On Tap

My selection for Turncoat of the Year is General Ricardo Sanchez.

In October, Sanchez blasted the Bush administration in a speech to a group of reporters.

Sanchez said, among things, that the administration ordered a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan.” Later, he added, “The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat.”

Uh-huh.

General Sanchez, of course, commanded U.S. forces in Iraq for nearly a year after U.S. troops entered the country. During that time, he presided over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and later retired from the army to avoid having to answer questions from Congress about that mess.

But one assumes that during his year in command, General Sanchez would have been able to impact the war effort in Iraq in some positive way. Certainly, he would have had a chance to persuade his commanders, the Secretary of Defense and the President himself if a change in direction were needed.

Indeed, in retrospect, it’s clear that the year that Sanchez spent in command of American forces in Iraq was the period of the most significant failing of leadership. During that year, it was crucial that Iraq be made secure, and that progress begin on restoration and rebuilding. Instead of progress, the situation in Iraq got worse.

So instead of pointing fingers at his superiors, perhaps General Sanchez ought to be looking in the mirror.

Jim: I’m wondering if “turncoat” has to be negative. Because while Joe Lieberman is loathed by liberal Democrats, I think his endorsement of John McCain is pretty extraordinary. Sure, Zell Miller came out and endorsed Bush in 2004, but Zell was definately further away from his party’s mainstream than Lieberman was, and he was on his way out of politics. Lieberman will be around for at least another four years, and seven years ago he was on his party’s ticket, 527 votes in Florida from being a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Could we imagine if a Republican senator had endorsed one of the Democratic candidates? The one who flipped would be greeted with the glowing media coverage and hurrahs that greeted Jim Jeffords.

Cam: Well, I don’t think we’ve had any Red Sox players defect to the Yankees, so this will be a little tougher than usual. Not to mention the fact that I’m writing this on Christmas Eve, and thinking of turncoats isn’t high on my list of things to do. So I’m going to pass and come back to this one on Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at December 24, 2007 - 10:19 am and is filed under On Tap Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.