No More Reaching Across The Damn Aisle: Reason Number 436

People sometimes ask me why I'm so darned uncompromising to conservatives and neo-cons and why I no longer reach "...across the damn aisle" to Republicans. Here's another in a lengthy series of reasons.

Ann Coulter.

There was the Wicked Witch of the Right misleading her butt off on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight on Friday in discussing the near-unanimous vote against the fake GOP call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Coulter was, of course, indignant at the fact that Democrats would call on President Bush for a timeline for leaving Iraq – at this point, almost any timeline would do –and cited the bogus bill offered by the Republicans as evidence of flip-flopping by the Democrats.

"I think this is a monumental development, this vote last Friday. I mean whether, of course, on principle you have a right to say timetables, war isn't going well, bring the troops home. Americans are against it. Yes, in principle you have a right to say that. But there's no question. It's simply a fact that that is going to encourage the enemy and will demoralize our side.

"Now we know from the vote last Friday the Democrats don't even believe it. They voted -- in the vote in the House was 403-3 against withdrawing the troops. So why do they keep saying it's not going well, bring the troops home, Americans have turned against it? I mean, you're down to the only rationale being that they want to demoralize our side and encourage the enemy."

Wow, even for a conservative hag like Coulter, that quite a clean sweep. She's talking about the sneaky measure brought to the floor by House Republicans, calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Democrat John Murtha had proposed a gradual withdrawal in his earlier bill and the GOP version was their way of forcing Democrats to vote on something they never asked for – immediate withdrawal. This put Democrats in a lose-lose situation where they either voted yes on the bill -- and could then be called for "cutting and running" -- or vote no and look like they were backing down from their original call for a withdrawal timeline.

Viewers counting on the likes of anchor Christine Romans to call Coulter on this bit of dishonesty were disappointed. Romans could have said something simple like "uh, Ann, doesn't the vote by Democrats on the GOP bill actually do nothing to mitigate their original position for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq?" Instead, the designated news reader sitting in for the lucid Lou Dobbs let Coulter get away with it and moved on.

As you can see, Coulter also used the opportunity to accuse Democrats of only calling for a timeline that will actually save military lives to intentionally "... demoralize our side and encourage the enemy."

What a disgusting cretin she is.

And yet another example of why we no longer even consider reaching across the aisle or compromising with Republicans.

If you have a strong stomach, you can catch the video at Crooks and Liars.