From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

Orwell called it newspeak. We know them as talking points. Lately the newspeak talking points are coming at us in a steady stream.

This month’s award goes to Columnist Jack Kelly for sticking Rep. John Murtha and the Democrats with the term slow bleed.

The following article by Robert Dietz at Media Matters shows the origins of talking point – slow bleed – by Republicans, led by the Bush Administration, and fueled by the media.

Jack Kelly column repeats “slow bleed” rhetoric, results of dismissed poll

In a February 25 column, Toledo Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette national security writer Jack Kelly repeatedly suggested that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) had “outlined” a “slow bleed” strategy for dealing with the administration on Iraq without noting that the term “slow bleed” was invented by the media, has been promoted by the Republican Party, and is not used by Democrats, as Media Matters for America has noted (here, here, here, and here). In the column, which bore the sub-headline, “A ’slow bleed’ strategy to stop the surge probably would backfire on the Democrats,” Kelly wrote:

“So the Democrats may adopt what’s been called the ’slow bleed’ strategy. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Johnstown, outlined it last week in an interview with the left wing Web site MoveCongress.org. The strategy would be to impose, through amendments to the defense appropriations bill, so many restrictions on U.S. troops that the president’s plan for a surge would be hamstrung.”

In other words, even though the media says the Democrats plan to pursue a slow bleed strategy in Iraq, it’s simply not true. No Democrat ever really used the term slow bleed.

Slow bleed was concocted and spread around to make the Democrats look bad. But I’m not exactly sure why the Republicans expend so much time and effort on that anymore. The Democrats do a pretty good job all by themselves.

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