CNN Takes Cue From DCCC To Create Faux Republican Troop Controversy
Terry Trippany on Nov 02 2006 at 7:24 am | Filed under: Feature Article, Media Watch
If this doesn’t get your MSM activist reporting meter jumping off the scale then nothing will. There’s a small blurb on the CNN website about House Majority Leader John Boehner under the headline “Boehner: Let’s not blame Iraq woes on Rumsfeld”.
That seems innocent enough. It sounds like Boehner is defending Rumsfeld against criticism from the media and the left. Which of course is exactly what it is.
In reality though the CNN article is a veiled attempt to create a Democrat response to the John Kerry insult the troops, non-apology apology flap that has been brewing for the last couple of days.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Majority Leader John Boehner’s call for critics to lay off Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld because the generals are responsible for the conduct of the war in Iraq has sparked outrage among Democrats.
In an interview Wednesday on CNN, Boehner said, “Let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.”
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer replied, “But he’s in charge of the military.”
“The fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said.
This latest political flap comes in the middle of a firestorm over comments made by Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts that many regarded as slighting U.S. troops in Iraq.
Boehner’s comments are a flap?
Well they are if you listen to Harry Reid and other Democrats in their comments that are found on the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee Weblog.
“”John Boehner ought to be ashamed. He’s blaming our troops for failures in Iraq. If he wants to cast blame, he can start by looking in the mirror because he and his Congressional Republican colleagues have rubberstamped the Bush Administration’s failed policy for nearly four years. Our troops in Iraq have performed bravely. It’s political leaders like Congressman Boehner and Donald Rumsfeld, who have failed. I expect President Bush and Congressional Republicans, who demanded John Kerry apologize, hold their own party’s majority leader to a much higher standard. There’s no spinning his disparaging comments. He made them. He needs to apologize.” – Sen. Harry Reid
But what did Boehner really say?
BOEHNER: Wolf, I understand that, but let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.
BLITZER: But he’s in charge of the military.
BOEHNER: But the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president.
Ok, that is where Reid and the DCCC cut the video. The rest of the quote is quite interesting:
BOEHNER: Wolf, I understand that, but let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.
BLITZER: But he’s in charge of the military.
BOEHNER: But the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president. We’ve seen this run up in violence as we get closer to the election, as we get closer to Ramadan, same thing we’ve seen over the last couple of years.
As we enter into Ramadan, we see this big spike in violence and there’s no question, in my mind, that the terrorists, very smart people, are also trying to increase the violence as we get closer to the U.S. elections.
It is quite clear that Boehner is not blaming the troops. He is blaming the terrorists.
So once again we see that CNN is taking its cue from the Democrats in Congress when it comes to circling the wagons around Democrat controversies. There is no flap except in the minds of those who are sitting back looking for any out of context quote that can be used as a counter punch to the John Kerry controversy. In this case CNN is more than happy to lead the pack.
At least the URL to the CNN article is under the correct location “http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/01/shifting.blame/”
