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Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., has withdrawn from the board of directors of a beleaguered Johnstown-based charity founded by a former top aide of Rep. John Murtha. Cleland, a triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, said he has stepped down from the board of the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals with Disabilities. “I’m not associated with PAID,” Cleland said Tuesday. “I am not interested in pursuing that relationship at all.” Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said Murtha would not comment on the situation. The news comes barely a month after Cleland and Carmen V. Scialabba, PAID founder and a former Murtha aide,...

COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED TO A BETTER PERSON! Well ... I won't even pretend that we at the Neal Boortz Show haven't enjoyed this story immensely. Every once in a while it seems that someone gets exactly what's coming to them, and this is what happened to Michael Duga. Who is Michael Duga? Perhaps you remember a few weeks ago when we did a Boortz Power Lunch to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. We really did want former Georgia Senator and wounded Vietnam veteran Max Cleland on the air .. not to talk about politics, but to talk about our wounded...

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.” TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments. Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane...

One more high profile Democrat has gotten cozy with the anti-American group Code Pink. Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator from Georgia and a Vietnam veteran who was grieviously wounded in a grenade accident, met Code Pink leader and murderous Marxist dictator groupie Medea Benjamin at a Napa, California, benefit concert for the National Veterans Foundation headlined by Code Pink supporter Willie Nelson and the Doobie Brothers.A photo of Cleland posing with his arm around Benjamin's waist is posted at a Code Pink web site with the following description:Another big treat was to meet former Senator Max Cleland from Georgia, a...

Rep. Dan Lungren faced off with Democratic challenger Bill Durston in a spirited debate Thursday night that spanned the right and left and rarely reached the political center. On topics that ranged from the war in Iraq to Social Security, the incumbent Republican and Durston, an emergency room physician, jousted and sparred, often in unusually harsh terms. Opposition to the war in Iraq is what drew Durston into the 3rd Congressional District race in February, and he barely restrained his disdain for Lungren, who backs the Bush administration policies there. The Vietnam veteran noted that Lungren had never served in...

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm in the Vietnam War, on Saturday blasted the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq as immoral. "It is immoral to abuse the good nature of our young people, and send them back and back and back (into combat) ... with no strategy to win, and no strategy to end" the war, Cleland said. After Cleland's short speech, Clark - an Arkansas native who sought the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 2004 - returned to the microphone briefly, turning to cast his eyes on...

Democrats put their distinguished soldiers on stage at their state convention with messages of patriotism and a strong national defense. Four-star Gen. Wesley Clark and decorated Vietnam veteran Max Cleland, a former Georgia senator, told delegates Saturday that the administration has botched the war in Iraq and Democrats would be better at handling national security. "We're strong on defense. That's the message that I want people to hear," Clark said, during one of the few times he raised his voice during the keynote speech. "We've got to talk it up." Clark, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004, said the...

THE ROOTS OF CINDY SHEEHAN (COURTESY JAMES TARANTO VIA RUSH LIMBAUGH) "If we get a crippled Nam Vet and take him down and chain him to the White House fence, will you cover it?" JOHN KERRY to desk editor in DC (1971)   (Response: "Oh yeah!") EXPLOITING MAX CLELAND by Mia T, 8.29.04       ax Cleland is remarkable. What a pity he allowed delusory left-wing flights of fancy and lust for power rob him of his nobility. The irony and the tragedy of Max Cleland overwhelms. Remarkably, Cleland did not become an embittered man when John Kerry's...

The Emperor Has No Clothes By: Brian Tracy John Kerry is neither a “war hero” nor a “patriot.” It is about time that someone pointed out that “the emperor has no clothes” and that Americans are being presented with a false choice. If you read the newspapers long enough, a series of facts emerge that appear undeniable and irrefutable. But no one seems to want to “connect the dots” for fear of offending the powers that be in the national media, such as CBS. Here is what we know. First of all, Kerry did not “volunteer” for service in Vietnam....

Why did the Max Cleland connection fall out of the forged document story? Cleland admitted that he is the one who directed Burkett to the Kerry campaign, and talk to him while he was in Texas trying to deliver a letter to Bush. It seems he might have been the “impeachable source” either him or the Kerry campaign. CBS’s Mapes called Lockhardt not to pass Burkett’s phone number, but to thank them for the forged documents, in my opinion. Why don’t we hear Max Cleland’s name in this story anymore? Holtz JeffersonRepublic.com

As expected, Dan Rather has released a statement on the forged documents. This apparently follows his belated interview with Bill Burkett in Texas over the weekend. Here is the key language: Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point...

