You know and love Cheers & Jeers.
This morning, on Iraq of all things, we have Props & Flops. Only this ain't that funny.
Props -- at long last -- to Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who shows an extraordinary grasp of the lay of the land today:
GOP leaders have latched on to positive comments from Democrats -- often out of context -- to portray the congressional majority as splintering. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), an Armed Services Committee member who is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said many of her colleagues learned a hard lesson from the Republican campaign.
"I don't know of anybody who isn't desperately supportive of the military," she said. "People want to say positive things. But it's difficult to say positive things in this environment and not have some snarky apologist for the White House turn it into some clipped phraseology that looks like support for the president's policies."
Snarky apologists? Clipped phraseology? POW! Dead on! And she even uses our kind of language to say it!
Meanwhile, the same article reveals a new problem of exactly the type she identifies. Which is where the Flops come in.
Flops, to Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-11), quoted last month:
That followed comments by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) suggesting that his trip to Iraq made him more flexible in his search for a bipartisan accord on the future U.S. role in the conflict. "If anything, I'm more willing to work to find a way forward," he told reporters late last month.
Jerry McNerney, yesterday:
I am firmly in favor of withdrawing troops on a timeline that includes both a definite start date and a definite end date ("date certain") and uses clearly-defined benchmarks. I am not in favor of an "open-ended" timeline for withdrawal, as some members of Congress have proposed recently.
Jerry McNerney, quoted today:
But in an interview yesterday, McNerney made clear his views have shifted since returning from Iraq. He said Democrats should be willing to negotiate with the generals in Iraq over just how much more time they might need. And, he said, Democrats should move beyond their confrontational approach, away from tough-minded, partisan withdrawal resolutions, to be more conciliatory with Republicans who might also be looking for a way out of the war.
"We should sit down with Republicans, see what would be acceptable to them to end the war and present it to the president, start negotiating from the beginning," he said, adding, "I don't know what the [Democratic] leadership is thinking. Sometimes they've done things that are beyond me."
Does anybody know what Jerry McNerney's position on Iraq is?
Does Jerry know? Or is he waiting for Republicans to sit down with him and tell him what it is?
This isn't all irretrievably contradictory. He could very well mean that he wants firm deadlines and that he wants to negotiate with the generals and the Republicans on setting those deadlines. That's not necessarily internally inconsistent.
But it is reality challenged.
The Republicans are suddenly going to wake up and become good faith negotiating partners? Please.
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