Conservative media pundits continue to mislead the American people in the debate over the war in Iraq, suggesting the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Rep John Murtha's resolution to redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq "at the earliest practicable date." The fact is, Republicans offered their own version (which failed 403-3) and refused to vote on Murtha's resolution.
Hannity made the claim twice on November 18 -- once during his radio show and once on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes. He was joined by Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto, who made the same claim in his November 21 "Best of the Web" column, as Media Matters for America previously noted.
On the November 21 broadcast of The Big Story with John Gibson, Gibson interviewed New York Post columnist and retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, author of New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy (Sentinel, August 2005), and asked, "Why, then, do you think Murtha's suggestion last week, voted down by the House, is causing so much trouble?" Peters responded that by "calling for an immediate withdrawal," Murtha was encouraging terrorists "to think their strategy is working."
But the House never voted on Murtha's suggestion (House Joint Resolution 73), which he announced in a press conference on November 17. Instead, the House voted on a substitute (House Resolution 571) that was introduced the following day by Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The vote occurred after a contentious floor debate, during which Murtha described the resolution as "not what I envisioned, not what I introduced."
Murtha's resolution, which cited polling data, the cost of the war, and the rising American death toll, called for the redeployment of U.S. forces "at the earliest practicable date," the maintaining of strategic military presence in the region, and continued diplomatic efforts in Iraq. Hunter's resolution contained a single line: "Resolved, [t]hat it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately."
[Fox's Gibson and Hannity, NY Post falsely claimed that House voted on Murtha's resolution - Media Matters - 11-22-05]
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Christian Grantham is an internet and television producer living in Murfreesboro, TN. Grantham has produced liberal and conservative talk radio, was a consultant to the Clinton-Gore White House on domestic policy forums and worked as a blogger for a political campaign for state office.
