Thursday, March 8th, 2007...12:11 pm
Pullen De-Politicizes War by Making Political Attacks on Napolitano, Giffords and, of course, Hillary Clinton
Randy Pullen put out a press release Yesterday raking Janet Napolitano over the coals, for, apparently, something she has not said yet.
This isn’t the first time that Napolitano has been attacked for a position she might take. Back when they did this before, I called it the “Republican Leap.” Since they seem to be doing that again, I’m bringing back the official R-Cubed mascot for the Republican Leap, Batroc the Leaper. Now that Captain America is dead, Batroc is apparently free to do mischief all over the Arizona political scene.
Pullen’s release is maturely titled “Don’t Even Think About ‘Cutting and Running’ In Iraq.” In it he warns Napolitano not to even venture thoughts of advocating a withdrawl or reducing our funding in Iraq. Of course, she hasn’t done so yet, nor has given any hints that she might do so. Being that she is a governor with only the most tangential responsibility for foreign policy, it is quite possible for her to complete her term successfully and never say jack about Iraq.
But, never mind, the very fact that she might do something is enough for a hangwringing press release. You know, the next Phoenix Suns home game, Pullen could strip naked and run out to center court and attempt to do the lambada with the Gorrilla. It could happen. He hasn’t yet denied it won’t.
So, Napolitano goes to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit Arizona Guardsmen who are deployed over there, and Pullen takes the chance to attack her? Who is “politicizing” now?
(One wonders what the accusation would have been if David Waid issued a press release attacking a Republican official who was visiting the troops.)
We get this lovely and divorced-from-facts paragraph as well:
“Its abhorrent that elected officials like Gabrielle Giffords and Hillary Clinton fly to Iraq at taxpayer expense, pay lip service to our troops and then denounce their efforts back home by voting to cut troop levels and withhold vital funding. I hope Janet does not venture down the same road as others in her party.
Um, in case Pullen hasn’t noticed, Giffords has taken a great deal of flack from liberal activists precisely because she has pledged not to cut funding. Both Giffords and Clinton have voiced skepticism about the “surge,” but niether is the favorite of anti-war activists because they have not advocated precisely the policies that Pullen is accusing them of endorsing.
What Pullen is missing out on here in his attack on the Giffords visit to Iraq is the story behind her trip. First of all, she serves on the House Armed Services committee. It only makes sense that she actually visit the place where most of the troops are deployed. Secondly, she was invited. Yes, Randy, invited. And you wouldn’t believe who invited her.
Yes, Kyl invited her because he felt it was important to have folks find out what is going on there, no matter what party they are or what position they have on the war Interestingly, both he and Giffords have not changed their opinions about the war since the trip, but both have a lot more to contribute to the debate now.
(Gawd, did I just say nice things about Kyl? Slap me next time you see me.)
The silliest part about the whole thing is Pullen claiming he is calling for Democrats “not to politicize the war in Iraq.” Of course, the best way not to politicize the war and the risks our troops are taking is probably not to put out alarmist and accusatory press releases about the war on Republican Party letterhead. I guess “politicizing” is taking a position that Randy Pullen doesn’t agree with.
Pullen apparently hasn’t noticed that the debate over the war is already politicized, but most people still recognize that one position or another doesn’t indicate lack of support for the troops. You know who gets invited to an awful lot of funerals for soldiers? Raúl Grijalva. Grijalva actually does advocate the positions that Pullen accuses Giffords and Clinton of endorsing, but families of soldiers want him there to represent the country that their son, daughter, brother or sister gave their lives for. Being there for the families that sacrificed, rather than silly press releases, that is what getting beyond politics really is.
NB – A couple of points on the press release. I don’t know who this new guy Brett Mecum is, but he needs to learn a bit about apostrophes. Geez, man, I bet Garrick Taylor never made that mistake. Remember: “every dog knows its master” v “every dog knows it’s master.”
Are Randy and Janet good friends now? I noticed that he refers to her as “Janet” rather than Governor Napolitano in the release. Are they buds now?
11 Comments
March 8th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Come on, Ted,
Rabid Republicans like Randy Pullen don’t need a reason to attack. They just attack.
You should know that by now.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
“(Gawd, did I just say nice things about Kyl? Slap me next time you see me.)”
OK, come by drinking liberally tonight and I will oblige
March 8th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
That press release reminded me of Foghorn’s from a couple of years ago when he told her to put NG troops on the border and her chief of staff was quoted in the press as saying he should have called first b/c they would have told him that she already did.
In this case, had he read the news articles online yesterday afternoon before he issued that press release, Pullen would know that she was quoted as saying that she did not support withdrawal of the troops and that she thought the surge needed time to work. But far be it from a Republican to get the facts first before shooting off his mouth. [Hm, isn't that kinda how we got into this war to begin with?]
