Democrats who had hoped to use Monday’s congressional testimony as an indictment of the war in Iraq found themselves on the defensive over an ad impugning a respected American general. MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group that has become increasingly influential within the Democratic Party, ran a full-page ad in Monday’s New York Times that pre-emptively dismissed testimony delivered later in the day by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
“General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us,” said the ad, which accused him of “cooking the books for the White House.”
Petraeus insisted he wrote his congressional testimony himself and did not run it past the White House, which denounced the ad.
“It is boorish, it is childish, it is shameful and, unfortunately, it’s predictable,” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said.
Republican presidential candidates quickly condemned MoveOn.org, which has received millions in funding from George Soros, the billionaire political activist who spent $27million in a failed effort to defeat President Bush in 2004.
“MoveOn.org’s latest outrageous act is an attempt to call into question the reputation and character of General Petraeus even before he testifies in front of Congress,” Republican Mitt Romney said. “This debate should be free of the kind of shameful tactics MoveOn.org has shown today.”
Republican rival Rudy Giuliani said: “The Democrats and MoveOn.org are doing a disservice to Iraq’s long-term future by jumping to political conclusions in advance of the general’s report. These times call for statesmen, not political rhetoric.”
Republican John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, accused MoveOn.org of launching “a McCarthyite attack on an American patriot.”
“This is a man who has devoted his life in service to our nation and has defended America in many battles over many years,” McCain said. “Now he is the target of a despicable attack in one our nation’s most visible newspapers.”
Phil Singer, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, dismissed the Republican complaints as “a political sideshow.”
“Senator Clinton is going to keep her focus where it should be, on ending the war,” he said.
Sen. Barack Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, said the question is not about Petraeus’ patriotism. “It’s about his logic. There’s no evidence that this surge is producing the political progress needed to resolve the civil war in Iraq or that it will be accomplished through more of the same,” Burton said.
