Murtha Proclaims "The Surge Is Working" UPDATE: Backtracks

I think the devil just went out and bought a parka.

"I think the 'surge' is working," the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president's decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis "have got to take care of themselves."

 

Murtha screwed up big time, Mommy Pelosi had to spank him.

House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) has taken the unusual step of publicly clarifying his remark that the “surge is working” in Iraq. Murtha, a former Marine and top adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on military matters, had often said previously that the surge is not working. The clarification came after House Republicans circulated an article about Murtha’s comments written in Friday’s edition of his home-state Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after a teleconference from Murtha’s  Johnstown, Pa., office. In addition to saying that the surge is working, the Post-Gazette reported, Murtha called the Iraqi government “dysfunctional” and said, “The thing that has to happen is the Iraqis have to do this themselves. We can't win it for them.” That put him in line with the current position of the House Democratic leadership that the extra troops have done a good job of reducing violence, but the Iraqi government has been squandering the  opportunity.