Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

It's not a coincidence.

It started last year.

But let's call it what it is, shall we?

It's a political House fragging by Duncan Hunter. It's selling out a brother.

It's just done without the ammo, through stealth, so his fingerprints can't
be found. But the trail is easy to follow.

Murtha's resolution included language the Republicans wanted to avoid, such as “the American people have not been shown clear, measurable progress” toward stability in Iraq. It also said troops should be withdrawn “at the earliest practicable date,” although Murtha said in statements and interviews Thursday that the drawdown should begin now. Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) drafted a simpler resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops, saying it was a fair interpretation of Murtha's intent. Members were heatedly debating a procedural rule concerning the Hunter resolution when Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) was recognized at 5:20 p.m. Schmidt won a special election in August, defeating Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, and is so new to Congress that some colleagues do not know her name. (snip) It was past 10 p.m. when Murtha addressed a relatively subdued House. Hunter's resolution “is not what I envisioned” because it avoids a broader debate of the war, which “is not going as advertised,” Murtha said. “The American people are way ahead of us” in wanting a strategy to bring the troops home, he added. “It's easy to sit in your air-conditioned offices and send them into battle.” (snip) Top Democrats attacked the GOP tactic. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the Republicans “engaged in an act of deception that undermines any shred of dignity that might be left in this Republican Congress.” She called Hunter's resolution “a political stunt” and “a disservice to our country and to our men and women in uniform.” House Rejects Iraq Pullout After GOP Forces a Vote Democrats Enraged By Personal Attack

Now we've got Hunter's
Spawn, Amanda Doss, who has connections to KerryLied, which goes back to
Swiftboat Vet for Truth's Tony Snesko (who's an NRCC event contact for Hunter), whose wife, Valerie, is Duncan Hunter's appointment secretary.

But it all gets down to getting Murtha out of Congress. Because everything
would have gone so smoothly if Hunter hadn't had Murtha, the pro defense, pro
troop, Pentagon and military insider, Jack Murtha, blowing Bush's cover on Iraq,
and blowing Hunter's money train up along with it.

Enter Fox “News” babe Diane Irey, the
Katherine Harris of Pennsylvania, who's got support from MurthaMustGo,
as well as Hunter's Evildoers and his Spawn.
But Diane has also got Vets4Irey. It's more
from the same guy that sponsored Vets4Bush,
Oliver P. Ditch, which had soldiers selling out John Kerry by calling him a
“traitor.”

I really want to say a word about Diane Irey's husband, who looks to me like
he was yet another Iraq war profiteer. Maybe this is what Irey has in common
with Duncan Hunter, who backed the defense crook Duke Cunningham until the golden
commode was out of the crook's castle. Anyway, Irey's husband went into business
in Iraq to make boat loads of money off of the war, but on the way to being
arms dealers, with contacts to Chalabi and whatever else, his partner ended up accusing the Iraq Defense
Ministry of malfeasance, which got him murdered.

But Irey is just a distraction.

Follow the money.

Duke Cunningham was Duncan Hunter's kind of vet. Murtha is not. He gets in the way. Because just maybe Hunter has a sweet Iraqi meal ticket that his combat brother Murtha was about to cancel. Messing with a man's money, now that's serious and just maybe why Hunter is selling out his brother in arms to the swiftboaters.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed from defense contractors, eager to do business with the government, to Hunter, Republican Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, including at least $50,000 from Brent Wilkes, one of the crooks who was caught bribing Cunningham. Fact of the matter is, Cunningham was a rank amateur compared to the far more corrupt– and far smarter (remember, for all the millions of dollars he stole, Cunningham was just an amoral sly sociopath, neither educated nor intelligent)– Hunter. (snip) Hunter had a hand in virtually every military scandal involving large sums of money that has gone down over the past 2 decades. He was a key participant in getting Air Force funds questionably diverted to his campaign contributor, Boeing (the bi-product of which was the disgrace and resignation of Air Force Secretary Jim Roche). Bush replaced Roche by an even sleazier Air Force Secretary, Peter Geren (who owns a cabin with Hunter and who continued pushing Hunter's outrageous schemes for funneling taxpayer dollars to Boeing– a percentage of which was, of course, always kicked back to his campaign coffers). Two Boeing executives and an Air Force procurement official were convicted and imprisoned in these matters but Hunter was protected by the Bush Regime, which kept his name out of the public records. After Geren was indirectly implicated in the religionist scandal that rocked the Air Force academy this year he resigned (last month) and Bush put in another crooked operative/Duncan pal tied in with Boeing wheeling and dealing, Michael Wynne. Duncan Hunter Even Worse than Duke, from Down with Tyranny!

Or maybe it's all just one big coincidence. But you know how I feel about them.