A firestorm was precipitated by a statement last Thursday by Democratic Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a ranking member on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, decorated Vietnam vet, and widely recognized expert on military issues. He called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. This was significant because Murtha is most decidedly on the conservative side of the Democratic party, and is respected as a voice in military matters; he is kind of a Democratic John McCain. His statement was a tough one for this decorated Marine Colonel to make, but it was made through an honest assessment of the situation in Iraq, and was a clear sign that serious discussion on the matter should begin.

But the GOP was in no mood to be serious. Scared shitless of being yanked from power next November, they saw Murtha’s statement only within the context of their sorry political asses, and immediately went into piranha mode. Since his statement, the GOP has reacted in a way that is hard to call anything but utterly reprehensible.

First, they forced a vote on a resolution that was a complete and utter sham, butchering Murtha’s thoughtful resolution so it looked like a cowardly cut-and-run without thought to stabilizing Iraq (see details below); the idea was not to consider or debate Murtha’s call, but to string up a straw man and force Democrats to vote against it.

As they were doing this, Ohio Republican representative Jean Schmidt made a direct personal attack on Murtha, claiming an Ohio legislator urged her to insult him: “He asked me… to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run; Marines never do.” This was so outrageous in the context of Congressional debate that the floor erupted in shouting and Schmidt was forced to withdraw her comment.

Then they laid it on thicker, going for the jugular in a particularly sickening and corrupt manner. The GOP has for the past several years all but shut down the Ethics committee, and has fought and delayed indefinitely having any Republican investigated for even the most blatant of offenses. But almost within hours of Murtha suggesting we pull out of Iraq, the GOP started demanding that Murtha be immediately investigated. Why? Because there is a claim that Murtha’s aide told a defense contractor to retain a lobbying group called KSA, and it turns out that Murtha’s brother works for KSA. KSA lobbied for 10 firms, which eventually were awarded $20 million of a $417 billion appropriations bill. There is no evidence that the money was given to the companies due to the lobbying, or that Murtha was even aware of the aide’s statement.

Meanwhile, Vice President Cheney, having come into office straight from the CEO chair at Halliburton, arranged for the company to get billions of dollars in no-bid contracts, and called in the energy industries to write the country’s energy policy in secret, while his case was decided by his fishing buddy Scalia on the Supreme Court. The GOP fights tooth and nail against any investigation into little stuff like that, or the fact that literally billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been simply “lost” in Iraq… but the moment Rep. Murtha suggests we should pull our troops out in a reasonable and responsible way, the GOP screams into gear, demanding that investigators be sent up Murtha’s asshole with an electron microscope on the basis of a news report that an aide may have said something to a guy who worked for a place which hired a firm where Murtha’s brother worked. They didn’t even wait a few weeks to make the investigatory act appear even the least bit unrelated to a partisan political smear.

Anyone got a better word than “reprehensible”?

For reference, by the way, here is Murtha’s original resolution, followed by the GOP’s “version.” First, Murtha’s resolution (also in PDF):

MR. MURTHA introduced the following joint resolution, which was referred to the Committee on [blank]

Whereas Congress and the American People have not been shown clear, measurable progress toward establishment of stable and improving security in Iraq or of a stable and improving economy in Iraq, both of which are essential to “promote the emergence of a democratic government”;

Whereas additional stabilization in Iraq by U, S. military forces cannot be achieved without the deployment of hundreds of thousands of additional U S. troops, which in turn cannot be achieved without a military draft;

Whereas more than $277 billion has been appropriated by the United States Congress to prosecute U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas, as of the drafting of this resolution, 2,079 U.S. troops have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom;

Whereas U.S. forces have become the target of the insurgency;

Whereas, according to recent polls, over 80 percent of the Iraqi people want U.S. forces out of Iraq;

Whereas polls also indicate that 45 percent of the Iraqi people feel that the attacks on U.S. forces are justified;

Whereas, due to the foregoing, Congress finds it evident that continuing U.S. military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the people of Iraq, or the Persian Gulf Region, which were cited in Public Law 107-243 as justification for undertaking such action;

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of American in Congress assembled, That:

Section 1. The deployment of United States Forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.

Section 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S. Marines shall be deployed in the region.

Section 3. The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.

And the GOP “version” [PDF] which was forced to a vote:

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.

Yeah. That’s the exact same thing all right.