The Democrats think they're within striking distance of a Republican-held Senate seat in Texas, and they think they've found their man: retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, a cantankerous San Antonian who oversaw the Iraq War effort in 2003 and 2004. "It's the one candidate that will cause John Cornyn some heartburn," a Dem state politico told McClatchy last week.
But Sanchez comes with obvious baggage, and Wired's Danger Room marshaled the opposition research today, calling Sanchez a "disgraced three-star" and launching into quite the denunciation:
Congratulations, Texas Democratic Party: you are on the verge of a new level in cynicism. Sanchez's tenure running the Iraq war saw a humiliated and cashiered Iraqi military metastasize into an insurgency that killed and maimed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Under pressure from the Pentagon, he approved abusive detention and interrogation practices for Abu Ghraib that resulted in the U.S.' most damaging wartime scandal since Vietnam. What could possibly interrupt Sanchez's deserved fade into obscurity? "He's the one guy who could unite the Hispanic vote," former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes told McClatchy. "He'll get the conservative Hispanic businessman." Amazing...
Really? A "new level" in military and racial cynicism? In congressional politics? (Hello, Allen West? Ilario Pantano?)
