Are we surprised...duh!

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has written a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding that he "release the unedited footage of the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital and to answer questions about her injuries," the Associated Press reports. The AP quotes Kucinich as saying: "Nothing the administration has said about Private Lynch has been verified by private news reports. It's time to find out the truth."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6004360.htm

There is some legitimate dispute about just what happened when Lynch was captured and later rescued. In April Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler acknowledged that the paper had cited probably false claims by unnamed "U.S. officials" that Lynch had gone down shooting after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. On the other hand, much of the Lynch revisionism has been based on a patently silly report from the BBC claiming, among other things, that the soldiers who rescued Pfc. Lynch were firing blanks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A53917-2003Apr18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/18.5.03.txt

For the sake of the historical record, it would be worthwhile to clarify what actually happened rather than rely on accounts produced during the fog of war. But there's also a political agenda at work here: Far-left critics of America are arguing that if there were errors in the original account of Lynch's capture and rescue, it somehow illustrates that the Bush administration, the nation and the military are fundamentally evil. (See the typically bilious Robert Scheer columns for an example.)

What's curious about this is that here we have Dennis Kucinich, a guy who's running for president, using this issue as an occasion for political grandstanding. Plainly he thinks that this will win him votes in the Democratic primaries. Inescapable is the conclusion America-haters have a home in the Democratic Party.

Let's be careful not to overstate the case here. Kucinich represents an extreme fringe of his party; even Howard Dean is moderate by comparison with him. And Kucinich is as likely to win the Democratic nomination as Jim Jeffords is to replace Dick Cheney on the GOP ticket. But Dennis is a menace to his party because he reminds voters--who in 17 months will have to choose between President Bush and the Democratic nominee--that the Democratic Party includes some truly repugnant elements.

Republicans have faced this problem too. Pat Buchanan's 1992 declaration of "religious war" cannot have helped then-President Bush, since even if such a "war" is going on, most Americans are not combatants and indeed are probably pacifists.

This is a crucial difference between 1992 and 2004, and it explains why this President Bush is a good bet for re-election. The party is united behind him; he is exceedingly unlikely to face a primary challenge. That means that the GOP has a single face, that of a popular president, whereas the opposition is represented by an assortment that ranges from the plausible (Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman) to the horrifying (Kucinich, Al Sharpton).

Since 1972 six sitting presidents have sought election to another term. The three winners--Nixon, Reagan and Clinton--all had no serious primary opposition. The three losers--Ford, Carter and Bush père--had to overcome challenges from Reagan, Ted Kennedy and Buchanan respectively. History doesn't always follow its own precedents, of course, but there does seem to be ample reason for Democratic pessimism about 2004.

InFfutal:"Far-left critics of America are arguing that if there were errors in the original account of Lynch's capture and rescue, it somehow illustrates that the Bush administration, the nation and the military are fundamentally evil. "

Umm, nice strawman, but no, that is not what the "Far-Left" is saying...the "Far-Left" is saying is that is was an out and out staged propaganda stunt for a war built on the lies of the adminstration....and the only "fog" is in your feeble mind....

Sorry, but I'm just a KOBE wannabe. That's right, even those idiots at KOBE wouldn't accept me.