John McCain and his supporters are indignant that Wesley Clark denigrated McCain’s military service ― even though Clark didn’t denigrate McCain’s military service. Clark actually praised McCain’s service, but the Republicans, with nothing to commend them to the public but a third Bush term, have decided to pretend that Clark denigrated McCain’s military service. They’re just livid about it, because that’s something decent people just don’t do. You never criticize a military hero for his military service. Never, ever.
McCain felt strongly about that four years ago, when he called the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” “dishonest and dishonorable.” “I can’t believe,” he said at the time, “the president would pull such a cheap stunt.”
Well, now he can believe it. Now he’s signed on the same old Swifties to go after Wesley Clark. He says he likes them now, because they support his goals, which now include trashing Wesley Clark’s military service for, um, not trashing McCain’s.
Swifty Bud Day was a hero in Vietnam, which makes all the more pitiful that he’s chosen to behave like such a contemptible scumbag in his old age. He’s back, vile as he was in 2004. “General Clark spent a month in Vietnam, got badly wounded and was evacuated, that was his experience,” says Swifty Bud. “Let’s hold the two of them up and compare.”
Yes, let’s compare. Is Wesley Clark running for president? No, he’s not. Is he claiming that his military service qualifies him to be president? No, he’s not. Is he trashing the service of another veteran? No, he’s not.
Orson Swindle has jumped on the Swift Boat, too, and says that Clark wasn’t so hot as a general, either.
That McCain would stoop to such contemptible tactics, tactics he himself has condemned in the strongest terms, and enlist the very people whose actions he so strongly condemned in 2004, tells you all you need to know about Insane Train McCain. He’s not just a crazy, angry old man. He’s not just a man who’s willing to flip-flop on all his political positions in the hope of appeasing the very worst elements of the Republican Party. John McCain is, in his own words, “dishonest and dishonorable.”
Read more:
Price of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters’ donations (USA Today)
McCain ‘Truth Squad’ Trashes Clark’s Service (Political Machine)
The Buzz: Clark’s remarks still causing an uproar (KansasCity.com)
Digg it!
Stumble it!
Hi, it’s Alceste – I’ve come over to the blogosphere to escape the fundies. That’s a great post, but I have to raise a minor quibble with the term “flip-flop”. I haven’t researched this but I’m certain the term was either invented or popularized by Karl Rove during the Bush/Kerry contest to make people whose opinions change and evolve as they learn and grow look feeble minded. For that reason it makes my skin crawl every time I see it, simply because of its effectiveness. By pounding this term into the public mind the neo-cons have succeeded in getting even thinking, educated, intelligent people – a measure of which is their ability to adapt to new and challenging information – to characterize the relentless search for new information as a form of intellectual faiblesse.
Yeah, anyway, otherwise, great post!
Kerri
Hey Kerri – Thanks for looking in!
You have a point about the way the term flip-flop has been abused, and I agree that it was popularized as part of the worst kind of political campaigning. I don’t think that either McCain or Obama has changed his opinion as a result of an evolving view or a fuller grasp of detail, though. I wrote that post in the morning before work, and in kind of a hurry, so it was a choice between “flip-flop” and “pandering.” Maybe if I’d had more time I’d have thought of a better phrase, but I meant to convey that McCain’s reversals are venal and calculated based on what are believed to be politically expedient reasons. The same goes for Obama.
It may be the case that no one with any real principles is electable in the United States, but if true, that’s really sad.
I agree with you actually. I don’t know why I got so carried away on the “flip-flop” thing. Probably related to quitting smoking. It’s still a great post.