Kerry is a Girl

i really loathe articles like this one in the nyt today.

the main point is that democrats are pissed that kerry is pushing for a withdrawal of troops by a certain date -- july 2007, as it stands now. they're pissed because, to their way of thinking, it makes them look weak to want to end the iraq war.

all that is fine. i can understand how some democrats are upset that kerry wanted to have it both ways during the election, when perhaps it wasn't such a good idea, but wants to have it only one way now, when it's not a good idea.

what upsets me about this article is how it takes a very serious issue -- ending an unbelievably horrid mistake -- and wraps it up in a cloak of "well it's just politcs as usual." the piece buys the idea peddled by republicans and moderate democrats that kerry is playing pure politics with this, and not taking a principled stand. i find that abhorent. you don't have to like kerry -- and i don't really -- to at least have the journalistic integrity to take his approach seriously and give it a full and fair hearing. lord knows the mainstream media did that to a fault with bush and the neocons.

why are biden's ideas about the war -- that it should keep going -- taken so seriously, for instance? i submit it's because, deep down, the mainstream media would rather report on a war than on some girly policy proposal that might be the only thing to save us and the entire middle east region from ruin.