Count me in for Jack Murtha as majority leader. I figure if you can't handle a softball interview with Chris Matthews, you're just about right to lead the Democrat party into a 2008 debacle. Matthews preps Murtha for a discussion on the strategic elements of retreat.

MATTHEWS: ... is the hardest thing in the world to pull off, because you’ve got to protect your rear the whole time you’re getting out. As you get weaker and weaker as you redeploy, you’ve got to make sure the last guys out aren’t attacked. Is that a threat?

MURTHA: That’s always a threat, but it’s much worse just to leave the troops there and the mission to be—deteriorate and the military to deteriorate, our strategic reserve deteriorate, and the whole world, the credibility of this country deteriorate. That’s the thing that’s happened.

I wonder if Murtha even had a clue that he was openly talking about retreat? I mean we all know that what the Democrats are about, but to my knowledge, this is the first time I've seen it put so baldly--we've got to cover our asses as we bug out.

I used to think that the lunatic rhetoric of the Democrats was a put-on, a show for the constituents who didn't work hard in school, but lately I'm not so sure. Murtha is worried about the deterioration of our military, our strategic reserve? The nation's credibility if we stay in Iraq? Has he given a moment's though to what happens if we leave? Nevermind the lamentable human rights reprecussions, or the strategic considerations. There won't be any U.S. military and other countries in the world will use their defense treaties with the U.S. as toilet paper.

Gen. Colin Powell referred the military's post-Vietnam situation with the term "the army is broken". Gen Tommy Franks referred to the post-Vietnam era the following way in his autobiography "American Soldier".

For years, these troops had seen the Army's sense of purpose deteriorate, and its tradition of discipline along with it. In fact, the whole U.S. military--and especially the Amry, had been wounded in the paddies and jungles of Vietnam. Like the nation it served, the Army had begun to doubt itself. We had found a long, costly war to a stalemate, and then had withdrawn claiming "peace with honor." Pessimism and negativism extended from the Pentagon down to the infantry rifle squads and artillery gun crews serving out their time in Germany. And there was a vicious strain of criminals in uniform, like the dope dealers in my Battery, who were more than willing to exploit this bad situation. (page 124)

Jack Murtha undoubtedly knows this and just doesn't care.

Murtha then goes on to lie about his role in the ABSCAM affair.

MATTHEWS: Let’s talk about what’s being said against you. Not just by your opponents, but in the newspapers. Let’s talk about Abscam. Back 26 years ago, I went through the numbers. Five members of the United States Congress, a United States senator, Pete Williams from New Jersey were convicted of accepting money from these undercover FBI agents, posing as Arab guys trying to make an offer to congressmen so he’d cut a deal, put some money in the pockets of these people.

All these people are convicted, you weren’t. Does that mean you’re innocent?

MURTHA: Well, I’ll put this way. I had 24 percent unemployment, I was looking at investment. I told them I wanted an investment in my district, they put $50,000 out on the table. I said I’m not interested in that, I’m interested in investment. The ethics committee cleared me completely, unanimous vote.

I guess he's never heard of the internet.

In November 1980, the Justice Department announced that Murtha would not face prosecution for his part in the scandal. In July 1981, the House ethics committee also chose not to file charges against Congressman Murtha, following a mostly party line vote, after which Republican E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., the panel's special counsel, abruptly resigned in protest. House ethics rules require members to immediately report any bribe offers to the FBI.

He also made it very clear that he would be interested in the $50,000.00 "later", presumably after he had satisfied himself as to the bona fides of his new benefactors.

Matthews then tries to lead Murtha out of the woods on his "total crap" comment with respective to ethics reform.

MATTHEWS: But that’s not what you said. Didn’t you say it was total crap, what she was proposing?

MURTHA: What I said was, it’s total crap, the idea we have to deal with an issue like this, when—and it is total crap that we have to deal with an issue like this when we’ve got a war going on and we got all these other issues -- $8 billion a month we’re spending—

MATTHEWS: So when this came up in the Blue Dog meeting the other night, you felt that that was a ridiculous—you thought that wasn’t the right issue to be talking about right now.

MURTHA: Exactly. I—what I’ve been trying—

MATTHEWS: And that’s really what you meant when you said total crap, because this is all over the wires as if—it sounds to me like you’re saying, I think all this goo-goo, good government stuff, is a joke.

What an idiot--he's perfect to lead the Democrats. Matthews' behavior on the other hand is so fawning, so turgid with love, that its fair to characterize it as aural sex.