Rather and 60 Minutes stay resolutely behind the curve. The significant part of the statement--"I no longer have...confidence in these documents"--could and should have been said on September 9. They still can't bring themselves to admit what everyone knows, that the documents are fakes. And Rather's statement studiously avoids the only question that remains open: where did CBS get the forged documents? Specifically, did they come from the Kerry campaign? As we've noted, an email from Bill Burkett indicates that he gave materials to Max Cleland for use in the campaign. Those materials are presumably the forged documents. So Rather...

It's fairly clear to me that the media is about ready to name former Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett as the source of the forged memos in the "Danron Affair" and hope that things end there. CBS is, I'm quite sure, ready to pounce upon this line. They probably won't fire Dan Rather. Instead, they'll fire producer Mary Mapes (the apparent driving force behind the story) and then plead they were duped by a man who, it just happens, has spent time in mental institutions and can therefore be depicted as a crazy fraudster. However, it is equally...

AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign. Also Saturday, a White House official said Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously. The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report on...

When I was in New York for the big protest before this year's Republican National Convention, I was confused by some of the professionally printed signs that the protestors were carrying. The signs said "No Draft No Way". The organization that, I assume, had the signs printed have a web site here. Their "Draft Threat Advisory", by the way, is set at "Yellow, Significant Risk of Conscription." Here is a still from some of the video I took of the protest, so you can see one of the signs from this organization in evidence: The old draft was abolished in...

RNC RESPONDS: "Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses "valuable" information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to "senior" Kerry campaign officials; an apparently unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview. The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear," RNC communications director Jim Dyke says in a paper statement.

Sorry for all of the sirens, but I think they're all pretty much deserved. Mark tips me to a not-so-shadowy link: In an Aug. 21 posting, Burkett referred to a conversation with former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) about the need to counteract Republican tactics: "I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with. But none of them have called me back." Cleland confirmed that he had a two- or three-minute conversation by cellphone with a Texan named...

  RATHERGATE IS ANOTHER WATERGATE: The NexusSo where are the grand juries, special prosecutors + indictments, anyway? (HEY! Where are the calls for them?) by Mia T, 9.18.04 Bill Burkett, the former Texas National Guard officer who has been caught up in the mystery of how CBS News acquired memos that seem to question President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, unsuccessfully offered information and advice to help the Kerry campaign attack Mr. Bush, according to a posting Mr. Burkett wrote in an e-mail newsletter. "I spent some time on the phone with the Kerry campaign seniors yesterday," Mr. Burkett...

EXPLOITING MAX CLELAND by Mia T, 8.29.04   ax Cleland is remarkable. What a pity he allowed delusory left-wing flights of fancy and lust for power rob him of his nobility. The irony and the tragedy of Max Cleland overwhelms. Remarkably, Cleland did not become an embittered man when John Kerry's self-inflicted, bacitracin+bandaid-treated, tickets-out-of-Vietnam scratches were deemed worthy of three purple hearts while his three missing limbs were deemed worthy of none; this, even after insult was added to injury and he was dispatched to Texas to lend his phantom limbs to Kerry's self-serving cause. Cleland became embittered, rather, because...

kindly post or freepmail links to files. thx.

Last week I used this space to explore the history of dirty tricks in American politics. As you would remember, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had released a sequence of advertisements on television casting doubt on Senator Kerry's much vaunted Vietnam War record. Today, as I sat down to submit my article, I noticed an item in the news concerning the swift boat vets once again. Early yesterday, Max Cleland, a former US Senator from Georgia ventured down to the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas, to deliver a letter to Bush requesting him to personally denounce the Swift Boat...

The Kerry campaign sent Max Cleland down to President Bush's Texas ranch yesterday to complain about the Swiftvet ad campaign, hoping that Cleland's image as the quintessential Vietnam veteran who sacrificed three limbs in a wartime accident will cause other vets to take notice. But there's one detail about Cleland that Kerry & Co are hoping nobody notices: The fact that he's been bankrolled over the years by Vietnam veteran Public Enemy No. 1, "Hanoi Jane" Fonda.

