One of my blog friends (Nope. Not saying who.), got on another blogger about how he could still like Mark Steyn after this column and this particular passage:
As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column, it wasn't on the ''battlefield.'' It wasn't in combat. [Max Cleland] was working on a radio relay station. He saw a grenade dropped by one of his colleagues and bent down to pick it up. It's impossible for most of us to imagine what that must be like -- to be flown home, with your body shattered, not because of some firefight, but because you made a stupid mistake. Once upon a time, Cleland loathed the Silver and Bronze Stars he'd been given: He was, in his words, ''no hero'' -- which is true. He was a beneficiary of the medal inflation that tends to accompany unpopular wars. But Cleland learned to stop hating himself to the point where he's happy to be passed off as a hero wounded in battle because that makes him a more valuable mascot to the campaign. Sad.
My blogger friend says "picking on Cleland right now is silly". I'm sorry. I say bullshit! I discussed Max Cleland in an earlier post called I am Max, Hear Me Whine.
Steyn is right when he said Kerry was using him as a "mascot". He has ol' Max out stumping (Yeah! Pun intended. I'm a heartless bastard!) for him to try to make the Dimocrats seem like a party of war heroes. Remember, it was the Dimocrats who brought up this Viet Nam thing. They didn't want to talk about it for eight years while they had a fucking draft dodger as the head of their party. Now all of a sudden Viet Fucking Nam is important again.
With all the bullshit about Bush's National Guard records, howza 'bout Kerry's records? I want that phony sumbitch to open up his records. I want to know more about those three purple hearts he got that allowed him to get out of Viet Fucking Nam eight months early. Give me some details.
But back to mad Max. He became fair game ever since he started whining about how the Republicans said he was unpatriotic. I'm getting really sick of hearing the Dimocrats whine about how the Republicans call them unpatriotic when they point out their voting records. As far as I know, the only people whining about patriotism are Dimocrats. I have not heard one Republican call a Dimocrat unpatriotic. Bloggers? Yes. Republicans? No.
So Kerry was a war hero. As I read somewhere else, so was Benedict Arnold before he bacame a traitor. I despise Kerry for what he, VVAW, and Jane Fonda did after Kerry got out of the Navy. Guess what Kerry? I'm calling you unpatriotic.
It has been documented elsewhere about Kerry's record on defense spending. He has opposed almost every major weapons system in his tenure in the Senate. If someone points out that voting record, Kerry whines that he is being called unpatriotic. No, we're calling you weak on defense. If you think that is calling you unpatriotic, fine. If the shoe fits...
But back to Max (again. I keep getting sidetracked.) Terry McAuliffe whines about how the Republicans are calling Max unpatriotic because he left three limbs "on the battlefields of Viet Nam". That is not true and that slimeball McAuliffe knows it. Mark Steyn and Ann Coulter are simply setting the record straight. Remember "Dimocrat" and "the truth" are two totally unrelated things. They're trying to use Max to innoculate Kerry against his voting record and his actions with VVAW and Jane Fonda.
As long as Max is out stumping for Kerry, he is fair game. Yes, it's a shame that he had a tragic accident, but let's not use pity politics. Max was too liberal for Georgia. Chambliss pointed that out. He also pointed out that Max was more interested in union jobs than homeland security. Max lost. Max whines.
John Fonda Kerry is too liberal for this country. He's also weak on defense. That's his record. Does that make him unpatriotic?
If you point that out, the Dimocrats say you think so. They're the ones saying that.
Think about it.