Is the Corker camp just a bunch of liars or are they all illiterate?I ask this because yesterday in a post, blogger Truman Bean said the following:
President Bush flew into Nashville yesterday to help his fellow Republican defeat a Democratic challenger that is channeling the Deaniac / Kossack spirits of “Cut and Run”.When the going gets tough, the Democrats will most definitely, LEAVE THE TOUGH GOING. A message that Mayor Coker and President Bush are warning Tennesseans to be aware.
Basically what Bean is saying is that Congressman Ford is running a campaign advocating the immediate withdrawl of troops from Iraq.
However, as the facts below show, that is nowhere close to the truth:
- Just last week, the Chattanooga Times Free Oress wrote, “neither Democrat Harold Ford Jr. nor Republican Bob Corker supports a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq, the U.S.” (Chattanooga Times Free, 08/20/06)
- Ford knows we can’t just pull-out, but options and a new course needs to be debated: “But Ford indicated that leaving Iraq now has a huge downside. He didn't advocate setting a deadline for pulling out. "If we leave, the Iranians win, al-Qaida has the best recruiting tool they could ever have, gas prices go out the roof, and Hamas is strengthened (in its struggle with Israel)," Ford said. "We have framed this debate in Iraq as either pull out or stay the course. I think there are a body of options between that we ought to pursue or at least discuss or debate. ...We need to make clear our presence is not indefinite. ... Our money is not infinite. Our resolve to just stay and die and spend money also is not infinite. ... If they want three separate (regions), which is what their behavior suggests, then I think we have to be willing to entertain that." Kingsport Times News, 07/09/06
- "No timetable for withdrawal with our only guidepost being winning": “Ford did not set a time on when U.S. forces should withdraw from Iraq. "No timetable for withdrawal with our only guidepost being winning," he said. "The Democrats say 'deadline for withdrawal.' The Republicans say 'stay.' But there are other options out there. There are a lot of ideas that are being bounced around that we are not having hearings on in Washington.” (Johnson City Press, 07/07/06)
- Ford does not want a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq but he does advocate a "different strategy": "The gimmick was a bad gimmick because it calls for unqualified support for the Iraqi government and they want to provide amnesty to insurgents who have attacked and killed US troops." Ford "said he is not in favor of a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq ... but he does advocate" a "different strategy" and not just "staying the course." On GOPers, Ford: "If they want to defend staying the course, then I'm going to let them defend it" (Rodgers, Nashville City Paper, 6/19/06)
- “The war is there now and we have to finish it regardless of where you started with this thing. Regardless of your thoughts about President Bush and Don Rumsfeld, I mean this is now much bigger. If we leave and I know there are some that are urging this. If we leave today the real winner would be the Iranians, the real winner would be Hamas.” (“Imus In The Morning,” MSNBC, 6/16/06)
- “Democrats and Republicans, our message has to be to the president, don't withdraw prematurely.” [“Hardball,” MSNBC, 1/12/06]
- “I hope we don’t withdrawal prematurely. It would be bad for us in the short and long term.” [CNBC News Transcripts, 1/12/06]
- “I happen to think we need a different policy in Iraq, not to cut and run.” [“Crossfire,” CNN, 3/11/04]
- Ford Repeatedly Broke Ranks To Oppose Premature Withdrawal. Harold Ford has repeatedly broken ranks with most Democrats and voted against prematurely withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. Last year he supported a GOP amendment that stated “it is U.S. policy to NOT withdrawal U.S. forces prematurely from Iraq.” Most Democrats opposed it. Also last year, Ford voted against a Democratic amendment to express the sense of Congress that “the president should develop a plan for withdrawing U.S. military forces.” Once again, Ford broke with most Democrats. [CQ Vote 397, 7/20/05; CQ Vote 220, 5/25/05; Emphasis Added]
The facts clearly show that Congressman Ford does not support a "cut and run" strategy for Iraq. What he does support is a different strategy other than the failed stay the course strategy that the President and Bob Corker advocate.
I don't know how the statements listed above could be construed any other way.
So this brings me back to my original question: is the Corker camp just full of liars or are they illiterate?
It has to be one of the two.
