33 Years Later, Draft Becomes Topic for Dean

New York Times ^ | November 22, 2003 | RICK LYMAN and CHRISTOPHER DREW

[Bubba_Leroy]

After constantly repeating the discredited lie that GWB went AWOL at the end of his National Guard service, it will be interesting to see how the democRATs spin this if Dean is the nominee.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Kerry, who served two tours in Vietnam

Kerry was in the military? I'd never heard that. I wonder why he doesn't ever bring it up in his campaign? [/sarchasm]

[steve50]

No shortage of politicans who dodged that war by one means or another in either party. I'll give ya 2:1 odds the next generation of leaders won't see a shot fired in anger in this war either.

[Reeses]

"If I sit in one position for too long, it bothers me now."

He's a soft momma's boy. Al Gore ran for president to impress his father. Dean is running to impress his mother.

[fishbabe]

thats great...let dean state,when he becomes president,he will push a bill that says no one has to serve,even if a war is raging...let him state that for all to hear....BEFORE HE BECOMES PRESIDENT!!!!!!!

[blanknoone]

What I find amazing is the timing...there is nothing new here that could not have been reported months ago. I see the Times doing Hillary's/Establishment Democrats dirty work/hit. The only news here is that they are directing their ire at those further to the left of the establishment as opposed to those to the right of their 'establishment'

[Kozy]

Kerry was part of a little known French support group in Nam. His french group had the responsibility of surrendering.

[Snuffington]

I'm probably the exeption here, but this is no big deal to me. If he faked a medical condition, that would be one thing. But it looks like he had a real condition. Minor though it was, the military said they didn't want him.

He's not running as a military hero or anything. And voters are free to decide whether his lack of military experience should factor into their support for him.

[The Great RJ]

I guess it's a better excuse than the sham Clinton used to avoid the draft.

[McCloud-Strife]

Just another example of the extreme right trying to discredit and destroy a great Democrat candidate for President... Oh wait, there are no Rascally Republicans mentioned... well, I am sure the Vast Right Wing cooked this one up.

On another note, I have an electronic copy of President Bush's DD-214. For you civlians out there, his honorable discharge paperwork. You umm can't get an "honorable discharge" if your AWOL, sorry Dems. ::waves it about:: I wonder where Clinton kept his at, I would love to see that.

[FlyLow]

Kerry, who served two tours in Vietnam
Kerry was in the military? I'd never heard that. I wonder why he doesn't ever bring it up in his campaign? [/sarchasm]

---

Don't forget that it was Kerry who told everyone he was throwing his Vietnam medals over the wall during a protest of the war. However, those medals now reside on his "ego wall".

[reg45]

The only problem with Dean's back is the yellow stripe.

[Criminal Number 18F]

many Democrats believe they need a candidate with strong national security credentials

No problem. They can vote for Mr Bush.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[oblomov]

>The only news here is that they are directing their ire at
>those further to the left of the establishment as opposed
>to those to the right of their 'establishment'.

.
This shouldn't be too surprising. Clinton and the rest of the DLC realized that they needed to be centrists or even conservatives on some issues to accomplish their agenda elsewhere. Dean would drive the Dems into the wilderness. Dems are notoriously ruthless in their Presidential primaries, and this time around could be even more vicious because of the accelerated primary schedule.

Remember, the DLC was supposed to represent the "third way", an Americanized market economy version of European social democratic politics.

DLC politics is much harder to fight than Dean-style liberal idiocy, simply because it has a sense of reasonableness, plausibility, and compromise about it.

Sometimes conservatives will agree with DLC Dems (e.g. welfare reform). They should work with them on those issues. But I doubt that conservatives would agree with Dean "progressives" on any issues.

[blanknoone]

You're right that this attack by the left on the far left is not surprising, but it is news. Generally the steady drift to the left has meant that they could focus on keeping the center sliding left rather than the 'soon to be moderate' extreme left. Now the far left threatens the leftists steady progress in socializing America. That the establishment leftists are firing back at the far left and using their normal innuendo style, is news.

[waterstraat]

I'm probably the exeption here, but this is no big deal to me. If he faked a medical condition, that would be one thing. But it looks like he had a real condition.

It sounds fake to me, esp. if he was skiing, pouring concrete, and washing dishes. I think he was physically fit enough to have been a soldier.

On the other hand, do we want a president who personally killed vietnamese people? Current government policy is to be as good of friends with the vietnamese commies as we can. We just make a new expanded trade agreement with them, taking many jobs away from americans and giving those jobs to vietnmaese communists.

It is one thing to lie to get out of the army, it is another thing to have someone who made war on one of our current favorite trading partners.

Is it wrong to have someone who lied that enabled him to not hurt one of our best "friends"? If he foresaw that we now would be trying to supply the asian commies with as much high tech and jobs that we can give them, how can you blame him for not wanting to kill the people that our free traders want to partner with?

Either our past policy of opposing communism was bad, or else our current policy of free trade with the commies is bad.

[sergeantdave]

With his skiing skill, it seems he would have fit well into the 10th Mountain Div.

[Belial]

This will be a dead issue after the nomination. It's not like Bush and Dean will be eager to argue over questionable medical deferrments versus a helpful push into the National Guard.

[A.A. Cunningham]

[dighton]

IMHO, "Becomes Topic" is somewhat misleading. It's being shopped to the press and made a topic, with Kerry and Clark as the obvious suspects.

This list will expand: Howard Dean + draft + deferment.