Posted on 11/18/2007 9:13:01 AM PST by AuntB
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - The first siege of Fallujah was under way in Iraq in April 2004 when a furious Marine lieutenant grabbed a satellite phone and shouted a stream of expletives at the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
"Dad, we've already taken four K.I.A.," hollered Lt. Duncan D. Hunter. "But we're sweeping through the city, and we just got orders to stop attacking. What are you guys doing?"
Within minutes, said Rep. Duncan L. Hunter, the lieutenant's father, he was on the phone to the Pentagon, demanding to know why American troops halfway around the world were pulling back.
More than three years later, the 59-year-old congressman from suburban San Diego is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. His 30-year-old son, now Capt. Duncan Hunter and deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan, is one of three GOP candidates for the House of Representatives seat that his father has held since 1980.
In the trenches
Duncan L. Hunter, an Army Ranger in Vietnam and the son of a Marine who served in World War II, is running for president as a frustrated patriot who's fed up with Pentagon bureaucracy as "freedom is hanging in the balance" in Iraq.
"He was a grunt in Vietnam, and he has taken that with him," said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. "He is very pro-soldier, not at all pro-brass, and that has served him well with his constituency."
Hunter's anti-brass appeal also extends to the campaign he's waging against the "free traders," who he complains have taken over his Republican Party. He bemoans U.S. factory jobs vanishing and a trade imbalance that he fears threatens American security by financing a Chinese military build-up "with money they're getting from us."
Meanwhile, Hunter publicly chafes over lagging construction of his signature legislative achievement, an 850-mile double fence on the Mexican border that he pushed through Congress to rescue "the thin green line of the U.S. Border Patrol" and fortify a "border out of control."
What drives him emerges from his story of the battlefield call from his son. In an interview, he told how his son's unit advanced on Fallujah after the mutilated bodies of four U.S. contractors were hung from a bridge there. When the Marines' attack was aborted, the congressman said, "he chewed me out and had a few choice words for all politicians in general."
Seven months later, Marines retook Fallujah -- by then teeming with Sunni Muslim insurgents -- in the most intense combat of the Iraq war. Arguing that the first Fallujah attack was mishandled, Hunter said, "It was a pretty good lesson to him, and to me, about what's going on on the ground and what the bureaucracy is doing in the United States."
Shaking things up
So, later, in a hotel ballroom in Reno, Nev., Hunter stood before the Conservative Leadership Conference and vowed to shake up Washington. He pledged to stop unfair trade deals, promote a stout national defense and return the American economy to its industrial roots by restoring manufacturing jobs, which he called "the arsenal of democracy."
He also assailed his party for shunning working-class Americans and enabling China to undercut U.S. products.
"We've got too many Republicans now who feel that the words 'free trade' cover anything and make an excuse and rationale for other people to cheat," Hunter said. "One thing I will do as president is stop China from cheating on trade, bring back high-paying manufacturing jobs and hook this party back up with the middle class and the Reagan Democrats that brought us victory ... when we knew we were the party of working Americans."
Hunter is a populist conservative who invokes his father, Bob Hunter, "a rock-ribbed Republican" and subdivision builder who refused to buy discounted foreign steel.
Double campaign
But it's hard to tell what Hunter is campaigning harder for, his presidential bid or his son's House race.
Opening his Reno speech, he said, "The first thing I want to say is I'm an unabashed supporter of another guy running for Congress -- Duncan Hunter."
His son decided to run for the seat after making presidential speeches for his father following his Iraq tour. Since he was recalled to Afghanistan, he's barred from campaigning while on active duty. So the father passes out the son's brochures, saying: "The Marines are looking for a few good men. He's looking for a few shekels to keep his campaign going."
With a characteristic dig at the political class, he boasts of his son's earlier help in his White House campaign against better-funded GOP candidates.
"Five hundred political consultants on one side. One Marine on the other," he said. "It's a good match."
Ping 'em, please.
I just don't see him seriously contending for president presently. He's hamstrung by having to run as a congressman.
Do you think he could possibly win the governorship of California? Bear in mind that Reagan was 56 when he was elected governor. With experience as governor behind him, Hunter would have no serious competition for the presidency on the Republican side. He'd steamroller everyone.
I just don't see him seriously contending for president presently. He's hamstrung by having to run as a congressman.
Do you think he could possibly win the governorship of California? Bear in mind that Reagan was 56 when he was elected governor. With experience as governor behind him, Hunter would have no serious competition for the presidency on the Republican side. He'd steamroller everyone.
Today is D.A.D. did you do D.A.D. yet?
I love the man. He not only talks the talk but he has actually walked the walk.
Hunter for President.
