MOVEON.ORG: NOW IT'S OK TO QUESTION SOMEONE'S PATRIOTISM. From yesterday's The Weekly Standard:

Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House." [emphasis added]

Let's be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has 'betrayed' his country. This is disgusting.

Apparently Moveon.org is doing the dirty work of the Democrats in Congress:

“No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,” noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. “The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.”

How convenient--and cowardly.

Actually, according to The Weekly Standard, Sunday's New York Time's Magazine indicates Moveon.org works closely with the Democratic leadership. According to the Magazine:

“I [Tom Mazzie, Moveon.org's Washington Director] called over there and said, ‘You guys better have a strategy on this.’ ” By “there,” Matzzie meant the offices of Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, with which he or his staff communicates on a near-daily basis; Matzzie has personal relationships with several senior Democratic members of Congress. [emphasis added]

Was the Moveon.org attack done without the knowledge of the Congressional Democrats?
If so, then if there are Congressional Democrats who do not agree with Matzzie and his ad hominen attack, they should say so openly.

Part of the reason for resorting to such backstabbing is that the Democrat's own independent report did not report the findings they wanted. Don Surber writes:

Not trusting the military, Congressional Democrats set up an independent panel led by retired Marine 4-star James Jones to issue a pre-emptive report on progress in Iraq, to blunt the impact of any good news from Gen. David Petraeus.

The Gen. Jones panel reported today: The Surge is working!

Check out the article in The International Herald Tribune: Independent panel sees progress by Iraqi Army

Bottom line: after years of claiming that the Republicans question the patriotism of those who oppose the war, it turns out that Democrats openly question the patriotism of a decorated general--but have to get an outside group to do their dirty work for them.

And the Democrats wonder why Americans have so little trust in the Congress.

If the Democrats--Moveon.org--want to challenge what General Petraeus is saying and bring the reports and data to back it up, great. But the very fact that these guys have to resort to such underhanded methods does not reflect well on their case, or on them either for that matter.

[Hat tip: Powerline]

Technorati Tag: General Petraeus and Iraq and Moveon.org.