That is just crazy. Harkin a traitor?

But the response is simple, what I call the "Win the War Tax Act." A new tax bracket, 50 per cent of all income over $5 million. If you are not for it you are giving aid and comfort to our enimies and denying our troops the money and equipment they need to win.

If the war is worth fighting it is worth paying for. How could the Repubs deny that?

With any luck, it will increase Harkin's lead by another 40 points.

This stuff will go away when it becomes clear there are consequences for it. The Obama campaign is proving an object lesson for the Republicans - they'd do well to learn from it.

These guys really don't get it. Al Qaeda wants us to stay there. That is their objective. Stay and spend while our influence (economic) around the world deteriorates and our military is weakened.

I know they say it in Arabic, but the translations are in English - you'd think they'd understand what bin Laden was talking about when he said an extended occupation.

For the record, Tokyo Rose aka Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino ) was an American patriot who was pardoned by President Ford.

"On 15 January 2006, the World War II Veterans Committee (sponsors of the Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C.), citing 'her indomitable spirit, love of country, and the example of courage she has given her fellow Americans,' awarded Toguri its annual Edward J Herlihy Citizenship Award."

Not that facts matter to most Republicans.

Didn't then-candidate Bush call for a timetable for U.S. troops to come back from Kosovo

See, that's the amazing thing about this. In reality, the call to stay in Iraq is obviously and blatantly against America's best interests. On every possible level. It puts our young soldiers at risk of dying, it's costing us 10 billion dollars a month, and the world hates us because of that invasion. The invasion itself was always going to be against the best interest of Americans. It was exactly what Al Queda wanted. Not only to get an easier shot at killing Americans, but to hamstring us in ONE country while they build cells in 60 countries . . . and drive us into economic ruin.

I hate to play the patriot card. I DO think it's the last refuge of scoundrels. But any objective person would have to conclude that those who supported the invasion were NOT patriots. They were idiots, blinded by xenophobia, jingoism, or the desire to see short term political gains for the Republicans.

Getting out of Iraq is OBVIOUSLY in our best interest. It's not the slightest bit controversial. It's OBVIOUSLY what we need to do. The true patriots are those who want to avoid unnecessary wars, death and destruction and fight for peace.

Iraq was never a threat to us. It's like this:

America, in 2003, was like the Pittsburg Steelers of the 1970s. Hussein's Iraq was like a Pop Warner team of 10 year olds. All of 90 pounds each. The Reeds of this world think that the Steelers should beat up the little Pop Warner kids, cuz they represent a threat of some kind in their mind.

We really have got to learn how to judge the relative strengths and weaknesses of the rest of the world. Hussein's Iraq was weak, a non-threat, and the desire for an invasion was NOT in our best interest. It was NOT "patriotic" to push for it or back it or support it.

Hope you're right Hilzoy. Also, anytime some repuke brings up that a dem voted against the troops when they were in harm's way, so did the repuke depending on whether timetables were include in the bill or not.

Now when you get your butt over to driftglass.com and read about the "little red fundy"? You'll love the first video posted there.

Well that is someone who doesn't know history!

The woman we know as "Tokyo Rose", the late Iva Toguri. Toguri was in a no win situation trapped in a hostile country with limited knowledge of the language. Yet, she assisted Allied POW's as she could and kept her self safe and alive without compromising herself or her loyalty to America.

Of course she was repaid for her tribulation by a trial and prison term.

I'm in Iowa, have already voted, and only learned Harkin's opponent's name yesterday when I heard this story. So, I guess it did something for Reed. Just maybe not what he wanted. That kind of BS may fly in some parts of the country, but not here, not this year.

I'm from Iowa. I have a dim recollection from deep in the mists of the past (my high school years) when Harkin first ran for office. My mother had some sort of paid staffer position in his campaign but so long ago that I don't rememer what. Anyhoo I hope we can send a bunch of new Dems to the Senate to keep him comapny. Harkein toughed it out thruogh some rough years in Congreess.

Harkin ...says Reed has lost his bearings.

Did he confirm that with Joe Lieberman?
He's an expert on who does and doesn't have their bearings, if you'll recall.

This 'anti-American' battlecry that is currently the favorite buzzword in Right Wingnuttia is a perfect example of how delusional that base has become. In the more than two decades that these people have passed their daily talking points down the line, they have forgotten the necessity to appeal to some centrists. To muddy the waters in the middle was how they got that extra 1% that carried them over the halfway mark all those years.

One might think that the lesson of 2006 would have been learned. But, just as absolute power corrupts absolutely, the self-righteousness of the RW base eschews any moderate dilution of message. It is now all extreme hysteria, all the time.

Republican moderates are jumping ship right and left. Most of them do not know what their political affiliation will be in the future, as it remains to be seen whether someone will take the lead and take back their party, or whether Republicanism will become a minority party with Independent taking a more prominent role ( a melange of conservative democrats and moderate republicans).

We are at the crossroads of the destiny of party affiliation as we have known it for the last 75 years or so. As of today, Republican can be identified as delusional, and by the looks of their political rallies, bordering on dangerous.

Reed sounds like the GOP lamb sacrificed to oppose a very popular Dem incombent. In this case the candidacy/placeholder status has gone to his head--he's using RNC tactics to get noticed. He's also increasing anti-GOP outrage nationally, not just in Iowa, and may harm other GOP races.

Unless he gets a blog/FoxNews anchorship, this is the last anyone will hear of him.

If the war is worth fighting it is worth paying for. How could the Repubs deny that?

If the war is worth fighting it is worth borrowing for, or at a pinch, making someone ill-equipped with lobbyists pay for...

Iowa is sane.

Don't ever forget that they launched Barack Obama's ship, giving him the nod over Hillary Clinton.

You can say what you want about the Caucuses; you can say other states should get first crack -- but no one can accuse the state (or at least state Democrats) of racism, or say that the state's mostly-white population means that candidates of color have no chance.

Iowa is Ground Zero in the change that is coming to America.

All of you who are making logical arguments against this guy are missing the point. These people never have used logic, going back to their forbears in the Know-Nothing Party of the 19th Century. What we are seeing is the crack-up of the fact-free far right. They're turning themselves into the bad joke they always were, only this time they're going to pay for it.

A year from now, Reed will be living in a hole under a rock. Where he belongs.

Luckily, Iowa seems to be pretty sane: the latest polls have Harkin leading Reed by 21 points.

I spent two years in Iowa; it is indeed a pretty sane place. And I concur with the Phantom in saluting Iowans for providing the catalyst to Obama's run, thus sparing us from Hillary Clinton's triangulation and keeping her in a place (the Senate) where she can do the most good. (And if you thought the culture wars were back now, imagine how amplified they'd be in a McCain-Clinton race!)

There is a great post-script to the Reed-Harkin dust up that shows the difference between them (both US Navy vets, by the way).

Harkin was asked by David Yepsen (this was a taping of Iowa Public TV show "Iowa Press") to respond and, calmly said he didn't know where to begin because the claims were ridiculous. As Hilzoy noted, Harkin told reporters afterwards that Reed has "lost his bearings."

But the best part is left out of Hilzoy's post. After the cameras were off and the mics cut, Yepsen reports that as they left the stage, Harkin turned to Reed and very calmly, politely said "You know, I think you're a nice young man, and I thought you might have a decent future in politics, but that right there just ended your career." And with that, Harkin calmly turned his back and walked away.

Best of all, Harkin is surely right.

Paul Larson

Iva Toguri was also pardoned by President Ford and her citizenship was restored. She was no traitor.