BY JAMES TARANTO Wednesday, August 25, 2004 2:53 p.m. EDT That '70s Show "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.' "--John Kerry, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971 "Kerry is sending to Crawford former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a frequent companion of Kerry's on the campaign trail and a fellow Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs during the war. Cleland . . . will...

If you listen to talk radio on a regular basis, you'll notice a chorus of complaints on a single theme. How can the widow Teresa Heinz Kerry use the fortune she inherited from Republican Senator John Heinz to aid the liberal John Kerry's presidential campaign? Furthermore, how can John Heinz's sons so blithely lend their support to a man of the left like Kerry? The complaints assume that Senator Heinz was a conservative or even a right-of-center moderate. Neither was the case. John Heinz was the first man in his family to choose public service over a place at the...

I'll get into Sandy Berger's pants, crowded as they are, momentarily. But let me sneak up on them in a roundabout way. A few days ago, I woke up to find an e-mail from a pal enclosing the following UPI story: "Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday." "Isn't that GREAT NEWS?" asked my friend, rhetorically. Well, the story didn't pan out, and a couple of hours later he e-mailed again to apologize for the premature yelping and high-fiving, and adding that he hadn't meant it...

<p>Max Attacks Sunny John Edwards, as we've noted before, is singularly ill-suited to the traditional vice-presidential role of political hatchet man. So the Kedwards ticket has outsourced that job to a surrogate, someone John Kerry apparently never seriously considered as his running mate: Max Cleland, the patriotic former senator from Georgia.</p>

Per Carl Cameron, Fox News, in a conference call today Max Cleland, trashed President Bush. He said that George W. Bush wanted to be president "because he (Pres. Bush) concluded that his daddy was a failed president." Bush wanted to be a macho man. Bush lied to congress.

US Democrats stepped up attacks on George W. Bush's anti-terror policies when an official of White House candidate John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign said the president "flat-out lied" over the Iraq war. Former senator Max Cleland made his remarks in a conference call to reporters with Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe as part of a party offensive ahead of this week's release of a major report sure to fuel criticism of Bush's war on terror. Cleland, a national co-chairman of Kerry's campaign, described the Bush administration's arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda terrorists,...

ARLINGTON, Va. WITH the air-conditioning off to avoid extraneous sound as the camera rolled, George Butler and Max Cleland sat a scant three feet apart here in the sticky-hot party room of Mr. Cleland's apartment building, doing their bit to get their mutual friend John Kerry elected leader of the free world. Mr. Cleland — a veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, then went on to share six years in the Senate with Mr. Kerry — expertly wove together lines from the candidate's stump speech, a tribute to Mr. Kerry's courage and his own war story. Mr. Butler, a...

Dan Rather introduced the June 15 CBS Evening News profile by relating how Pitts "talked one on one with Theresa Heinz-Kerry and her one of a kind take on life and politics." Pitts began his glowing profile: "She is both rich and reachable." Heinz-Kerry in a classroom with pre-schoolers: "I'd like to be a dog. Wouldn't you like to be a dog? I would. Dogs are friendly." Pitts: "Teresa Heinz-Kerry is one of the wealthiest women in the world, worth an estimated $500 million. She is not easily defined." Pitts to Heinz-Kerry, as two sit in chairs in an ornate...

We are now oh so thrilled that Teresa Heinz Kerry has seen fit to share with us the reasons behind her switch from the Republican to the Democratic parties. Ms. Kerry, the multi-millionaire supporter of numerous liberal causes, tells us that she made the switch because she became disgusted when Republicans attacked the patriotism of Max Cleland during the 2002 election. I was right here in Georgia during that election doing talk. I'm here to tell you that the patriotism of Max Cleland was never an issue in Georgia in that campaign. It didn't happen. Max Cleland remains a beloved...

WASHINGTON - Teresa Heinz Kerry says anger, not ideology, prompted her to become a Democrat. The wife of Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says her emotion stemmed from the way the Republican Party, to which she had pledged allegiance, treated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002. Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm as an Army captain during the Vietnam War, lost his re-election bid in a bitter campaign against then-Rep. Saxby Chambliss. The GOP had raised questions about Cleland's patriotism because of his position on legislation to create the...

