The hysterical over-reaction by Camp McCain and their hacks in the blogosphere to Wes Clark's statement about military service not being a qualification to be president (duh...) continues. This time, Orson Swindle, a Vietnam vet who was a McCain cell-mate in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, and a former FTC chair, launches a REAL attack on the military service of a fellow veteran: Wes Clark. During the second McCain conference call on this non-story in two days, Swindle said the following (courtesy of TPM Muckraker.)
"General Clark probably wouldn't get that much praise from this group. I can't speak for them, but we all know that General Clark, as high-ranking as he is, his record in his last command I think was somewhat less than stellar."
Huh? While no thinking person believes that Wes Clark, who has repeatedly praised McCain's Vietnam service, was demeaning that service, or McCain himself, Swindle's comments were a direct shot at Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. What about "his record in his last command" is Swindle referring to? And isn't THIS, the textbook definition of "Swiftboating"??? Perhaps we should ask McCain surrogate and official SwiftBoat Veterans smear merchant Bud Day.
TPM has audio of the call, as well as the following response to the attack on Clark from the McCain campaign:
It certainly was not an attack on his service - no one would ever disparage that. Everyone honors Gen. Clark's service and sacrifice -- he's literally bled for our country. It was about policy disputes.
Except that it WAS an attack on Clark's service, again, completely unlike the comments Clark made about McCain. And by the way, the same McCain aide that sent TPMM the statement, sent this link to a 2004 National Review story disparaging Clark's service as the head of NATO. Go figure. ... But don't look to the righties to notice the irony. They are completely incapable of irony, or shame. (By the way, according to the Hot Air Blog, on that same conference call, Miss Lindsey Graham said that “Nobody expects John to be elected because he was a POW." Is Graham now going to be attacked on the right for essentially saying what Clark said?)
Clark has continued to defend himself, and well he should. Wes Clark gave 34 years of heroic service to the United States Army and to this country. He came back wounded from Vietnam and stayed in the service, making it his career, at great sacrifice to himself financially, and to his wife and son. Simply stating the obvious: that being shot down during wartime is not an automatic qualification to be president, is nothing like taking the shot at a man's actual service that Swindle did.
BTW, let's see if the media goes as ape-crap over the Swindle remarks as they have over Clark.
I really think we're witnessing the fiery, sputtering end of the conservative movement. They've gone from Bush-worshiping idolaters to utterly insane. These people are so off the rails, they've even accused Jim Webb of "coordinating" a conspiratorial attack on McCain. Absolutely, breathtakingly, unbelievably insane.
"If John McCain believed that serving your country in uniform in wartime made you a better president, he would have endorsed John Kerry against George W. Bush."
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