Hey, who took my Chardonnay?

by emptypockets

Senator Mitch McConnell this week explained why, despite Americans' desire to get out of Iraq, opposition to the "surge" would fail:

As the summer dragged on here in Washington, leftist groups continued to insist on an arbitrary withdrawal date. And when they failed to get their wish in Congress, they followed Republicans home over the August recess, pouring money into misleading political ads and busing in protesters. [...] And while the defeatists were pouring out of their buses with their coffee and their doughnuts last month, thousands of tough, determined American soldiers and Marines were spilling out into Iraqi cities and villages finding a way to win this fight.

There's a lot wrong with his statement. For the main part, the statistics he cites as reason to hope that the surge will stabilize Iraq are contradicted by numbers from the Defense Intelligence Agency and have been debunked elsewhere. And the fact that, in the meantime, our children's blood is "spilling out into Iraqi cities and villages" is exactly the point. But I want to focus on a different part of his statement.

Coffee and donuts?

Whatever happened to Iraq war opponents being a "tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freakshow"?

It seems like, even in their spittle-flecked hate speech, leading Republicans can't help but acknowledge that getting out of Iraq is not some far-left hippie dream but is what most Americans -- the regular-Joe, coffee-and-donuts crowd -- want most.

---

UPDATE: It was Pat Buchanan who took my Chardonnay!

Always in fridge: Fat-free half-and-half, lemonade, ice water and a chilled bottle of chardonnay.

Comments

[ecoast]

I think he was mad at the protesters at his Louisville home all summer long and he saw them with their donuts and coffee.

[Sandy]

Mitch McConnell, who, they say, was drummed out of the Army for fondling privates' privates, is a $*^# liar of the first order. Give it up, Mitchie boy, it ain't playin' in Peoria any more!

[hmbnancy]

It is the doughnut and coffee crowd, the workers, the laborers, our school teacher, policemen, and nurses, the people without stock portfolios, the under- or uninsured, the guys with the out-of-control mortgages and credit cards.

The GOP is losing their own base. They have amputated their very power by their abusive and condescending policies that favor the wealth and privileged.

Yes, we want you to fight a war with your sons and daughters, not ours. We will help out the top 2% but not the bottom 98%.

We are reaching critical mass of 51%.

[undecided]

The underlying contempt that beltway Republicans have for average Americans can also be seen in an article that was featured yesterday on Daily Kos:

Some key Hill Republicans, in fact, were upset that he returned front and center on the issue at a time when the White House had so carefully ceded the selling of the surge to Petraeus and Crocker. "Why would he threaten the momentum we have?" says one frustrated Capitol Hill Republican strategist with ties to the G.O.P. leadership. "You have an unpopular President going onto prime time television, interrupting Americans' TV programs, to remind them of why they don't like him."

Do Republicans really think that most Americans care more about their nightly television schedule than they do about the well-being of the troops in Iraq? Here's a hint: it's not the interruption they mind, it's who they have to watch and listen to. Sickening.

[Ralph]

Yes, exactly what kind of insult is this "coffee and donuts"? I guess it means good anti-commie Americans are now limited to milk and cookies. Then again, that would be right at their level. Put down your lunchboxes, Republican voters, hang up your coats, eat your snack, and remember, children aren't allowed to drink coffee.

[bmaz]

Well, I don't know about coffee and donuts; but chardonnay? A wine's first duty is to be red!

[emptypockets]

Exactly -- not only does Joe Sixpack oppose the Iraq surge, even Tank McNamara knows what's what. So much for "liberal elite."

[SaltinWound]

I don't recall Starr facing this much resistance at Pepperdine.

[SaltinWound]

Wrong spot.Sorry.

[Neil]

Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO!

Calling his political opponents "the defeatists" on this issue really gets my goat.

Pre-invasion, when my local news station covered the "March to War" I pinched myself and asked "Did I miss something here. I don't rememebr the US declaring war on Iraq so why are they making it sound so inevitable?" It was shocking to me to here the local news name a segment "The March to War."

When Bush made his State of the Union address I listened carefully for convincing evidence of a clear and present danger. I did not hear it. I heard talk about mass quantities of uranium and smoking guns in the form of mushroom clouds.

When Powell went before the UN I watched on TV and listened carefully then I turned it off half way through unimpressed with the evidence and certain that the invasion was immenent despite the evidence rather than because of it.

Now this jackass McConnell wants to call me a defeatist. Can McConnell say with any clarity if OUR war in Iraq has anything to do with the original five reasons for it? Namely, 9/11, WMD, Al Quada, Freedom deficit, Transform the middle east to Democracy? And if we settle for less than those five reasons, who are the defeatists? If we bring our children home who wins?

When will McConnell, Bush and Cheney explain the real reason they do not want us to leave... reason #6?

[Neil]

A 3 W 7.
Congrats UM, BC, Alabama

[jussumbody]

Fat free half&half? I thought H&H was half milk, half cream. What are you talking about?

[emptypockets]

jussumbody, hey, I'm just quoting Pat. better living through chemistry, I guess? Maybe it's got the secret ingredient that lets neocons live without hearts.

[melior]

Oh, you ask, what is my most treasured Reagan momento?

Why it's the front page photo from the Houston Chronicle on the day of his final State of the Union address. The caption, which perfectly sums up his presidency:

"Much of the time, especially at the outset, Reagan appeared disengaged."