[an amused spectator]

No, I am not shooting from the lip. Ann is dead*ss wrong about this one. I dislike Max Clelland as much as the next Republican, but for her to mock his service and his tragic loss of limbs really is over the top.

Oh, really? So it was OK for Cleland & the Demoscum to mock the National Guard as "weekend warriors" during their drive-by on Dubya, I guess.

You & the William F. Buckleys of the Right can stick to Marquis of Queensbury rules if you like. Us militant conservatives are going to play by the new rules.

[an amused spectator]

The new rules:

Do a drive-by with a straw and a handful of spitwads, prepare to deal with return fire from a minigun with a full belt.

Perforations galore.

[annyokie]

You don't know WTF you're talking about or whom you are talking to. My husband did three tours in VietNam and refuses to condemn Clelland's service.

[RonDog]

See also, from Mark Steyn:

Mark Steyn: Kerry should be wary of dredging up past (Must read)
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | Mark Steyn
Posted on 02/17/2004 12:18:03 AM PST by JohnHuang2

-- snip --

In 2002, the Dems had no ideas and they ran on biography: In Missouri, Jean Carnahan was the brave widow of the late governor; in Georgia, Max Cleland was a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee; in Minnesota, Walter Mondale was the lion of the '84 campaign and a friend of Paul Wellstone. In all three cases the public shrugged and voted Republican. These are serious times and they demand politicians rise to them.

Yet here we are two years later, and they're running on biography all over again. But this time their chosen biography is Vietnam, and for many Americans, and especially boomer Democrats, that's far more psychologically complicated...

-- snip --

...Running on biography is lame enough. Running on fake biography is pathetic.

Likewise, Max Cleland, the former Georgia senator turned cable show hit man for the Kerry campaign on the Bush National Guard ''scandal.'' He's untouchable because, as Terry McAuliffe likes to say, he's a ''triple amputee who left three limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam.''

As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column, it wasn't on the ''battlefield.'' It wasn't in combat. He was working on a radio relay station. He saw a grenade dropped by one of his colleagues and bent down to pick it up. It's impossible for most of us to imagine what that must be like -- to be flown home, with your body shattered, not because of some firefight, but because you made a stupid mistake.

Once upon a time, Cleland loathed the Silver and Bronze Stars he'd been given: He was, in his words, ''no hero'' -- which is true. He was a beneficiary of the medal inflation that tends to accompany unpopular wars. But Cleland learned to stop hating himself to the point where he's happy to be passed off as a hero wounded in battle because that makes him a more valuable mascot to the campaign. Sad...

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