Heinz Kerry Tells Why She Joined Democrats By EMILY FREDRIX, AP WASHINGTON (June 14) - Teresa Heinz Kerry says anger, not ideology, prompted her to become a Democrat. The wife of Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says her emotion stemmed from the way the Republican Party, to which she had pledged allegiance, treated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002.Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm as an Army captain during the Vietnam War, lost his re-election bid in a bitter campaign against then-Rep. Saxby Chambliss. The GOP had raised questions about Cleland's patriotism because...

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry insisted on being awarded his first Purple Heart in Vietnam even though his injury amounted to no more than a "fingernail scrape," his commanding officer at the time now says. Retired Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard tells the Boston Globe that he can still recall Kerry's wound, and that "it resembled a scrape from a fingernail," the paper said. "I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," Hibbard insists. Still, the former Navy man remembered that Kerry insisted on receiving a Purple Heart for the wound he said was incurred during a Dec. 3,...

Among the attendees at the Democratic National Committee's gala "unity" dinner last week was former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who now spends so much time on stage with Sen. John Kerry that he's practically Kerry's running mate. Cleland, who was defeated in a famously brutal 2002 campaign, has said losing his Senate seat left him humiliated and mired in deep depression, but you wouldn't know it from his glamorous arrival at the unity event. I was standing near an elevator when the doors opened and Cleland, who lost two legs and an arm to a grenade explosion in Vietnam, rolled...

Former Sen. Max Cleland said Sunday there was no reason for Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry to release his full medical file - including records documenting the injuries that won him three Purple Hearts in Vietnam...

Former Sen. Max Cleland said Sunday there was no reason for Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry to release his full medical file - including records documenting the injuries that won him three Purple Hearts in Vietnam - calling requests for the Vietnam records "the height of hypocrisy." "That might be the height of hypocrisy, for people who never went to Vietnam [to ask for Kerry's wartime medical file]," Cleland, a leading Kerry backer, told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg. "I mean - I felt a wound. John Kerry felt a wound," he added. Sen. Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam...

Coulter Attacks Cleland's War Record Columnist and television commentator Ann Coulter, in a column published this week, said former Senator Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, is no war hero. Cleland, as he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, is saying President Bush’s military record is inferior to Kerry’s service in Vietnam. “The question should be: Where were you in the war of your generation? Did you take your place in the line? Or did you escape and avoid, by political means, and then cut short your tour of duty to go to Harvard...

Kerry's Vietnam service deserves a look The Democrats have been making much hay over President Bush's time in the National Guard. However, John Kerry's Vietnam service has been taken for granted. In only four months in Vietnam, Mr. Kerry won a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. That is some record. Better than Audie Murphy, Sgt. York or even Hollywood's Rambo. Yet something here does not compute. In action, any combat vet will say there are few minor wounds. Yet Mr. Kerry took three of them in 16 weeks and had little down time. Upon the third award,...

Sen. Joseph Maxwell Cleland Sen. Max Cleland, U.S. senator from Georgia, served in the Army from 1965 to 1968 and as a Signal Corps officer from Oct. 18, 1967 to Dec. 23, 1968 in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded in a grenade explosion. Sen. Cleland was an aide to then-BG Tom Rienzi at Fort Monmouth, N.J., when he volunteered for duty with 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. First assigned to 1st Cavalry’s Signal battalion, CPT Cleland then volunteered as communications officer for 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry, which had been chosen for Operation Pegasus – the relief of Khe...

All the demokrats have been churning up the fake outrage over Cleeland being defeated, and citing Chambliss "questioning" Max Cleeland's patriotism. Of course, he lost because he was too liberal and the voter of GA knew it. But Kerry has campaigned on the union protection issue in the homeland security bill. The relevant quote: I will remind those Republicans content to give speeches about the heroes of New York City that every one of those firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical personnel who rushed up the steps to give their lives so that others might live - they were all...

Even before John Kerry arrived in Georgia on Saturday, a leading Republican took aim at the Democratic presidential front-runner. "When you have a 32-year history of voting to cut defense programs and cut defense systems, folks in Georgia are going to look beyond what he says and look at his voting record," Sen. Saxby Chambliss said in a conference call arranged by the Bush campaign. Kerry returned fire Saturday night after stepping off a plane at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. "Saxby Chambliss, on the part of the president and his henchmen, decided today to question my commitment to the defense of...

