Murtha the Mole

Congressman Murtha of Pennsylvania may be a "mole" or at the least an agent provocateur.

Via James Taranto's Best of the Web Today, I learned of Byron York's article in National Review Online, which reports Murtha's latest anti-war statements.

As Taranto noted, Murtha appears to be afraid of anything that might look like a U.S.A. victory in Iraq:

Appearing at a town meeting in Arlington, Virginia, with fellow Democratic Rep. James Moran, Murtha said, "A year ago, I said we can't win this militarily, and I got all kinds of criticism." Now, Murtha told the strongly antiwar audience, "I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing."

Take a look, also, at Murtha's claimed advice to potential Democratic presidential candidates:

Murtha said he has told some Democrats who are considering a run for president that they are missing an opportunity by declining to call for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. "A number of senators who are running for president have called me," Murtha said. "And I told them there's only two policies. That's the policy of redeployment, which I've suggested, and the president's policy — stay the course is not a policy. And you folks, you're in between, you're missing an opportunity to show leadership. If you want to run for president, you can show leadership."

"Redeployment" is Murtha's fancy word for "retreat."

It might appear that "stay the course" is the counterpart to "redeployment," but Murtha says that's not even a policy. He seems to recognize that the president's policy is to "win," but Murtha counsels would-be presidential contenders among the Democrats to advocate the opposite of "win" as a policy.

Who would offer such advice -- other than an agent provocateur with a hidden agenda that includes a desire to crush the Democrats as a viable party?

Go Murtha! You tell 'em!