Cornyn Amdt. No. 2934

The U.S. Senate voted to condemn MoveOn.org for its despicable ad attacking General David Petraeus.

The ad appeared in the New York Times, on Monday September 10. That Lefty rag even printed the Lefty group's shameful smear at a bargain rate.

The Senate amendment's statement of purpose:

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

How hard can it be to vote to express support for the U.S. Armed Forces?

For politicians indebted to the hard Left MoveOn, it's too hard to do.

View the Roll Call Vote.

Wisconsin senators split on the amendment. Russ Feingold voted against it. Obviously, he's not maverick enough to bite the hand that feeds him. Herb Kohl voted for it. He can afford to upset MoveOn.org. He's nobody's senator. Unlike Feingold, he doesn't need MoveOn, so he could show some decency.

Those voting in support of MoveOn's despicable ad slamming Petraeus were the usual suspects:

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Biden (D-DE), Cantwell (D-WA), and Obama (D-IL) didn't vote.

The spin being put on the resolution really is laughable.

According to the lib media, it was a stunt meant to turn the screws on Democrat presidential candidates.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on Thursday tried to turn a controversial anti-war newspaper ad against Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama after neither voted to condemn it.

The Senate voted 72-25 to pass a resolution condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, as "Gen. Betray Us." The liberal group's full-page ad appeared last week in The New York Times.

Clinton voted against the measure; Obama did not vote.

Among the presidential hopefuls, Republicans Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas voted for the resolution sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut voted against it.

Obama, Clinton and Dodd voted for an alternative resolution offered minutes earlier by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. That resolution condemned political attack ads, including those that questioned the patriotism of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., both Vietnam veterans. It failed 50-47.

McCain and Brownback did not support Boxer's measure. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., also a presidential candidate, did not vote on either resolution.

I think it was a legitimate resolution. I don't think it was game.

It gave senators the opportunity to clarify where they stand on the matter and go on the record.

Obama thought it was best to evade the issue rather than condemn the attack.

Obama, who appeared in Atlanta with R&B artist Usher and former NBA forward Dominique Wilkins, defended his decision not to vote, calling the resolution the "kind of game-playing that the American people are tired of."

He said it was wrong to waste time "debating about a newspaper ad" when young men and women are dying in Iraq and veterans are not receiving needed services.

I disagree.

It's not a waste of time to show support for the military.

Obama's refusal to vote reflected the "kind of game-playing that the American people are tired of."

Biden, too, took the easy way out and didn't vote.

Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd, on the other hand, determined that it would be a mistake to anger the fringe Left group.

Clinton is definitely in MoveOn's pocket. With Norman Hsu out of the picture, I guess she needs to make up some slack and can't afford to alienate the far Left loons.

Before the vote, during his press conference, I think President Bush spoke for many, many Americans when he gave his reaction to the ad and the Democrats' failure to condemn it.

Q What is your reaction to the MoveOn.org ad that mocked General Petraeus as General "Betrayus," and said that he cooked the books on Iraq? And secondly, would you like to see Democrats, including presidential candidates, repudiate that ad?

THE PRESIDENT: I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org -- or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military. That was a sorry deal. It's one thing to attack me; it's another thing to attack somebody like General Petraeus.

Very well said.

The 25 cowardly Democrats who voted in support of MoveOn.org may have scored points with the Left-wing group and its radical followers, but I think they lost far more than they gained.