Hartford Courant columnist and radio host Colin McEnroe had a fantastic column on free speech yesterday. Part of the column is addressed towards the recent Senate debate on MoveOn's ad criticizing the Bush administration's Iraq policy and primary messenger, General David Petraeus. McEnroe highlights Dodd's objections to the Senate spending hours on end talking about an ad when they should be working on ending the war in Iraq.
Thursday the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn MoveOn.org for running a newspaper ad that was headlined "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
The rest of the ad was good, solid, well-warranted dissent. It questioned - responsibly - Petraeus' handling of the facts. The headline was catchy and snarky. If MoveOn had called me, I could have shared with them my decades of experience in letting the catchy and snarky become the enemy of the good.
Doesn't matter. What is the U.S. Senate doing condemning this kind of speech? Chris Dodd, you are my hero!
"It is a sad day in the Senate when we spend hours debating an ad while our young people are dying in Iraq," said Connecticut's good senator.
The worst thing you can say about the MoveOn ad is that it was disrespectful of a four-star general, but that's only a crime in military dictatorships. Generals work for us citizens. Our taxes (plus money borrowed from China) pay their salaries and put gas in their jets. If we don't like what they say to Congress, we get to holler.
But going beyond McEnroe's defense of MoveOn's ad as a protected speech act, I can't emphasize enough the extent to which I agree with Senator Dodd's belief that debate should be focused on the war in Iraq. 3,775 Americans have died fighting in Iraq and tens of thousands more have been injured. Shoe-horning a controversial use of the Senate's time into a debate on Iraq will do nothing to ensure that more Americans do not die through our involvement in Iraq's civil war.
The fact that more Senators voted to condemn a political advertisement than voted to end a war is truly sad. It's a question of priorities. Senator Dodd wants to end the war - but Senate Republicans are more concerned with ending an anti-war organizations influence on public opinion.
The debate on funding - and thus continuing or ending - the war in Iraq will be continuing this week and likely into next week. Senator Dodd will be working towards setting a date certain for withdrawal and enforcing that date through the Congressional power of the purse. I hope that the Senate spends more time discussing that than any other political advertisements which surface over the coming weeks, no matter how titillating they are.
Hat tip to Melissa Ryan for the McEnroe article.
