WASHINGTON — President Bush dropped a political bomb on Democrats Thursday, calling them fearful of extreme wings of their party — particularly groups like MoveOn.org — and said they are more concerned about appeasing those groups than appeasing the U.S. military.
"Most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org," Bush said at the end news conference that touched on a number of foreign and domestic policy issues.
The president was responding to a question about an advertisement run last week by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, which suggested Multinational Forces in Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus was falsifying information about the war, under a bold headline, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
"I thought the ad was disgusting," Bush told reporters in the White House briefing room.
"I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad, and that leads me to come to this kind of conclusion: That most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org — are more afraid of irritating them — than they are of irritating the United States military. That was a sorry deal," the president said.
"And (it's) one thing to attack me. It's another thing to attack somebody like Gen. Petraeus," Bush said.
The president needs to speak out like this more often. As a lame duck who won't face another election, he has absolutely nothing to lose and will generate a great deal of support if he actively takes on the Dems and their lefty supporters.
UPDATE: Senate votes 72-25 to condemn the "Betray us" ad with Hillary Clinton voting against the condemnation. Barack Obama apparently ducked out of the Senate and didn't cast a vote (though he had voted on another issue a few minutes earlier).
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