Everyone remembers how stupid Joe Biden looked during his first round of questions for John Roberts. He rambled on and on, wasting about half his allotted time. Then he tried rushing Judge Roberts' answers, only to get cut off at the knees by Arlen Specter. Everyone who's paid a minute's worth of attention to Biden, a scary thought if ever there was one, knows that he isn't half as smart as he thinks he is.
That's why Tuesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that day's must see TV. Sen. Biden thinks he knows what he's talking about when it comes to Iraq. I'd bet the ranch that he'll be the day's biggest loser because he'll be trying to tell Gen. Petraeus that "This president has no plan how to win and/or how to leave", just like he opined on Meet the (De)Press(ed) Sunday.
I can't wait to see Gen. Petraeus remain calm while he meticulously and methodically demolishes the Democrats' arguments. Just like when they questioned John Roberts, Democrats will think that they're the smartest people in the room. Unfortunately for them, the smartest people in the room will be the people who swear an oath that morning to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Based on what they said yesterday on the talk shows, there should be plenty of allegations flying. Let's look at some of the silliest things Democrats said Sunday:
Senator John Kerry, (D-MA), said that while U.S. troops had scored successes in parts of Iraq, it was dangerous to think this could readily be replicated nationwide. "You can take a tactical success and misread it, as we did in Vietnam," he said on ABC.It sounds like a win isn't a win in John Kerry's world. I'd be interested in hearing how Kerry defines victory. Perhaps that, too, must pass a "global test"?
Biden, too, made a Vietnam allusion, saying he believed "absolutely, positively, unequivocally," that absent a change of course, helicopters would be evacuating Americans from the Green Zone in Baghdad within two years.I'd love hearing what Sen. Biden is basing that opinion on. A man would be foolish to make such a categorical prediction if he didn't have special inside information. Frankly, I suspect that Sen. Biden 'knows this' the same way that John Murtha knew that "there was a cover-up someplace." I suspect that Sen. Biden, much like Rep. Murtha, made his statement that way so he'd sound authoritative. That image won't last long when questioning a genuine expert like Gen. Petraeus.
This statement borders on the absurd:
Biden acknowledged the political limits on his party, even with the congressional majority it has held since November. "This is the president's war," he said on NBC. "Unless we get 67 votes to override his veto, there's nothing we can do to stop this war, but we must, we must, we must protect these troops." He was referring to the number of Senate votes required to overturn a presidential veto.Congress holds the power of the purse. If it wanted to end the deployment, they could do it by simply not acting on President Bush's next Iraq supplemental. Without that special appropriation, the funding stops. It doesn't take 67 votes in the Senate. It just takes more political 'courage' than Democrats have.
Ideologues like Sen. Biden, Sen. Kerry and Kennedy have already made up their minds. In Kennedy's case, it's because he's a true believer that the American military, under President Bush's command, isn't capable of winning. The motivation is different in Biden's case. He's a presidential candidate in need of campaign contributions. If MoveOn.org says jump and he doesn't ask how high, there goes what little chance he's got at being taken seriously.
Another reason why Tuesday's hearing should be must see TV is because of the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
Christopher Dodd, John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Bill Nelson, Barack Obama, Robert Menendez, Ben Cardin, Bob Casey, Jr. and Jim Webb.With panelists like Webb, Boxer, Kerry and Feingold and presidential candidates like Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, there's sure to be lots of posturing and pretending.
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
