The Johnstown, PA Tribune-Democrat published the following op-ed from Teresa Heinz Kerry yesterday.  She weighed in on behalf of Rep. Murtha.

Teresa is interested in feedback.  See below for how to contact her.

Or so the White House would have you believe.

Yesterday, this astonishing report came out - just a week after the GOP hounds of hell were let loose to savage John Murtha's patriotism:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House has for the first time claimed ownership of an
Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.

Hmmm ... remarkably similar indeed. The AFP article DOES point out this amazing coincidence:

Less than two weeks ago, McClellan blasted Democratic Representative John Murtha, saying that by calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the congressman was "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore," a stridently anti-war Hollywood filmmaker.

But the White House, in its latest blast of bullshit, claims it's not Murtha's urging that led to Bush finally formulating a withdrawal plan, but Joe Biden's recent proposals for an exit strategy ... and that Biden was simply echoing the administration's plan, even though all we've heard from Bush's lips is the mantra: Stay the course.

Amazing. This Newsweek commentary just went up on the MSNBC website less than an hour ago, and with the GOP currently pushing to force a vote later this afternoon on the Murtha resolution, one HAS to wonder about the timing:

The article, entitled "The Terrorist Temptation," has a whopper of a bolded subhead on the page: "The Bush administration is so accustomed to torturing the truth, it can't face the facts. Murtha's outburst on Iraq has shown it is time to stop deluding ourselves."

The author is Christopher Dickey, Newsweek Middle East Regional Editor, based at the Paris Bureau. No lightweight, in other words.

One excerpt to whet the appetite:

What's the bottom line of what Bush is saying now? That we are now in Iraq and have to stay the course because ... the terrorists want us there. As the White House transcript puts it, "Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and their allies at the heart of their power, so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq." But--the terrorists we're fighting now didn't have any power in Iraq until our invasion. Ideologues like to fight ideologues, so they tend to miss details like that.

Go. Read. Now. (Please).

Oh, and use this as an open thread if you like to discuss the Murtha vote as it comes down.