Posted on 05/26/2006 3:23:30 PM PDT by RWR8189
JOHN McCAIN IS, without a doubt, heroic.
Disagree with his politics, mistrust his shifting political alliances, but no one who's benefited from the tortured sacrifices he made at the Hanoi Hilton should question his integrity. How can we, whole in body and strangers to the hell he experienced, challenge this patriot? To do so indicates a fundamental inhumanity.
That aptly describes the young woman who stood up last week and ridiculed the senator from Arizona. Jean Sara Rohe, a graduating senior at the New School in New York, introduced McCain before he delivered his commencement address.
Ms. Rohe took the opportunity to attack McCain because he supports the war in Iraq, making him a proxy for the president she and her ilk so obviously detest. Her words, dripping with the elite disdain perfected by liberals, is an example of how the pampered progeny of the boomers are always demanding rights without acknowledging prior debts.
The righteous Ms. Rohe was only able to give voice to her beliefs because of McCain and others like him who sacrificed their youth (and, in some cases, their lives) to secure the freedom of strangers. You wonder what sacrifices this young woman has ever made for her country, or if she even thinks it merits the effort.
The disrespect didn't stop there. At one point, the school's president, Bob Kerrey, admonished the crowd to let McCain speak, dryly noting that it takes courage to stand at a lectern but none to scream from the crowd.
The response? Kerrey, who left part of his own leg on a battlefield in Vietnam and who received the Medal of Honor, was called a "war criminal." Given the caliber of the accuser, this is actually high praise.
To hear these things makes my blood boil. What type of people are we, so mired in our partisan anger, that we dare attack the few and singular examples of valor in our midst?
McCain, Kerrey and their comrades deserve respect and gratitude. If we disagree with their politics, the remedy is at the ballot box. But to label as "criminals" men who withstood physical assaults that make Abu Ghraib look tame? Citizenship is wasted on such as these.
Like Vietnam, Iraq is a lightning rod for controversy. Many Americans genuinely feel that we should never have invaded a country that (they say) posed no strategic threat. Many others believe that the threat existed, and provide salient arguments to counter the tired claim of "the president lied." Still others believe that even though the invasion was flawed in its execution, it was a necessary exercise of executive authority. Our country is divided, and the rhetorical battles are as fierce as the real ones.
But regardless of our personal convictions, there is no place in public discourse for the rantings of spoiled children who have never risked life or limb for the greater good. The First Amendment protects their right to protest, even though it is defiled by the content of their thoughts. Unfortunately, it doesn't endow them with courage or character.
Of course, some would disagree. Arianna Huffington has called Ms. Rohe fearless, or words to that effect. Others have praised Jodie Foster, who graced our local Penn graduates with a nice rap song and some ruminations on how we squandered the good will of the world's people.
Still others think that Mumia Abu-Jamal has something of value to impart from his seat on death row. Cop-killers, actresses and clueless little girls. Our graduates are truly blessed.
What most upsets me is that hardly anyone in the liberal community has criticized the attack on McCain. Remember the outrage at "swift-boating" and the indignant defense of Jack Murtha?
Those who were rightly upset at the mud thrown in John Kerry's direction are conveniently silent when it comes from their own side. Those who said we should listen to Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal of troops because of his war record turn their backs on McCain and stigmatize Kerrey. Their hypocrisy is limitless.
My wish for Ms. Rohe is that, away from the admiring cameras and accompanied only by her conscience, she make as great a mark on society as John McCain and his brothers-in-arms. But I doubt it. The only Hilton she'll ever occupy belongs to Paris' daddy.
Her remarks were disrespectful. Had McCain wanted to return the favor, he could have said that Rohe would have to tie a rare steak and a bottle of wine to her butt to get a date.
He's a politician. She isn't.
Hey McCain, thanks for your service in Nam. For what you are doing now, I hope you get the worst crotch rash that has ever been. The one that can only be cured with a blow torch. Have a nice day.
If I could reach through the computer monitor and snap your neck with my bare hands... it would have been over the second you wrote that crap.
I would never vote for McCain, but McCain served with the highest honors and he has NEVER stood before the people of America and called our brave U.S. troops killers, as Kerry and Murtha have done.
You make me sick to my stomach. You are no different than a moonbat liberal, me, me, me....
I would not challenge him in that disrespectful way. I show my feelings at the ballot box. I fear that politics and power have accomplished what years of torture could not, he has been compromised.
And your service to this country has been what? No need to answer. I already know. Nothing.
I really have come to see through McLame. I do not like the man or his politics (JMHO).
Since he is a Republican (although moderate to liberal) he deserves to be treated with a certain level of decorum.
I cannot support any anti-American, leftist POS ever insulting one of us... even a Rino. Even Rino's are above those bottom feeders!
LLS
From the Inquirer :-)
Yeah, I guess he became a disabled vet from falling off his chair while sitting at the computer, like you are, huh? Looks like you don't know squat.
But does he support the whole War on Terror, including what we have to do about Iran?
If you do a search for McCain on Wikipedia, you are redirected to French traitor Henri Phillipe Petain.
I will have a very difficult time voting for him - even against Hillary.
For too many on this thread, this is about McCain's politics, so it's OK for him to be dissed by a snot-nosed little twerp who probably cries when she breaks a nail.
She later apologized to McCain who accepted the apology.
In that case, it's hard for me not to believe all this was just a planned publicity stunt for Mr. McCain.
I try not to be that cynical. McCain was in town to raise money from the Park Avenue crowd, which he did during a "meet and greet" at a hoity-toity hotel.
I tend to believe that neither Kerrey nor McCain understood the depth of hostility there is to Republicans in NYC among certain groups. To get an approximate idea, you have to think of how many Conservatives view either Clinton.
Get on your knees before you go to bed tonight and be glad that there are men like McCain willing to sacrifice themselves for your sorry ass.
I know I wouldn't do it.
"Get on your knees before you go to bed tonight and be glad that there are men like McCain willing to sacrifice themselves for your sorry ass."
I have no problem with JOHN McCains' service at all. That does NOT give JUAN McCain the right to sell my country out for votes for himself, parishioners for someones' church, and cheap labor for the business lobby.
"I know I wouldn't do it."
That's alright. I covered it myself.
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