
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Sept. 25, 2007
/ 13 Tishrei 5768
The MoveOn moment passes
By
Jonathan Gurwitz
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Never again should any Democrat, especially Hillary Clinton, be permitted to use the term "politics of personal destruction" with impunity. That snicker that rolls out of liberal quarters when President Bush talks about the promotion of democracy save it for the senator from New York and her partisan colleagues.
Let's be clear: Everyone has the right to question reports of progress from Baghdad and the wisdom of maintaining a vast military commitment to Iraq. If you're a U.S. senator who voted "with conviction" to go to war in Iraq, it might even be said that you have an obligation to do so.
What no one has the right to do is impugn the loyalty of a decorated military commander, especially a U.S. senator who praised his leadership and expertise at his confirmation hearing nine months ago. You can challenge his numbers, dispute his methodology and debate his recommendations in the toughest terms. What common decency suggests you cannot do is attack his integrity.
Democrats in Congress have gotten quite adept at deflecting any criticism, no matter how pertinent and fact-based, as an attack on their patriotism. Point out the inconsistencies of their Iraq war stances or their voting records on national security legislation, and you'll get tarnished with the faux protestation that you're somehow questioning their patriotism.
In the case of Gen. David Petraeus, the attack on his patriotism is very real. Here is the U.S. military oath for commissioned officers:
"I ... do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me G-d."
If, as MoveOn.org suggests, Petraeus is betraying the American people about Iraq, he's not supporting and defending the Constitution. If his Senate testimony, as Clinton told him, "requires the willing suspension of disbelief," then he is not bearing true faith and allegiance. Cooking the books is a treacherous that is, treasonous act.
Challenged by the Giuliani campaign to repudiate the MoveOn.org ad and apologize for the insult to Petraeus, Clinton said ... nothing. A campaign spokesman instead attacked Giuliani for distorting Clinton's record. Naturally. Among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, only Sen. Joe Biden was able to mete out a mild rebuke.
A group calling itself Veterans for Trust sent a letter to Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, last week asking him to return $163,000 in campaign donations he received from MoveOn.org. Next to Ned Lamont, who was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut, Rodriguez was the largest beneficiary of MoveOn.org's support during the 2006 election cycle.
Rodriguez's response? Nothing.
Back in 1992, presidential candidate Bill Clinton had the wisdom to distance himself from some of the extremists in his party. Hip-hop artist Sister Souljah had commented about the Los Angeles riots, "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"
Clinton repudiated the statement to the Rainbow Coalition, no less and a new term entered the political lexicon: the Sister Souljah moment.
The Sister Souljah moment helped define Bill Clinton as the leader of a new, centrist, even reformist Democratic Party that had finally gotten past the hangover of its post-Vietnam-era, left-wing binge. A major part of that bender from the '70s was hostility to men and women in uniform, the higher the rank, the more virulent the hostility.
The absence of a Move- On.org moment defines Hillary Clinton and her colleagues as leaders of an old, marginal, especially opportunistic Democratic Party in thrall of extremists who have repackaged their contemptuous attitude toward the military in the digital era. The politics of personal destruction evidently isn't such a bad thing when it's your opponents in uniform who are being destroyed.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.
Jonathan Gurwitz Archives
© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|