Bush delays al-Zarqawi to influence elections
Blogger, California Democrat, media suspicious over timing of high-profile terrorist’s death.
Members of the blogosphere, the media, and a California Democrat complain that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Wednesday death was a political ploy. “This is just to cover Bush’s sagging ass and sagging poll numbers,” said California’s always outspoken Representative Pete Stark.
Scott Thill at The Huffington Post agreed. “This was an orchestrated photo op,” he wrote, “staged only to affect the previous day’s elections.”
“This comes at a very important time,” said Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today show.
NBC’s chief Pentagon correspondent, Jim Miklaszewski, pointed out that the administration sat on this information for 18 hours. “This was no mistake,” said Miklaszewski. “The announcement was deliberately timed to increase confidence in Republican candidates.”
California’s Stark blamed the Wednesday killing for Republican Brian Bilbray’s Tuesday win against Democrat Francine Busby. However, some observers wondered if a photo op staged after elections could influence those elections. “That’s the cunning stupidity of the Bush administration,” replied Stark. “By waiting until just after the elections, Democrats were unable to respond.”
“That fruitcake Bush doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” continued Stark. “If he cared about enlisted people he wouldn’t have bombed Zarqawi. Someone put him up to it. I doubt if that cocksucker even knows how to spell Zarqawi.”
According to the Washington Post, “al-Zarqawi served a crucial purpose for the administration. He was a useful source of propaganda for the administration and was part of a U.S. psy-op campaign.”
“Zarqawi was a stooge,” wrote Thill, “invented by the Bush administration.”
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was unavailable for comment.
- Early Cold Water Bursts on NBC's ‘Today’
- “And Mik, let me just talk about the timing of this. The, the U.S. military has been rocked over the last couple of weeks by headlines suggesting an alleged massacre in Haditha. So clearly this comes at a very important time for the Pentagon.”
- Democrats call Zarqawi killing a stunt
- “Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.”
- Ding Dong, the Witch Isn’t Dead
- “If there are any Americans left who believe that the death of Zarqawi is anything other than an orchestrated photo-op, then it's time to start scouting out apartments in Vancouver.”
- Zarqawi Helped U.S. Argument That Al-Qaeda Network Was in Iraq
- “From the moment President Bush introduced him to the American people in October 2002, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi served a crucial purpose for the administration, providing a tangible focus for its insistence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”
- Stark Raving Mad
- “As a practical matter, calls from Congressmen are extremely rare, and Stark is Exhibit A as to why. Stark stooped to name-calling, chastising his constituent as an idiot: ‘Probably somebody put you up to this, and I’m not sure who it was, but I doubt if you could spell half the words in the letter and somebody wrote it for you. So I don’t pay too much attention to it.’”
- Little Notice Paid to Stark Outburst
- “Stark directed the word—considered by some to be a gay slur—at Republican Rep. Scott McInnis, who is married and by all accounts not gay.”
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