Jack Murtha Doesn't Disappoint on Face The Nation

John Hinderaker at PowerLine takes Jack Murtha out behind the woodshed for a good old fashioned whipping after Murtha's despicable performance on Face The Nation yesterday.

Every time Murtha opened his mouth a falsehood fell out, and for the stupid way it made him look on national television, Murtha would have been much better off if he had been dropping teeth out of his pie hole instead.

It's rather remarkable that a sitting United States Congressman would play so fast and loose with the facts, especially in the context of accusing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of being a liar. Pretty much every "fact" that Murtha hysterically tossed out is wrong.

Murtha's suggestion that the administration said Iraq had nuclear weapons is absurd. (Why don't talk show hosts ever seem to call Democrats on these wild misrepresentations?) Likewise his claim that there is "no al Qaeda connection." In light of everything we now know, that statement can only be described as ignorant. And, even if we charitably assume that Murtha is behind the curve on this one, how about Zarqawi? How about Ansar al-Islam? How about the terrorist training camps? How about the many connections beween (sic) Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda that are documented in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report?

Murtha says he can tell we aren't making any progress in Iraq because one of this staffers reads the State Department's Weekly Status Report, which shows that "we've made no progress at all." Maybe Murtha needs some new staffers. Whoever has been describing the State Department's Weekly Status Reports to him forgot to mention a few things.

Murtha seems to be sliding closer and closer to either that chasm of daftism or that of blatant liar. As chasms go, I think we would all like to be lucky enough to stay away from the daft one while maintaining the fortitude and integrity to steer away from the one of deceit. As we look closer at these pits I wonder if, in Jack Murtha's case, they aren't the same thing.