You mean it was all just a temper tantrum?

Antiwar symbol du jour Rep. Jack Murtha (D,PA) has gone from relative obscurity to mainstream media and left wing (yes, that's redundant) hero rapidly following his recent call for an immediate pullout of US troops from Iraq. Now we find out in this week's Newsweek cover story that the whole thing was just a temper tantrum:

[W]hen Murtha tried to write George W. Bush with some suggestions for fighting the Iraq war, the congressman's letter was ignored by the White House (after waiting for seven months, Murtha received a polite kiss-off from a deputy under secretary of Defense). Murtha, who has always preferred to operate behind the scenes, finally went public, calling for an orderly withdrawal from Iraq.

In the furor that followed, a White House spokesman compared the Vietnam War hero to "Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party." When that approach backfired, President Bush called Murtha a "fine man . . . who served our country with honor." The White House has made no attempt to reach out to Murtha since then. "None. None. Zero. Not one call," a baffled Murtha told Newsweek. "I don't know who the hell they're talking to. If they talked to people, they wouldn't get these outbursts. If they'd talked to me, it wouldn't have happened."

No word on whether he cried, stomped his feet or let out a Howard Dean scream at any point during the process.