Listen to Them. They Tell You Who They Are

I'm not watching the House committees and the testimony of Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker today. Yesterday's sessions of the Senate committees were enough. The fact that the Senators demanding defeat in Iraq are mere nothings compared to these two men is never more clear. General Petraeus has been active in the war on terror since 9/11, wrote the book on the counterintelligence being used now and Ambassador Crocker has been stationed in nothing but bad places for most of his career, the last assignment before Iraq being Pakistan. These two men, unlike the whining Senators, are professional and courteous under the strongest of criticisms. They make me proud.

It was John McCain's day. No surprise there considering his story. He asked some tough questions and allowed complete answers. He asked what was being done about recent attacks in the Green Zone, obviously executed for publicity as the General and Ambassador were preparing to come to D.C. Yes, Dorothy, the bad guys are that savvy. Duh. That is why it is so important to remember that they listen to everything said in this country, then use it against us.

Senator Obama may want to remember that.

The other two candidates running for President did the best they could, I suppose. Hillary Clinton looked tired and pessimistic. She couldn't, however, this time get off her line about the willing suspension of disbelief concerning the successes of the surge. She just looked insincere in her questioning by referencing the fact that the surge is a one year plan and here we are at six months and, what? Oh yeah, it's working.

Obama was in the second panel, on the Foreign Relations committee. For a Harvard trained lawyer, he was lame. No smoothly asked questions from him. He could take lessons from Senator Lindsey Graham, who is on the Armed Services committee and a member of JAG corps. Graham was my second winner yesterday. He asked concise, sequential questions and didn't interrupt for his own attention grab. Obama was nothing but interruptions and his penchant of 'look at me', enough about you, let's talk about me moments. Obama even referred back to questioning by Barbara Boxer. If that's the best he's got, to use that nasty little woman as a prop, then shame on him. I know he's the most liberal in the Senate.

Rich Galen writes an Internet column, Mullings, three times a week. He had a good summary of the questioning yesterday. He, too, was struck by Obama's rambling, incoherent questions. "Should we be successful in Mosul, should you continue, General, with the effective operations that you've been engaged in, assuming that in that narrow military effort we are successful, do we anticipate that there ever comes a time where al Queda in Iraq could not reconstitute itself"?

Huh?

Then Obama goes on to insist we have to dumb down our expectations to slap a success sticker on the mission and bring everyone home. Yeah, pandering for the teacher union vote again, I see. Ambassador Crocker patiently explained to Obama that it is not feasable to leave the status quo on the ground now and consider the Iraqis ready to take over completely.

Those committee hearings are different than reading a teleprompter. I don't care how well you deliver a written speech. Questioning shows real knowledge.

Senator Carl Levin, D-MI, chair of the Armed Services committee started the initial questioning by asking "Admiral" Petraeus to begin his statement. What an old fool.

Senator Joe Lieberman was the third most outstanding on the Armed Services committee. No surprise. He had to leave his own party to live his beliefs. The left. So deranged with hatred.

Senator Evan Bayh, D-IN, a Clinton supporter when it looked like Hillary was going to be the candidate, shooting for a VP slot, showed his non-cred as a questioner, too. He was all about whining about most focus on Iraq now and not Afghanistan. General Petraeus had to do a bit of educating young Evan. Bayh doesn't seem to understand OBL when he says that Iraq will be his base in the Middle East when the coalition is defeated there. Bayh, a grad of Indiana University in my husband's hometown, is an interesting portrait in son trying to live up to his daddy's career. Now that Bayh is a politician and doing the family man charade with the wife and twin boys, well, sure is different than his lifestyle choices in Bloomington. Bayh, too, was asking for 'rough estimates' for withdrawal in Iraq.

The bad guys are listening, Senator Bayh. Wake up.

Both Petraeus and Crocker drove home the point of Iran's interference in Iraq. The Dems were sticking their fingers in their ears, though. La la la, can't hear you.

Then, at the end of the day we learn of the unbelievable quote from an interview with Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-WVA, an Obama supporter, on Sen. McCain: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues." WOW. So, McCain is a warmonger and fighter pilots are killing willy nilly. Hey, Rockefeller supports the troops. Why would you question that? The Senate is suppose to be the more mature of the two bodies of Congress, more like the eighth grade than the third grade in the House. Rockefeller is the Chair of the Senate Select Intelligence committee. He had to apologize to McCain. He ran over to him on the Senate floor during a vote as the news broke to make nice. "I have profound respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words.", he said.

Some critics say there were no laser guided missiles in Vietnam. My husband, an Air Force veteran from Vietnam service, told me that the experimentation period began just after McCain was shot down. Experimentation with the laser guided missiles began around 1969, 1970, from his memory. And, Senator Rockefeller may want to remember that McCain was shot down. So, he would remember what the ground looked like after a bombing. You know, before he got the crap beat out of him when he was captured.

No, Rockefeller's sorry he was caught.

Listen to them all. They are telling you who they are.

Obama has quite a pattern going here. The surrogates are spewing hate and Obama hangs back and then says he doesn't agree with it.

Listen to them. They are telling you who they are. Actions are loudest of all.