As for the Janet quip, I don’t think there’s any room to complain about that since she only used her first name in her re-election campaign. Once you’ve opened the door to that familiarity, it’s damn near impossible to go back. Same applies to Hillary.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:17 am
This is going to be interesting. I am curious about how Republicans will attack Giffords credibly in the next election. Her voting record is going to be liberal of course, however, she is already demonstrating how well she can forge policy ideas that gain support by both parties. She is also doing a marvelous job keeping in contact with the district.
I can’t imagine they will try to attack her on the war…Ted says it all and most people just aren’t in favor of it…period. It has to be the border Randy…you are gonna have to be hawkish on the border and attack her there. And to that, I will say…good luck.
Finally, the rumblings appear to be Tim Bee and Bruce Ash. Bruce…too conservative…period. Bee is a smart politician, appears to be well liked, but what is so disatisfying about Giffords that would give him a big issue or a win? I mean does he really want to be yet anther person who challenges an incumbent, who loses, and is never heard from really again?
March 9th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Tedski got a mention north of the Gila. Looks like Pullen is keeping tabs…
http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=100&title=irony_thou_hast_a_name_and_it_s_pullen&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&blogtype=News
March 10th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Today, in the Arizona Republic our governor, Janet Napolitano was quoted as saying that she’s not ready to advocate for troop withdrawal. It was on the front page of the Arizona Republic newspaper (3-8-07). She also made statements like: there is progress in Iraq and our troops are getting things done.
I want to know why she as political leader for the Democratic party of Arizona is finally making a public statement on Iraq when for many months and years we (the citizens of this state and country) have been dreaming of the day that she would take a stand against the illegal occupation of Iraq and that we would see her with us standing together arm and arm in front of Bloody John McCain’s office or Jon Hyl Kyl’s office protesting as right wing wackos and monarchists shouted profanities at us and tried to hit us with their cars.
On top of it all, the members of the state Democratic party of Arizona voted in 2005 for our troops to withdrawal from Iraq, now it can be said that this was only a symbolic resolution on the behalf of the Democratic party of Arizona but one thing this official resolution wasn’t: some internet poll or unofficial survey. This was an official resolution for a troop withdrawal. Janet Napolitano is the leader of our party in Arizona, so these direct quotations are in effect direct contradiction to what the membership of this party said in 2005: Withdraw our troops from Iraq. The elites seem to have gone along with this resolution as type of patronization of the progressives in this party.
Furthermore, it will be said that our governor Janet Napolitano was not the only one to be invited to Iraq by Secretary of Defense Gates but, I have seen in the press where she met behind closed doors with officials of the Bush administration supposedly just to discuss solutions for fighting fires in Arizona. But, Janet’s coddling up to right wingers in Bush’s administration represents the danger we all face when we eventually reach the highest levels of power in politics: that we will associate so much with our ideological opponents that we start to become like them.
These public statements by the governor are a symbolic slap in the face to those in this party (the Democratic party of Arizona) and those independents and progressives who know that George Bush is an evil and sick tyrant. Why else, after all of our entreaties to her to stand with us would her first major public statements not be against the illegal occupation of Iraq but instead for it. she made statements to our reporters such as: She is not yet ready for a troop withdrawal from Iraq? When I recieved the email from Mr. Wade today from the Arizona Democratic Party of Arizona that governor Napolitano visited Iraq, the statements that our governor made regarding her non-support for an American troop withdrawal that she was quoted as making on the front page of the Arizona Republic today were not included. This is not appreciated. We progressives in this party are not children to be patronized or laughed at. Just like the way Bush’s people laughed at the fundamentalist in his party, whose support he needed (behind their backs and behind closed doors) as being ignorant and simple minded.
For those of you who say we are being unfair to our Arizona governor Janet Napolitano and that she is being quoted out of context, we say that she is one of the most politically savvy and uncanny politicians and that she does not make “loose statements”. For those of us who have watched her rise to power in Arizona, we have known of her over powering ambition to always put the advancement of her political career as her top priority.
One must realize that she is a product of the Hillary group and that she was schooled in their methods (rightly or wrongly) when she was sent out here to Arizona years ago by President Clinton when he came to power . It is no accident that she eerily similar to Hillary in her political strategies and her public stances on the Illegal Occupation of Iraq.
But you know what? When many of us know human beings are actually being murdered (American soldiers and citiizens of the world) for a lie (the Occupation of Iraq) we have to sacrifice if necessary our political careers and save lives and not leastly save this Republic from Fascism. Political careers must come second. But, I am afraid that this political sacrifice is to much to ask the governor and the elites in this party who hold stances on the Occupation similar to hers. Why not triangulate and use the blood of American soldiers (like John McCain is doing) to win the next election?
