Posted on 04/08/2008 1:07:50 PM PDT by Froufrou
Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Barack Obama supporter, apologized to John McCain Tuesday for suggesting to a West Virginia newspaper that the Arizona senator does not care about “the lives of people” caught in the wars he champions, dating back to his Navy service in Vietnam.
The apology came after Barack Obama’s campaign swiftly criticized the West Virginia senator for the remarks quoted Monday in his hometown newspaper. Rockefeller told The Charleston Gazette that McCain is too far removed from the repercussions of war to deal with them.
“McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit,” Rockefeller told the newspaper, which published the article on the interview Tuesday. “What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues,” he is quoted saying.
On Tuesday, Rockefeller issued a statement, saying, “I have deep respect for John McCain’s honorable and noble service to our country. I made an inaccurate and wrong analogy and I have extended my sincere apology to him.
“While we differ a great deal on policy issues, I profoundly respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words,” he said.
“John didn’t drop bombs at 35,000 feet in Vietnam. The bombs were not laser-guided,” he said. “I’m glad Senator Rockefeller apologized, but at the end of the day behavior like this basically comes from wanting to win too badly. We don’t need to manufacture issues in this race.”
(Excerpt) Read more at elections.foxnews.com ...
Speak of the devil ping.
...and I don't mean McCain..
Pathetic!
That asshole (Rockefeller) should resign from the Senate immediately.
Rockefeller’s disgraceful statements should be followed by his resignation, not his apologies. His remarks were defamatory to US servicemen, not only to McCain.
Great, one CFR guy attacking another CFR guy. Get we get back to issues.
Jay Rockefeller: man of the people.
what an idiot.. and a senator to boot.. altho that seems synonymous with what many have become in the most exclusive club in the world... idiots
Obviously the dumba$$ doesn’t know laser guided bombs didn’t exist in the Vietnam era. Who’s not in touch, now?..........
Off topic, but yes they did.
McCain may be an SOB, but he’s our SOB.................
Your point being what?
I appreciate your input. Tell us how you really feel. Is he a schmoe or just a schmuck?
"The global community -- in the form of the United Nations -- has declared repeatedly, through multiple resolutions, that the frightening prospect of a nuclear-armed Saddam cannot come to pass. But the U.N. has been unable to enforce those resolutions. We must eliminate that threat now, before it is too late."
Senator John D. Rockefeller (Democrat, West Virginia) Also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee Addressing the US Senate October 10, 2002
Laser guided bombs in Vietnam?..............
Lindsay is a very girly man, isn't he? He just seems a bit too effeminate to be from South Carolina, though. IMO...
Maybe McCain will pick him to be VP ?? Wouldnt that be swell! /sarc
Yeah. War creates innovation, either creating death or saving life.
Should McCain get elected I think West Virginia might be in for a little “pay cut”.
Yeah, I think they had them at the very end of the War, but John McCain had already been a POW for some years by then.
Sheriff John D. Rockefeller: There’s no way, NO way, that you sprang from my loins. Soon as I get home, first thing I’m gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!
lol.
He’s a rich schmuck,, a silver spoon’d maroon elite..
It is a disgrace that he is even allowed to sit in the Senate much less hold chairmanships of any committees.
I’ll leave it at that.
It must have been a closely held secret, but I thought Laser guided bombs didn’t appear until the 70’s.......
So, here is a United States Senator who either 1) doesn’t know a thing about past and current weapons systems (I, a mere working stiff from the southside of Chicago, picked up on his error right away) or 2) figures people are too damned stupid to figure out when he is lying.
Having the likes of Jay Rockefeller in the position he is in says volumes about why our politics and government are the way they are.
And where was Mr. Platinum Spoon (born the year after John McCain) during the Vietnam War? He was working his way through the upper bureaucracy at the Peace Corps and VISTA.
I'm not McCain fan ... But McCain served his country honourably, in combat. For a creep like Rockefeller to IGNORANTLY disparage his service is shameful.
“I have deep respect for John McCain’s honorable and noble service to our country. I made an inaccurate and wrong analogy and I have extended my sincere apology to him.
It's better that the clintonian "I'm sorry if you were offended" crap ... but it still comes across like "I'm sorry I got caught."
~snorrlfe!~ “Girly man!”
I’d forgotten that Jay made VISTA the new slumbuzzword of the Limousin Libs.
| Senator Jay Rockefeller | Bill Maher |
| "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues." | "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly." |
Laser-guided weapons were first developed in the United States in the early 1960s. The USAF issued the first development contracts in 1964, leading to the development of the Paveway series, which was used operationally in Vietnam starting in 1968. Although there were a variety of technical and operational problems, the results were generally positive. LGBs proved to offer a much higher degree of accuracy than unguided weapons, but without the expense, complexity, and limitations of guided air-to-ground missiles like the AGM-12 Bullpup. The LGB proved particularly effective against difficult fixed targets like bridges, which previously had required huge loads of "dumb" ordnance, and large numbers of sorties, to destroy.
Time to begin the construction of the gallows in DC!
1968, Yes I saw that in WIKI. McCain was shot down in october of 67, so he never saw a laser guided bomb.......
This was willful ignorance on Rockefeller's part, therefore the apology is totally insincere. Allegedly McCain does not forget a slight (at least where Republicans are concerned). Hopefully Sen. Rockefeller will pay a price for his rant.
OK ... so Rockefeller was talking out his ass.
What else is new?
I was thinking ‘71 or ‘72. I have a vague recollection that the USAF took down an important bridge in North Vietnam that had withstood all kinds of bombing during Linebacker I.
But this time he was being personally insulting. I would think that a man who works together with McCain everyday would have a little more respect for his suffering as a POW than to make snide comments like this.....................
VISTA.......Didn’t work for Microsoft in computers either..............
Rockwell International Corporation developed the first modern electro-optical guided bomb dubbed the GBU-8 in 1967 and later developed its follow-on-the Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) called the GBU-10 Paveway II in 1968.
His great granddad J.D. must be very ashamed of this great grandchild idiot that was spawned.
In the 1800s, they used to have fistfights in congress.
ROTFLMAO!
I will tell you I am no McCain supporter, but I did work in the aviation community and I can tell you that Ground Pounders love to see friendlies dropping steel on the bad guys.
There was even a gunfight in Congress once..............
I'm betting West Virginia votes for McCain.
That was nice of Rocky. F*** him anyway.
I think your confusion stems from thinking that Senator Rockefeller is a ‘man’. He is not. He is a lib and therefor a ‘person’. Persons commonly have very little in common with a ‘man’, primarily in that they lack a sense of honor and do not possess what is known as decency.
Jaye Rockefeller is an arrogant snot. This is the same hypocrite who voted for the 1994 `assault weapons’ ban and boasted of owning an AR-15. Needed it, Jaye said, because of all us yahoos out there who didn’t seem to appreciate what he was doing to ameliorate our drab wretched lives.
And Rockefeller dares criticize a decorated Vietnam P.O.W.!
Somebody needs to flatten his patrician Roman nose.
Good post.
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