunity of a party thrown in her own tribute, herself not two months dead, to rake her over the coals for a purported ethical lapse. In front of her still grieving family and friends. Shocked, for the moment, into speechless immobility.
Still. Paragon of virtue, and all that. Glass houses, thown stones.
Thus, leadership.
Lex,
That is truly a revealing narration. At least he is consistent, in that he knifes everyone in the back. Nancy better watch her six…
Celebrate your sister’s life this Christmas rather than mourn her loss. She strove, excelled, and kept her honor when those around her lost theirs. We all have lots to learn from a coal miner’s daughter who never went to college.
I’m speechless. But like Edward says, he’s consistent. So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…
What a terrible thing for him to do. I’ve asked the question before, and reading this reminds me of it: Is it possible he’s got a touch of senility and so has just completely lost his judgment? It would certainly explain this and a couple of other things…
And I wish I could say something as beautiful as has already been said about your sister. We are again reminded what a great lady she must have been, and how blessed you were to have her in your life.
Lex – that fits right into his pattern, and how sad that is. I am glad that you all have your own tender memories of your sister that his horrible words can’t touch. FbL said it — what a lady.
There are days I would like to give up and just ignore the changes in a nation, once that turned enemies into economic powerhouses, to even compete with us, because it was the right thing to do, that now, cannot even stomach it’s own defense, that the coming of the new Microsoft iPod killer and Sony PS3 would garner more attention than the institituion of shari’ia law and it’s effect on the progress women have made, in all other places that do not hold up a religion over government, so a few powerful men may use the masses as flesh and bone kamikazis to settle perceived slights, as well as real ones, while using women as they please.
John Murtha has been a part of the crowd, consistent, as pointed out, and to the detriment of us all. Yet, we cannot call a man with faulty logic, one pushing to take a path, and with the power to make some of it happen, of cultural suicide, the wrong thinking individual that he is.
I figure the Founding Fathers would have found a rope and a suitable oak tree, had this man been in their midst in ’75…
Shameful, but he is a reflection of the thoughts and deeds of all too many, in the “West” as well as within our borders, and, our enemies hold him in high regard.
May God have mercy on his soul.
Lex: Echoing the others, your sister was a real lady, certainly deserved better from the man she admired. What a truly loathsome idividual. Then again, his moral and ethical compass was broken a long time ago, and he’ll get what he deserves.
Drink a toast to your sister this Christmas, and keep her memory close.
The rank hypocrisy of that old fool is stunning. He may have forgotten that he narrowly avoided prosectution in the ABSCAM sting, but I haven’t, and neither has Gooogle:
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Murtha was one of eight members of Congress lured to a Washington, D.C., townhouse by a team of FBI agents posing as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik. They handed out briefcases filled with $50,000 in return for helping the sheik gain residency in the United States.”
Noting that Murtha “is not squeaky clean,” the Brattleboro, Vt., Reformer reported that the congressman “did not take the cash” offered by the agents. Instead, “he asked the fake sheik to consider investing some money in his struggling home town, Johnstown.”
The Washington Post referred to the incident as “an ethical scrape” in which Murtha was “named as an unindicted co-conspirator and testified against two House colleagues.”
But, a videotape of a Jan. 7, 1980 Abscam-related meeting involving Murtha shows that the congressman’s rejection of the offered bribe was less than definite. “I’m not interested. I’m sorry,” Murtha told the FBI agent, but added that he meant “at this point.”
“You know, we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t,” Murtha said on the FBI videotape.
Not indicted is not the same as innocent, particularly when you later hold yourself up as a judge of other peoples ethics. He’s a POS, through and through. Leave it to Pelosi to elevate this turd to a senior leadership position.
I know that really took a lot to put that out here Lex and I’m respectful of your personal courage for your doing so. Think carefully back folks over the last year and see the burden Lex has been carrying….
Personal, heartfelt experience, laid out in an honest venue always cuts through all the B.S. doesn’t it?
Lower than whale-shit.
Now that are ALL aware that Col. Murtha is a P.O.S., I offer a proposal in a fashion “reminicesnt of Ghengis Khan” that I halfheartedly hope that MS. Pelosi prevails…If you think deep about it, “divide and conquer’ ain’t in it. Self destruction is more like it.
For 2008′s sake.
B2
As I drove to work and thought more about Lex’s post, and now seeing B2′s, I have to say this little glimpse into the lineage of Lex shows a family history of loyaty and morality.
Lex, from your writings here, I got that sense, from your sister’s story, I’d take it to the bank that all of you, this genaration, the last and the next will carry such fine character traits with them and come to influnce many in their (your) paths.
Keep the faith and carry on. Thank you for sharing.
‘A leader may choose to overlook an insult to himself, but never to another’
In a graceful, understated way, you have shown us exactly what kind of scum Murtha and his ilk are. Honorable people like your late sister scare the hell out of bastards like him. They fear those who cannot be bought, who don’t bow down to their narcissistic self-importance.
Hmmm..Murtha, Hastings, etc…what secrets kept useful? There’s the public election process for us little folk, and then there’s the insider game–the pushers who give the Power Whores their fix.
So whose voice do they fear on the phone? Who owns these arrogant people?
You can be damn sure somebody does.
B2 said: “I know that really took a lot to put that out here Lex and I?
B2 said: “I know that really took a lot to put that out here Lex and I’m respectful of your personal courage for your doing so.”
And I couldn’t agree more. What a terrible burden it has been for you, Sir. And I hope that sharing it with us may have lightened it even a tiny fraction.
Your sister – she sounded amazing when you wrote about her last year, and even moreso now. A woman of honor, integrity and moral fortitude. Murtha should hang his head in deep shame for attempting to dishonor such a lady.
And a lady she will always be Lex, no matter how much time passes and how much your sorrow and grief ease. As the most difficult season approaches your family, embrace her legacy of honesty and humility.
You have to have a soul, for God to have mercy on.
Curt. in ref to the above post.
?
“Once a Marine always a Marine,” but I will make an exception for Murtha.
RLTW
Lex, Could it be that the intent of Mr. Murtha’s comments at your sister’s celebration of life party, however ham fisted and inappropriate were given by him as an example of your sister’s loyality to a friend…her refusal to “roll over” ect. ? Of course I wasn’t there and the spoken word in contex does control… just ask John Kerry. Best
I wasn’t there either, but Lex was, and his facility with the English language is second to none, so I am certain he clearly understood the words he heard.
Lex, I can’t know what it cost you to put these words down for us, but thank you for the trust in us.
I went back and looked at my comments to you last year… I hope that they brought comfort to you then, and continue to do so today…
As far as Murtha is concerned (and, yes, he is an “ex” Marine, because WE sure as hell won’t claim him), there is a quaint old infantryman’s phrase that applies, but I would not bring such language to your electronic annals…
…But I’m thinkin’ it reeeeally hard!
Keep the faith, Skipper…
I don’t know how you’ve managed to keep so cool a head/hand regarding that POS. We pretty well knew what he was, but this certainly confirms it. I’m sorry you and your family were subjected to that in your grief or any other time.
As others have said so well, Ann remains an honorable, loyal lady who played the game honestly in a setting where it probably wasn’t very easy to do. I know you’ll always be proud of her.
That makes me sick. I am speechless.
Sgt B.
Is it this saying you are thinking about?
“It doesn?
Sgt B.
Is it this saying you are thinking about?
“It doesn’t make any difference haw great a hero you are, if you s**k one d***, you will always be known as a c*** sucker”.
RLTW