11/19 - Saturday Night Live - Eva Longoria

My most recent footnotes are for the November 19 episode of Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Eva Longoria of "Desperate Housewives."

The opening sketch and Weekend Update both refer to a November 17 speech (on-line here) by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), who served in the Marines in Vietnam. Murtha criticized the U.S. presence in Iraq as destabilizing and as prolonging the insurgency, and he called for the United States to announce before Iraq's December 15 election for a permanent government that the United States would redeploy its forces. "I believe we need to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis," Murtha said. "I believe before the Iraqi elections, scheduled for mid December, the Iraqi people and the emerging government must be put on notice that the United States will immediately redeploy. All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free. Free from United States occupation."

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), who was recently elected to fill a vacancy, criticized Murtha on November 18, citing a letter from a Marine in Iraq and implying that Murtha was a coward. Schmidt's comments sparked a heated debate in the House of Representatives about the withdrawal of troops. The House voted late Friday 403-3 against a measure calling for immediate withdrawal. Notably, Murtha himself did not vote for immediate withdrawal; he said in his November 17 speech that he would redeploy troops "consistent with the safety of U.S. forces" and still maintain a smaller presence.

President George W. Bush has linked U.S. withdrawal to the status of Iraq military training and forces. Bush has said several times during the summer that U.S. troop withdrawals would occur only once Iraqi forces were prepared to defend themselves (see this August 24 speech on-line here) for an example).

See the rest of my footnotes for this episode here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 11/20/2005 10:12:00 AM