He’s got my vote!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880600/posts
Duncan Hunter, August, 2007:
American Soldiers and Marines must have the ability to
1) destroy the enemy 2) protect themselves
These requirements are interpreted by battlefield commanders who adopt specific rules according to the area of operations. For example: a crowded city is not a free-fire zone, while a situation like the second battle of Fallujah where the civilian population is evacuated is much different. Urban fighting is extremely difficult, because the enemy is often revealed only as they expose weapons immediately prior to their attack. Most battlefield commanders take this into consideration when laying out rules of engagement in specific situations. My recommendation is always to enact ROE’s that favor the survival of U.S. Troops.
Very nice! He’s got my vote.
I agree. It is time to shae up D.C. and a good place to start is to defy conventional wisdom of who can or can’t be elected.
The hell with the most popular, let’s go for the most qualified.
If you like and agree with what he says, why aren’t you supporting him?
Boots on the ground in the oval office!
What’s the address to send contributions to the son? I’ve already contributed to Dad.
Thanks for helpin out cheapskate
Here’s my D.A.D. letter to the editor.
The Presidential Candidate you’re not supposed to know about
So, who wants to keep HIM a secret? The mainstream media, for one. They barely mention his name. They hold debates, and he is given a fraction of the time to respond compared to the media chosen candidates. The media loves globalism, ‘free’ trade, whether ‘fair’ to the USA or not. They also champion unlimited immigration, legal or not and out sourcing your jobs.
Who else? The powers in control of both parties don’t want you to hear about a candidate with a consistent pro USA instead of a pro party record. Neither one have any intention of giving a voice in this race to someone who has had the courage to fight his own party and Bush Administration on cheap labor treaties and give away deals that threaten our sovereignty like foreign countries managing US ports. Both powers favor cheap imported labor over US workers, dangerous imports from China instead of US manufacturing and the thousands of illegal aliens that cross our borders daily.
Of all the candidates, HE is the only one that fought Most Favored Trade status for China and the management of our ports by an Arab country.
HE is the only one who has written and passed legislation that actually fenced some of the Mexican border. He is also the only one with enough compassion to take water to migrants in the desert instead of letting them die of thirst trying to cross illegally. To all the others, this is a new issue. HE has been working tirelessly, mostly alone, to correct this issue for 26 years.
He is one of a few candidates who served in the military . The only one endorsed by Chuck Yeager. The only one to head the House Armed Services Committee and receive military related awards like “Keeper of the Flame”, not to mention a Bronze Star serving in combat as an Army Ranger.
John McCain? NO! John consistently votes to give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty and says you’re a bigot if you don’t. So does Mike Huckabee, by the way. Stop believing the lies. Most of them will not tell you their past record and positions.
Unlike the chosen pack, our best candidate voted against NAFTA, CAFTA, LOST, The WTO, all treaties that import cheap labor and out source USA jobs while chipping away at our strengths as a nation.
HE is the only one who doesn’t just talk about ‘smaller government’.
Know who HE is yet?
HE co sponsored 1000 fewer pieces of legislation written by others in the same time period as did Ron Paul, who claims to be the ‘small government’ candidate. Paul has never gotten one piece of his own legislation into law, rated ‘extremely poor’ in congress.
California’s Congressman DUNCAN HUNTER has successfully enacted TEN bills that he wrote, one which will put another 800 miles of fence on the border.
Duncan Hunter didn’t just start talking about these issues unlike ALL the ‘top tier’ candidates, he’s spent 4 decades serving you! You owe it to yourself and your country to be informed in this vital election. The media isn’t going to tell you and if you allow the party leaders to pick your candidate, you will have to settle for more of the same, or worse. Your choice.
Mine will be the proven record, effectiveness and integrity of DUNCAN HUNTER.
www.gohunter08.com
I don't know, but I'll find it.
So far, Congressman Hunter is the ONLY candidate I could possibly consider voting for without holding my nose too tightly.
Every other Republican candidate is asking us to believe they have REALLY CHANGED from their past positions....
I’m no longer ready to do that...
I will NOT vote for anyone who has EVER protected Illegal Immigration, implemented Sanctuary Cities or voted for Amnesty...
I will NOT vote for anyone who voted or acted to subvert the 2nd Amendment for law abiding citizens...
I will NOT vote for anyone who panders in ANY manner to Illegal Immigrants or Islamists.
I will NOT vote for anyone who has voted against America making maximum effort to extract our own oil resources or develop nuclear power..... or paid undue homage to the Environmental wackos in the country...
I will NOT vote for anyone who has or has promised to vote for any further “normalization” of sexual perversion of any type...
Hmmmmm... There is a very good chance I will have to stay home this year...
I hear ya. I'm writing in Hunter, no matter what the rest of the fools nominate. We've still got time. Don't give up.
Please help Hunter out. Call a talk show and contribute to his campaign:
www.gohunter08.com
Whenever people ask me who I’d vote for, I say Duncan Hunter. The universal response has been, “Who?”
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