Why else would our governor make such grievous statements and symbolically rub the progressives wounds in salt by not just staying silent but incredibly now making statements that support more killing of American soldiers and civilians in Iraq? Is the Senate position now held by John McCain now that important. This may seem naive of me but why does Machivelli’s ghost now seem to run the governor’s mind and the minds of other elites in this party?
We activist have had to sacrifice everything, including our political chances in this party because at the end of the day and at the end of our of lives we know that we stood for Right with my fellow brother and sister progressive activist to bring home our American soldiers and fight for the survival of this Republic. What a shallow life to always lust for political power at the cost of human lives.
I ask the governor of this state (Arizona) to either retract her statement about not standing for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq or that she states that she is for an American troop withdrawal in the very near future from Iraq.
Since we know that Napolitano is a political calculator who carefully takes no chances as to not be seen as standing with the progressives who advocate for getting our troops out of Iraq, we can also calculate that her advisors have told her that the progressives in this party do not hold much power in the Democratic party of Arizona (as they believe was demonstrated by the party election last January of a state chair that progressives fought against). But, the governor should be careful because progressives in this party hold more power and influence than she probably believes. If it follows that she and advisors believe that we progressives in this party do not hold much power, she and they probably believe that if we left the party it would cause no harm to their centrist republican view of the Democratic party.
In fact, it could shrewdly be concieved that if we progressives were pushed out of the party (purged) , the DNC theme of the party would take complete control of the Democratic party in Arizona . To this, I state to you my fellow activists DO NOT let them push us out of the party for that is exactly what they want, for then like the rest of the country they could consolidate and incorporate their DNC philosophy over the Democratic party of Arizona.
I am deeply dissappointed and disheartened because although we could not get the governor to come out and openly protest or publicly stand against the continued killing of our American soldiers I never expected our governor Napolitano to come out so arrogantly and brazenly advocate for the continued presence of American troops in Iraq by stating that she doesn’t believe they should be withdrawn yet, as she was quoted in the Arizona Republic today.
I hope the governor and other elites in this party prove me wrong and come out tommorrow publicly by stating openly that they are against the Iraq Occupation and therefore put their petty political ambitions second and the lives of our Americans soldiers first. We could expect this from Republicans and Monarchist but not those elites who run the Democratic party. I apoligize to all of those elites in the Democratic party who have come out publicly against the occupation of Iraq, There are such leaders as Mr. Alfredo Guiterrez who stand for what is right and join in our protest even to the point of getting arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.
It is very easy now for well known politicians to go to the Martin Luther King Celebrations that are held every January and smile for the cameras but would they have stood arm in arm wit Dr. King when he was also a political outcast from the elite of this nation? We need the leadership of men like Dr. King who was savagely attacked and finally murdered for his courageous stand for what was right.
So now I ask: Governor Napolitano are you for or against the Illegal Occupation of Iraq? I have to ask this question because for all intents and purposes today you took a stand for the Illegal Occupation of Iraq and therefore indirect support of that murderous king and tyrant George Bush. So this is not an unfair question to ask you because we activist put our lives and careers on the line all the time by taking public stances against the Iraq War and for others to state that since you hold an elite position in the Democratic party as precluding you from taking a stance for or against the Iraq War therefore is no excuse. Our fellow Americans are dying for a lie! Please do not take the flip flopping stance of John McCain or the Fascist stance of Jon Kyl.
Where are you govenor? We need your support not your opposition.
Leonard Clark Persian Gulf/ Iraq War III Vet
Chair of the John McCain Recall Committee
3-8-07
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March 12th, 2007 at 12:34 am
I am guessing our governor is not a worthless piece of crap who runs perpetually and never accomplishes anything.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Wow!
March 12th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Rep. Giffords did the right thing by going to Iraq. She’d never been there before and is on key committees in congress.
It makes sense for Janet the Gov. to go, as chair of the National Governor’s Association, but there is also very pressing work here in AZ. She’s back to work in Phoenix today.
I think more Arizonans support both of them pushing to get out of Iraq very soon, joining Rep. Grijalva and many.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Agreed! And also agreed that “Lenny” holds a dearer place in my heart than I had earlier alluded to. Not much dearer, but certainly more than earlier expressed. LOL ;0)
May 6th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
[...] French: au contraire. We’d love Pullen’s words to be out there. Maybe he can, I dunno, attack the governor for taking a position on the Iraq war that she actually isn’t. Maybe he can slam Democrats for not supporting the President’s immigration policies, when he [...]