Memo to MoveOn: Time to Move On

The Democratic Party needs MoveOn like a bad case of diarrhea.

Yet there was the left-wing public policy group giving it the shits this week because of it's latest outburst of trash talk – a full-page ad disparaging General David Petraeus in the New York Times on Monday that carried the the big, bold headline"“General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"

While there was merit to what the body of the ad said, because of the headline it accomplished nothing positive and plenty negative in giving congressional Republicans, their Faux News helpmates and the right-wing blogosphere something to rail about, as well as distracting attention from the Petraeus-Crocker dog-and-pony show.

I have a second problem with the ad, as well: President Bush certainly is fair game. But going after Petraeus, and by implication the men and women he commands, is out of bounds, and the ad is yet further evidence that this bunch of self-absorbed lefties have never been able to understand that while you can and should criticize the war, you don't dishonor the warrior.

Then there is the sad news that the objectivity impairment in the Times newsroom has spread to the advertising department.

The New York Post reports that the open rate for an ad of the type and size of the MoveOn ad is $181,692, according to a Times flak, but MoveOn says that it only paid $65,000.
It is easy to forget that MoveOn was formed in response to the Clinton impeachment debacle. Its fundraising prowess has become formidable, but cheap shots like the headline on the ad merely serve to call attention to itself and further alienate folks like myself.

While I defend MoveOn’s right to be tone deaf, which it does with feckless regularity, I fear that its ability to destruct far outweighs its ability to instruct and suggest that the Democratic presidential wannabes whom it holds in its slimy caress send it a back-channel message:

Thanks, but no thanks.