Shooting down Cunningham's legend

San Diego Union ^ | January 15, 2006 | Alex Roth

[Flightdeck]

Good fighter pilot, scumbag politician.

[Pukin Dog]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1558704/posts

Already posted with discussion

[Non-Sequitur]

"I told them, 'I will personally rip your tits off, and I guarantee you'll die at your present rank,' " McKeown recalled.

Now THAT is a demonstration of a talent for military leadership.

[sgtbono2002]

Please name one Congressman or Senator on Capitol Hill who doesnt have a sense of entitlement.

[JOE43270]

Admiral Cunningham has done things that I believe he is even sorry about. I'm not Navy I'm U.S. Air Force and I consider him and Willie Driscoll BROTHERS. I'm sticking by them and even though I am not there to guard his six. The F-18 E/F model is in service today because Adm. Cunningham fought for it. Don't come back to me and start telling me how he got money for what he did. I don't care because the weight of the electronics went down and the fuel load went back up and a lot of Navy and Marine pilots have enough fuel to go around now and try to trap again. The Admiral is not a saint though take a look around how many do you see. Look at some of the good things he did. Yes, we all know that you can do a hundred good things and when you do one single bad thing the hundred good things don't count anymore. Remember he is a fighter pilot. Being an U.S. Air Force jet engine mechanic I've seen them in real life and the aircraft they flew. If they didn't have the attitudes they have more of them would have never come HOME.

[Brilliant]

It just proves that being a good soldier doesn't qualify you for public office.

[WideGlide]

Grounded Paper Tiger.

[Restorer]

He was undone, they say, by the same qualities that made him an effective pilot: a cocky attitude, a sense of entitlement, a mind undistracted by complicated thoughts.

A sense of entitlement and an absence of ethics is a disastrous combination. The other two qualities would never have gotten him into serious trouble, by themselves.

[Pukin Dog]

Admiral?

I guess you were really never BROTHERS at all, huh?

Nice try.

[wizr]

I understand Hitler was a good artist. If you hold yourself above those around you, it is because you are so very small inside.

[JOE43270]

Yes he was when he retired.

[JOE43270]

All that have worn America's uniforms are Brothers and Sisters. So maybe you never wore a uniform of America that's why you wouldn't understand that statement.

[Pukin Dog]

I think you need meds.

[JOE43270]

Shove off PUKE. Because of the good things Cunningham did, you can run your PUKIN mouth like you do.

[dljordan]

"Please name one Congressman or Senator on Capitol Hill who doesnt have a sense of entitlement."

Ron Paul?

[GaltMeister]

I seem to remember CDR (Ret) Randy Cunningham campaigning on the main drag in Coronado, just outside NAS North Island in 1990.

I dunno about this Admirable bidnezz. :o)

[zzen01]

Be careful about what you say about Naval Aviators. I, in my experience of 20 years enlisted in the US Navy(8 years as an ABH and 12 years as an IS(3 of that being in an F-14 Squadron, VF-111)) have found most(not all) Naval Aviators to be VERY shallow, thin skinned and full of themselves. Why do you think that the Navy Tac Air community let Tailhook '91 happen. TH '91 KILLED most of the A-6 and F-14 Navy community and left the door open for the sub-standard A-7(now "F/A-18 "where is the tanker") to take over a kill Navy Tac Air(in my opinion). OK Flame me away!!!

[Pukin Dog]

Now I KNOW you don't have a clue. If you can use my handle and not recognize it, then I know what you are all about. Thats fine, a lot of people claim to know Duke who really don't. You aint the first. If I were you, I would not keep diggin. Let me help you. Go read the original thread on this at the link I posted above. You might learn something.

[demkicker]

I don't give a flip about how great a fighter pilot Cunningham WAS or all the heroics and good deeds he is credited with.

I do care that he became a crooked politician who did more than betray his constituents. He is far worse than Tom DeLay ever thought about being. The perks that come with being a U.S. Representative weren't enough for his greediness. Cunningham's lust for enriching himself have forever tainted him as a crooked politician.

It's too bad that he alone ruined his once stellar reputation because he so dearly wanted a multimillion dollar house and a rolls royce, etc. But it's worse that Cunningham not only left the high ground, but has damaged the GOP and his political band of brothers. How much damage he's done is yet to be determined.