So says the Executive Director Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org on MSNBC, defending his hit-piece on Gen. David Petraeus and the men and women in Iraq serving under his command.

“Petraeus is not telling it straight to the American people …[I]t raised this important question about General Petreaus’ credibility … The fact pattern is that again and again General Petraeus has spun the facts, has misled the country about what is going on on the ground in Iraq. You can call that betrayal, you can call it lying, you can call that whatever you want. It’s a problem.”

As a response, House Republicans have introduced legislation condemning MoveOn’s attack ad.

Rep. Boozman released this statement calling for all Members to disavow MoveOn.

The newspapers (except for the New York Times) have also taken MoveOn to task.

From the Washington Times:

If these attacks are not smears on the patriotism of Gen. Petraeus, nothing could be. The left expects its “my patriotism!” indignation to be taken seriously, but and expect others to stand by as the smear is launched. It does not add up.

The Wall Street Journal:

Can this really be the new standard of political rhetoric across the Democratic Party? There was a time when the party’s institutional elites, such as the Times, would have pulled it back from reducing politics to all or nothing. They would have blown the whistle on such accusations. Now they are leading the charge.

Under these new terms, public policy is no longer subject to debate, discussion and disagreement over competing views and interpretations. Instead, the opposition is reduced to the status of liar. Now the opposition is not merely wrong, but lacks legitimacy and political standing. The goal here is not to debate, but to destroy.

From Politico:

The full-page ad in The New York Times that landed on Washington doorsteps before sunrise Monday came from an anti-war group that’s normally friendly to Democrats. But by day’s end, the majority in Congress may have felt like victims of friendly fire.

From The Boston Globe:

The MoveOn.org ad is vicious, and would garner comment even if it were merely one more primal scream in the coarse blogosphere debate over Iraq. But it is not an angry e-mail or blog entry. It is a deliberate attack on the senior Army commander, in a major daily newspaper, with the intention of destroying as much of his credibility as possible so that his military advice could be more easily rejected by antiwar members of Congress.

From a Baltimore Sun blog:

MoveOn.org was looking to get attention and so they have with their full-page New York Times ad in which they slam Gen. David Petraeus, rhyming his name with “betray us.” It’s the liberal group’s version of shock and awe.

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