Max Cleland, Liberal Victim Election mythology Meet the new Florida. He is the former Democratic senator from Georgia, Max Cleland. Just as the 2000 Florida voting fiasco symbolizes for Democrats the election-stealing illegitimacy of Bush Republicans, Cleland's 2002 reelection defeat represents their low-blow tactics on national security. Cleland, who came back from Vietnam a triple amputee, travels often with Sen. John Kerry as the leader of the presidential candidate's "band of brothers." On the campaign trail, he is considered a sainted political martyr, the embodiment of liberal victimhood in the Age of Bush. This is trumped-up mythology based on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John Kerry stands astride the decades, reaching back 35 years to his days as a Vietnam War hero to show the measure of his character now as a presidential candidate. The pitch has been a powerful energizer for Kerry's campaign and now critics are hoping to use the rest of Kerry's war story to the opposite effect. Kerry rarely gives a speech anymore without thanking the "band of brothers" who helped catapult his presidential bid from lost cause to apparent Juggernaut. With phone banks, personal appearances and campaign ad testimonials, Kerry's war buddies and other veterans...

File under: 'Omission Accomplished' Posted: February 18, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Universal Press Syndicate Liberals are hopping mad about last week's column. Amid angry insinuations that I "lied" about Sen. Max Cleland, I was attacked on the Senate floor by Sen. Jack Reed, Molly Ivins called my column "error-ridden," and Al Hunt called it a "lie." Joe Klein said I was the reason liberals were being hysterical about George Bush's National Guard service. I would have left it at one column, but apparently Democrats want to go another round. With their Clintonesque formulations, my detractors make it a little difficult...

Meet the new Florida. He is the former Democratic senator from Georgia, Max Cleland. Just as the 2000 Florida voting fiasco symbolizes for Democrats the election-stealing illegitimacy of Bush Republicans, Cleland's 2002 re-election defeat represents their low-blow tactics on national security. Cleland, who came back from Vietnam a triple amputee, travels often with Sen. John Kerry as the leader of the presidential candidate's "band of brothers." On the campaign trail, he is considered a sainted political martyr, the embodiment of liberal victimhood in the Age of Bush. This is trumped-up mythology based on the idea that Republicans "questioned Cleland's patriotism"...

Have you all read Ann Coulter's latest column?: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20040219.shtml In a previous column, she stated a fact that is beyond dispute - that former Sen. Max Cleland was wounded during a freak accident when he attempted to pick up a grenade while in Vietnam, and not while in actual battle with the VietCong. For stating that obvious fact, which even Cleland admits to, Ann Coulter was called a liar by several pundits in the liberal media. Even some Freepers were angry at Ms. Coulter. In her latest column, she lays the issue to rest, providing news sources to prove the...

Liberals are hopping mad about last week's column. Amid angry insinuations that I "lied" about Sen. Max Cleland, I was attacked on the Senate floor by Sen. Jack Reed, Molly Ivins called my column "error-ridden," and Al Hunt called it a "lie." Joe Klein said I was the reason liberals were being hysterical about George Bush's National Guard service. I would have left it at one column, but apparently Democrats want to go another round. With their Clintonesque formulations, my detractors make it a little difficult to know what "lie" I'm supposed to be contesting, but they are clearly implying...

Liberals are hopping mad about last week's column. Amid angry insinuations that I "lied" about Sen. Max Cleland, I was attacked on the Senate floor by Sen. Jack Reed, Molly Ivins called my column "error-ridden," and Al Hunt called it a "lie." Joe Klein said I was the reason liberals were being hysterical about George Bush's National Guard service. I would have left it at one column, but apparently Democrats want to go another round. With their Clintonesque formulations, my detractors make it a little difficult to know what "lie" I'm supposed to be contesting, but they are clearly implying...

Cleland drops a political grenade February 12, 2004 Former Sen. Max Cleland is the Democrats' designated hysteric about George Bush's National Guard service. A triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, Cleland is making the rounds on talk TV, basking in the affection of liberals who have suddenly become jock-sniffers for war veterans and working himself into a lather about President Bush's military service. Citing such renowned military experts as Molly Ivins, Cleland indignantly demands further investigation into Bush's service with the Texas Air National Guard. Bush's National Guard service is the most thoroughly investigated event since the Kennedy assassination. But the...