… what will historians write about Bush’s speeches, including the one he’s giving right now? (Discuss here if you’d like.)

“When historians look back at the Iraq war, they will divide it into the pre- and post-Murtha eras,” writes Trudy Rubin for today’s Miami Herald.


Today — early on in the post-Murtha era — House Democrats are meeting to debate the top issues. About today’s meeting the Seattle P.I.‘s D.C. correspondent Charles Pope observes that while “Iraq has taken a toll on President Bush and his Republican allies … Democrats are finding the issue hard as well, and the party has been unable to reconcile competing internal visions over Iraq’s future or the best plan for bringing U.S. troops home.”

Just how divergent those views are could come into sharp focus today as House Democrats meet to discuss the war and lay the groundwork for a more unified policy.


In that respect, the six House Democrats from Washington state offer a telling snapshot of the crosscurrents pulling Democrats nationwide. Four of them — Jim McDermott, Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen and Brian Baird — voted in September 2002 against going to war while Norm Dicks and Adam Smith voted to give the president permission to invade.


No one expects a consensus to emerge today. “It’s part of an ongoing conversation,” Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s spokeswoman, Jen Crider, said. “The leader understands that decisions about Iraq are a personal decision.”


Dicks and Smith have recently said they regretted their votes. Dicks’ statement was especially significant because he is among the most respected voices on military matters and has vigorously supported the Pentagon.


“Now Norm Dicks is with me and Jack Murtha is with me,” McDermott said … [Susan’s note: You may remember Seattle’s Jim McDermott from his prominent interview as an outspoken war critic in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911.”] — From today’s Seattle PI, via Howie in Seattle


Just like the Miami Herald’s Rubin, Charles Pope sees “some broad outlines are emerging, mostly a result of comments made two weeks ago by Murtha …”

Murtha proclaimed the Iraq strategy a failure and called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops within six months. Other Democrats have said that most troops should leave Iraq by the end of 2006 if certain specific benchmarks are reached.


[Jay] Inslee said he could support such a framework. [Susan’s note: Inslee, who lives on Bainbridge Island, was my mom’s representative until her death. Inslee is a longtime close friend of Joe Wilson’s, and he sponsored the seminar in which Wilson first said Karl Rove should be frogmarched out of the White House in handcuffs.]


While holding back for more than a week, Pelosi finally endorsed Murtha’s position last week. Yet the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, refused. “A precipitous withdrawal of American forces in Iraq,” he said, “could lead to disaster, spawning a civil war, fostering a haven for terrorists and damaging our nation’s security and credibility.”


If not for Murtha, Dicks’ reversal could well have been the most significant defection. Dicks, like Murtha, has historically supported the military, even when it angered his party. He was a vocal advocate for such controversial programs as the B-2 bomber.


Yet when asked last week if he would vote again to invade Iraq given what he knows today, Dicks said, “Absolutely not.”


Norm Dicks is my representative. I am so grateful to Jack Murtha for opening a pathway for hawkish Democrats like Dicks. And, now, while the Smirking Chimp is on my teevee set — blathering on about the terrorists that he has created — I’ll close with this from Trudy Rubin’s must-read op-ed essay in the Miami Herald:

Murtha’s call released a torrent of pent-up doubts from Americans who were initially willing to support the war but want to know why things have gone sour. The congressman has made it legitimate to voice criticisms that would previously have been denounced as unpatriotic.


[…..]

If the White House wants Americans to support a continued Iraq presence, it will have to absorb the Murtha message: Talk straight, come clean, hold people accountable, offer a clear plan for the future without misleading statistics. And stop insulting critics who point to mistakes that are apparent to everyone, regardless of White House denials.


“Talk straight, come clean, hold people accountable, offer a clear plan for the future without misleading statistics …” Doesn’t the same hold true for the House Democrats in their meeting today? Just as the now-historic Jack Murtha has done, shouldn’t they also talk straight with the people they represent?