I WILL CUT YOU TO RIBBONS!!!
Posted on 08/26/2004 3:57:25 PM PDT by .cnI redruM
Max Cleland suffered terribly when he went to fight in Vietnam. He accidently picked up a live grenade and suffered mutilation. This was tragic and I genuinely feel sorry that he is confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life.
Another sorry thing occurred when Cleland served in the US Senate. He went along with Tom Daschele's directions and voted against the formation of The Department of Homeland Security under President Bush's terms and conditions. This cost him his Senate Seat because his opponent hammered him on this particular vote and a very large number of Georgians agreed it was not a good decision.
If Max Cleland had ended it there and found a nice happy place to retire from politics, I could only congratulate the man for A) Serving his country, B) Overcoming a tragic physical disability to win a seat in the US Senate. Max Cleland had the opportunity to go out of politics a true role-model.
Unfortunately, Cleland felt embittered by his defeat. He accused his opponent Saxby Chambliss of having ridiculed his patriotism. No Max, Chambliss ridiculed your decision making. He was calling you misguided, rather than treasonous. Terry MacLow-life and a host of other embarrassed Democrats jumped on his bandwagon and spent a lot of time and hot air claiming they lost Election 2002 because a bunch of mean Republicans called them unpatriotic.
Even at this point, Cleland could have shrugged and walked away. His bitterness right after a painful election defeat could be easily forgiven. Other Democratic politicians behaved far worse than Cleland had during the 2002 Election. Cleland would still have left politics a positive and likeable figure.
Cleland's true loss of respect occurred because he allowed his service to his country to be used by John Kerry as a prop for a cynical and cheap campaign stunt. Cleland was enlisted by Senator Kerry to deliver a personal letter from Senator Kerry to President Bush that called on President Bush to stop the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth from airing ads that attacked John Kerry's service as a naval officer in Vietnam. This was done publicly at President Bush's ranch at Crawford, Texas. The media was invited and strongly encouraged to attend.
The letter is nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt on several levels.
A) President Bush has no authority to curtail these ads. Swift Boat Veterans For Truth is an unregulated 527 corporation. They are one of the misbegotten offspring of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.
MoveOn.Org is another such scurrious offspring. These people question President Bush's service record during the Vietnam War and they also produce ads that equate our current president with former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. I find it uniquely curious that none of the concerned senators signing the letter to President Bush has dispatched Currier Cleland, missive in hand, to one of John Kerry's palatial manses to demand that he make them also cease and desist.
B) If John Kerry took serious offence to the SwiftVet ads and was about to throw the gauntlet down to George W. Bush and demand that they meet at high noon with the pearl-handled six-shooters, he would display far more gravitas if he delivered the letter without inviting his media fan club along for the ride. If these ads were truly the causus bellum for a personal grievance between the two men, gentlemen would handle that, well, personally. Dan Rather would be forced to look elsewhere for his nightly propaganda points.
C) Former Senator Cleland was met by two supporters of George W. Bush who offered to convey the letter onward to President Bush. They also offered him a letter to carry back to his principle, John F. Kerry. Cleland would not deign to deliver his letter to anyone other than George W. Bush himself, and refused to carry any letter back. Hopefully, if elected, John Kerry will keep this pathetic performance in mind before placing Max Cleland in charge of the postal service.
Max Cleland has allowed himself to be used as a tool by a cynical, pathetic politician. Waving the bloody shirt has given way to displaying the cauterized stump. Senator Kerry could truly care less about the dignity and honor of Max Cleland, or for that matter of any other soldier present, past or future. Max Cleland should feel embarrassed he ever chose to be a part of this farcifal display.
I WILL CUT YOU TO RIBBONS!!!
He was not drunk. He was on his way to have some beer but he hadn't had anything to drink yet. He also wasn't 'fooling around'. He saw a grenade that he, or someone with him, had dropped on the ground. He didn't know that it was about to explode.
It was a tragic accident but it was neither the result of his being drunk nor fooling around.
I actually thought he did a good job as Ga Sec of State, and may have voted for him the first time he ran for Senate, can't remember.
However, from the time he arrived in Washington he was basically a hack for the Democratic party. His behavior during Clinton's term and especially after 9/11 was reprehensible, and directly responsible for his loss of his Senate seat.
Of course, he blamed it all on nasty Republicans, and the leftist national media still parrots those lines, but we in Georgia know better. If Cleland had acted - and voted -more like Zell Miller, he'd still be in the Senate.
That's false ... it was not his grenade. He did think so for many years though.
Hmm, I was told by a FReeper that Cleland was drunk and fooling around with the grenade at the time, drunk or not, your own ineptness doesn't earn a purple heart. Is Kerry listening?
"Waving the bloody shirt has given way to displaying the cauterized stump."
Ah yes... we know that John Kerry could do this stunt himself except that few would be impressed with his waving of his "bloody Band Aid"...
I don't think it matters if he was drunk or not. The fact is he was not in a combat zone and the grenade was not a enemy grenade that he tried to throw back
Maybe if Cleland had been drunk it would explain his mishandling of the grenade. Otherwise, sheer stupidity?
Are you sure about that hershey? It's a terrible thing to happen to anyone, in battle, in a car accident, or accidently. Do you have proof he was inebriated when he picked up the grenade?
After use, he will find himself in a dumpster.
Cleland isn't a particularly bright man.
And Max would not even look at Comm. Patterson even though Comm. Patterson told Max that he was a representative of our President and the Republican Party. Now how about that for a touch of class from Max. Poor soul.
No. He jumped out of a chopper for a beer run. The guy in front of him dropped the the grenade. The grenade had the trigger off. He picked up a live high explosive instead of running and hitting the ground. Darwin award winner.
Back to those times: The DOORS- 'The End'
He doesn't seem to be a very big one. Let's put it that way.
He's been used and abused. Sometimes by his own hand; other times by others. He could do better.
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