A grown woman in public office who acts like Lindsay Lohan has no business comparing one of America's finest generals to Charlie Sheen. But anti-war Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey has never shown any restraint when it comes to trashing America's military leaders before the world. That's because being a Code Pink liberal -- like being a Hollywood brat -- means never having to apologize for your reckless words and deeds.
Woolsey took to the House floor on Wednesday to report on her "Congressional Progressive Caucus Peace and Security Task Force" hearing with critics of the Afghanistan war. She parroted Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings (he'd be labeled an "activist," of course, if he supported the surge), who said: "Gen. Petraeus is giving us the Charlie Sheen counter-insurgency strategy, which is to give exclusive interviews to every major network, and to keep saying 'we're winning' and hope the public actually agrees with you."
Woolsey then went on to attack Gen. Petraeus' "bland and tone-deaf talking points." She can't make up her mind. Is he a wild-eyed, Charlie Sheen-esque media beast, or is he a boring bureaucrat lulling America into oblivion?
This much is clear: Woolsey prefers the guerilla girl tactics of Code Pink to Petraeus' adult straight talk. Heckling government officials, disrupting congressional hearings and breaching Capitol Hill security are the "progressive" means of public discourse about the war.
You may recall that Protest Party Animal Woolsey was the politician who reportedly gave State of the Union tickets to anti-war crasher Cindy Sheehan in 2006 and was part of a pro-Code Pink contingent of Democrats who supported the group's 2005 inauguration antics -- including chanting "Out of Iraq now!" and unfurling "Bring the Troops Home" banners in the middle of President Bush's speech.
Instead of sober-eyed expert testimony on how U.S. troops are combating the Taliban in Kabul and the northern and western regions of Afghanistan, Woolsey favors Jane Fonda theatrics and bloody hand waving for the paparazzi.
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Instead of honest assessments of the difficulties of training an Afghan national security and civilian defense force and waging a long war, Woolsey wants simpleton chants of "No War!" and "Give Peace a Chance!"
In January, the far-left exhibitionist congresswoman blasted the counter-terror efforts in Afghanistan as "an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight." Does she know our troops, their families and our enemies are listening?
Nancy Morgan, relative of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, spoke for many when she wrote an open rejoinder to Woolsey: "Spitting on the graves of those who have died in their nation's service is just one of the rights secured to Ms. Woolsey by the blood and sweat of others," Morgan noted. "A free press is another right. This would be the same press that has maintained a deafening silence about this war ever since it became Obama's war -- the same press that reports Ms. Woolsey's inane pronouncements without offering vital context."
"Though Ms. Woolsey makes ten times the money my nephew does, he is the one who does the heavy lifting. He is the one on the front line, braving Taliban bullets and following orders. Ms. Woolsey, on the other hand, spends her time, along with fellow Democrats, improvising insane rules of engagement which make my nephew's job much more dangerous. She is also busy ensuring that terrorists are given the same rights as the Americans they are so intent on killing."
The Code Pink/Move On Democrats' strategy of smearing Gen. Petraeus ("General Betray-US") backfired miserably in 2007 -- so much so that surge opponent Barack Obama rode to electoral victory after flip-flopping on the issue on the campaign trail, picked a Democratic vice presidential running mate who claimed credit for the surge after proclaiming its failure, and then finally adopted the very winning surge tactics he once attacked as fatally doomed.
So: Whose frenzied, media-pandering strategy looks more like Charlie Sheen's?
Not long after the 2004 elections, Move On co-founder Eli Pariser famously said of Democrats, "Now it's our party. We bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back." The failure of "mainstream" Democrats to rebuke troop morale-undermining Woolsey shows that the left never gave up its ownership in the first place. Party on.
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