CANTOR THE CLOWN…. Republicans responding to the controversy surrounding Gen. Stanley McChrystal have generally been cautious. The GOP supports McChrystal’s strategy in Afghanistan, but even Republicans tend to respect the chain of command and aren’t inclined to endorse remarks that even the general concedes were out of line.
In a combined statement, Sens. McCain, Graham, and Lieberman — some of Congress’ more ardent hawks — conceded that McChrystal’s comments were “inappropriate and inconsistent with the traditional relationship between Commander-in-Chief and the military.” The three stopped short of calling for his ouster, but didn’t endorse him staying on, either.
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the perpetually-confused House Minority Whip, adopted a more ridiculous line.
Obviously a General and his top brass don’t make statements like these without being frustrated, so I hope that the President’s meeting with General McChrystal will include a frank discussion about what is happening on the ground, and whether the resources and the plan are there to defeat terrorists and accomplish our mission in Afghanistan. Without question, the article in Rolling Stone raises a lot of concerns, but our top priority must be to ensure that our forces in Afghanistan have what they need in order to successfully execute their mission and win the war there.
At the moment, Democrats in Congress are standing in the way of a clean bill to fund our troops and provide the resources needed because they want to lard it up with domestic spending. We need to get our troops these funds, and should do so without any pork or unrelated domestic spending items thrown in.
Cantor, it’s worth noting, voted last year against funding the troops engaged in two wars. The ol’ post-turtle has also never demonstrated any working knowledge of military policy at any level at any point in his career.
But he’s nevertheless trying to make the case that McChrystal and his team popped off because of unstated frustrations over allocation of military resources? Which, incidentally, Republicans have resisted sending? Cantor’s clownish capacities are truly limitless.
I have no idea what the president will do with McChrystal tomorrow, or what can be done to salvage his command. But if the general could issue some kind of statement explaining that Eric Cantor is clueless and not to be taken seriously, I’m sure it’d be widely appreciated.
