Sampsonblk on Democratic Underground caught a remarkable exchange between a strong Democratic spokesman, ours, and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly didn't know what hit him.

Unlike real news hosts, O'Reilly played the story as being about John's Murtha's assault on the Marines. He hates the military, of course.

After O'Reilly set that all up, he brought on Gen Clark who promptly turned the conversation back to the real subject - which is the massacre and the cover-up.

What really struck me about Gen Clark's appearance was that he continued to stand by Rep Murtha, despite O'Reilly's attempts to smear the congressman.

Gen Clark's key points:

- You won't find any officer in uniform who thinks this is good. No one in the know supports this behavior.

- This was an optional war that the pResident chose, and congressman Murtha is concerned about what its done to our troops, "and so am I."

- Congressman Murtha isn't making this up. He is well respected and the top brass talk to him all the time. He's passing on what he's been told from real sources in the Pentagon.

- Its a legitimate legislative function that he's performing by raising questions about what's going on. Thas his job.

- There was a previous President under investigation, and many in the media didn't feel it was important to wait until the entire investigation was completed. So there precedent for getting involved early on.

O'Reilly tried to imply that US troops killed civilians at Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge. Gen Clark told him to prove it. O'Reilly said its well known that US troops shot SS troops who were trying to surrender. Gen Clark (wisely) pointed out if a man is shooting at you and suddenly drops his gun and says "Ha! Now you can't kill me," that's one thing. But that's NOT what happened in Haditha.

O'Reilly gave up: Well, I could be wrong, but... Well why doesn't Murtha come on my show, then??

NewsBusters commenters are flummoxed, poor babies.

Video, audio and transcript on Securing America.