“Chambliss’s victory assures the GOP of at least 41 Senate seats. It also lays to rest one of the nastiest McCarthyite smears of recent times: the repeated assertion by Democrats and the media that former senator Max Cleland’s patriotism is in question.”
Message TO Torranto at “Best of the Web”:
It goes deeper. It means the Georgia voters at least, don’t trust the meme the Democrats sold on all this.. and drdging it up again, was thereby fatal.
Let’s review.
Max Cleland’s patriotism, while in uniform was never at issue. It’s what happened since his return from that experience that is at issue. Let’s be clear about this… Max Cleland’s no military hero, even by his own words, and by his own lights… at least prior to his entry into the political arena…
I didn’t see any heroism in all that. It wasn’t an act of heroism. I didn’t know the grenade was live. It was an act of fate.”
So, if one wanted to be a ‘nice guy’ and better Cleland’s position following the war, one could always ‘gild the lilly’ a bit. And given that the system is fairly easy to ‘game’ as John Kerry [2] so aptly demonstrated, it wouldn’t be hard to do. Let’s say he’s on his way TO having a beer instead of coming BACK from having a few, they reason… because, after all, if we say he’d had a few beers in him at the time of the accident, he’d not get nearly the benefits, wouldn’t be called a ‘war hero’, and so on. And who’s it gonna hurt if we portray the story that way?
So, the press has covered things in this way over the years…
“He told the pilot he was going to stay awhile. Maybe have a few beers with friends. … Then Cleland looked down and saw a grenade. Where’d that come from? He walked toward it, bent down, and crossed the line between before and after.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 5, 1999)
“(Cleland) didn’t step on a land mine. He wasn’t wounded in a firefight. He couldn’t blame the Viet Cong or friendly fire. The Silver Star and Bronze Star medals he received only embarrassed him. He was no hero. He blew himself up.” (The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24, 1999))
“Cleland was no war hero, but his sacrifice was great. … Democratic Senate candidate Max Cleland is a victim of war, not a casualty of combat. He lost three limbs on a long-forgotten hill near Khe Sanh because of some American’s mistake …” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 1996))
Ah, so nobody gets the blame that way… including Cleland, himself.
Cleland even admitted that, but for his accident, he would have “probably been some frustrated history teacher, teaching American government at some junior college.”
We know what the ‘official’ record states. All the news accounts told the exact same story for 30 years — including that Cleland had stopped to have beer with friends when the accident occurred. But these were all drawn from the official record, which we now know to be at least questionable, if not flawed. It’s amazing how these half truths become legend. But, we also know what’s more likley than the official record.
And speaking of bending the record for the advanacement of Cleland and the Democrats, would someone please explain to me why we’re still hearing the often disproved claim that Cleland was injured in the battle for Khe Sanh? Easier to sell him to voters that way, one supposes.
The Democrats built up this myth of Cleland because they needed something to try to tear down George W Bush with. And God help anyone who questions that myth.
For all that we know, Cleland fell on his own ordinence, in that incident after having one too many beers. Certainly not implausable, and given what we know of the Dmeocrats, it would not be unlike them to bend such an incident into one of heroism, the way John Kerry did.
[3]I’ll tell you this… lest you think I’m not in great respect of Cleland…
Where heroism enters the picture… Cleland’s true heroism… came after he came home, where he went on to build a productive life for himself, despite his handicap. That story of inspiration and courage suffered badly at the hands of the Democrats who tarnished that massive and respectable accomplishment by ‘sexing up’ his record, so as to have a better political weapon. If I’m Cleland, I’m pissed at the way I got used by political opportunists.
Bottom line: Given the proclivity of Democrats to pump up the military record of their own, (see the publicly disputed record of John Kerry [2]) I suppose Cleland to be among these. I assume, though I have no proof, he was an unwilling participant in that sexing up of his record. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, here. And here’s the thing; What got laid to rest, Jim, was the weapon… a lie… that Democrats tried to use against Chambliss, GWB and by extension, all Republicans. It is well buried, as it should have been years ago. The upshot here is that Georgia voters, at least, have become more skepitcal of Democrat party generated myths.