Posted on 08/26/2004 12:30:34 PM PDT by ambrose
Bush refuses note from former senator, veterans
Published Thursday, August 26, 2004
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland tried to deliver a letter protesting ads challenging John Kerry’s Vietnam service to President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch yesterday, but neither a Secret Service official nor a state trooper would take it.
The former Georgia senator, a triple amputee who fought in Vietnam, was carrying a letter from nine Senate Democrats who wrote Bush that "you owe a special duty" to condemn attacks on Kerry’s military service. "The question is where is George Bush’s honor, the question is where is his shame to attack a fellow veteran who has distinguished himself in combat?" Cleland asked. "Regardless of the political combat involved, it’s disgraceful."
Encountering a permanent roadblock to Bush’s ranch, Cleland left without turning over the letter to anyone.
"I have a letter signed by nine members of the U.S. Senate, all of whom have served honorably, and I’d like to hand it to a responsible officer here on the gate," Cleland said as he tried to deliver it to security personnel at the roadblock. He accused a member of the president’s security detail of trying to evade him.
In their letter, the senators said, "This administration must not tacitly comply with unfounded accusations which have suddenly appeared 35 years after the fact and serve to denigrate the service of a true American patriot."
A Texas state official and Vietnam veteran, Jerry Patterson, said someone from the Bush campaign contacted him yesterday morning and asked him whether he would travel to the ranch, welcome Cleland to Texas and accept the former senator’s letter to Bush.
"I tried to accept that letter, and he would not give it to me," Patterson said. "He would not face me. He kept rolling away from me. He’s quite mobile."
Patterson, who spoke with the president on the phone, said the campaign asked him to give Cleland a letter for Kerry written by the Bush campaign and signed by Patterson and seven other veterans.
"You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up," the letter said.
Page 200: "I called the media. . . . I said, 'If I take some crippled veterans down to the White house and we chain ourselves to the gates, will we get coverage?' 'Oh, yes, we will cover that.' So you are reduced to a position where the only way you can get your ideas out is to stage events."
John Kerry's 1971 Testimony Before the Foreign Relations Committee
Warning: Slow loading .pdf file.
LOL
The headline is a lie, as the story admits. Bush sent a representative to accept the letter and Cleland wouldn't give it to him.
You mean accusations like "Kerry was a hero", "Kerry was in Cambodia", or "Kerry was sane"?
geeezzzz, and after W gives Cleland a $136K a year consulting job after he lost his Senate seat...then Cleland stabs W in the back...
do ya suppose Cleland can't understand why W won't return his calls???duhhhh
(Cleland really is the dumbest soldier the U.S. Army ever produced!!)
Well we Marines have Gomer Pyle and the Army has Max(don't pick up that grenade)Cleland!
Very few have covered the letter from the Bush-supporting veteran that was refused by Cleland.
I saw Patterson and Hurley interviewed this morning on Fox(i think). Patterson said pretty much the same thing as the above quote and added that Max refused to look at him or even acknowledge he was there. Then the interviewer asked Hurley why Max wouldn't take the letter he replied,
"Oh, I'm sure that was just an oversight."
I spit coffee everywhere on that one. An "oversight"??????????? It completely amazes me how blatantly the left lies and gets away with it (the fox news guy gave him a total pass on it).
Heard this a.m. on the news via radio that a rep from a veterans group supporting the president accepted the letter. Also, listened to a vet from Georgia on the Bill Bennett show this a.m. who indicated Cleland was voted out of office because (1) he was just plain bad for the Georgian people and Georgians recognized this during held debates and (2) he was so far left he resided left of Ready Teddy Kennedy. He was compared to John Edwards who would never be re-elected beyond his one term because North Carolinians have already figured out how left Edwards really is.
Cleland had a 100% ADA rating - hardly a good match for Georgia voters.
Boy, am I glad the AP isn't biased or anything. < |:/~
AHHHHH...no acually he didn't.
Put a stamp on it, Max.
How come the headline doesn't say.........Kerry spokesman Max C refused a letter from the President of the United States?
Patterson, who spoke with the president on the phone, said the campaign asked him to give Cleland a letter for Kerry written by the Bush campaign and signed by Patterson and seven other veterans.
I suppose this is the kind of story the liberals were looking for. Unfortunately, no one cares about their little staged morality play or the headlines written by the AP.
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