Murtha and the Mudslingers-viciousness of the right wing (WaPo)

[kpete]

Murtha and the Mudslingers

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Page A17

I underestimated the viciousness of the right wing.

.........

Authentic war heroes (including McCain) often play down their own heroism. In any event, what we know about Murtha, McCain, Kerry and, yes, Bailey, is that they served in combat in Vietnam. What we know about Bush and Vice President Cheney ("I had other priorities in the '60s than military service'') is that they didn't.

What's maddening here is the unblushing hypocrisy of the right wing and the way it circulates -- usually through Web sites or talk radio -- personal vilification to abort honest political debate. Murtha's views on withdrawing troops from Iraq are certainly the object of legitimate contention. Many in Murtha's party disagree with him. But Murtha's right-wing critics can't content themselves with going after his ideas. They have to try to discredit his service.

........

But from 2000 forward, the Republicans had a problem: They confronted Democrats, first Al Gore and then John Kerry, who actually did go to Vietnam, while it was their own standard-bearers who had skipped the war. Suddenly, service in Vietnam wasn't the thing at all. When a Democrat went to war, there must have been something wrong with the way he did it. Gore's service was dismissed because he worked "only" as a military journalist. You can even find Bush's defenders back in 2000 daring to argue that flying planes over Texas was actually more dangerous than joining the Army and serving in Vietnam the way Gore did.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011600913.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

[rodeodance]

1. its the people who do not see this hypocracy that I am concerned about.

[mark11727]

5. "...well if Faux said it then it MUST be true..."

"...well if Kerry was such a hero, why did he throw his ribbons away...?"

"...well if Kerry is against the war in Iraq, why did he vote for it...?"

"...well if Gore went to Vietnam, why wasn't he in combat...?"

"...well if terrorists don't hate us for our freedoms, why did they do what they did...?"

"...well if Terri Shiavo wasn't awake, how come her eyes were open...?"

:sarcasm:

...and then the masses begain to gobble.

[mod mom]

2. I often wonder how the military could support the neocons, they never

served, they went to war unprepared: no body armour, no contingency plans, no respect for veterans health and welfare. The use of well paid contract support is a slap in the face of those who serve in the armed forces for much less of a pay grade. Their false bravado is so obvious.

I also don't understand how their attacks of true heroes who served doesn't get laughed off the map. My only explanation is the total control of the corporate media.

[Crazy Dave]

3. The main reason I left the republican party: Bush smearing McCain

Even though I had come from a family of Kennedy democrats, I had been a Reagan republican for about 18 years. Once the Bush camp went on the vicious, lying, smear campaign against John McCain, who I would have voted for if he was nominated, I could not believe that even a spoiled rich kid with a "get what I want" type attitude would stoop as low as they did as he couldn't run on his own merits so he had to destroy the other. My wife and I left the party, voted for Gore (here in FL) and have never looked back.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Great EJ Dionne column! K&R!

Excellent passage:

<snip>
Moreover, the right has demonstrated that its attitude toward military service is entirely opportunistic. In the 1992 presidential campaign, when the first President Bush confronted Bill Clinton -- who, like Cheney, avoided military service entirely -- conservatives could hardly speak or write a paragraph about Clinton that didn't accuse him of being a draft dodger. In October 1992, Bush himself assailed Clinton. "A lot of being president is about respect for that office and about telling the truth and serving your country," Bush told a crowd in New Jersey. "And you are all familiar with Governor Clinton's various stories on what he did to evade the draft."
</snip>

Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican!