Posted on 04/15/2007 3:02:41 AM PDT by Liz
.... Rudy Giuliani carries a lot of baggage - but it's his draft-dodging past that may prove the biggest drag, prominent veterans tell New York magazine in tomorrow's issue. Speaking about terrorism and the Iraq war last week, Giuliani boasted, "It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president." But it was draft deferments that kept Giuliani, 62, out of Vietnam while he attended law school. He was granted a 2-A occupational deferment for his job as a law clerk in 1969 after his boss, the late Manhattan federal Judge Lloyd MacMahon, wrote a letter to the local draft board - a move criticized years later as rare and questionable. Law clerks were not on the 1968 list of critical jobs that qualified for occupational deferments. Giuliani "has made it clear that if he had been called up, he would have served," Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson told New York magazine. He was opposed to the war in Vietnam on "strategic and tactical" grounds," she added, although she wouldn't offer specifics.
"If Giuliani is the nominee, we're going to hammer him with ads, and it's going to be easy because the issue is simple: He's a draft dodger," Jon Soltz, an Iraq vet who served as a captain and runs VoteVets.org, a left-leaning version of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth .......a sense that a candidate can handle the role of commander-in-chief remains important to most Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
When the elections begin in ‘08 and if you manage to elect a “true” Conservative as a candidate, we’ll see then how much “MORAL” authority you actually have. In the real world, the General Electorate is the force you have to reckon with, and by all indications, you are going to be greatly displeased with what they are about to demonstrate.
The left is terrified that Rudy will get the Republican nomination.
Left-wing vets oppose Rudy! What a surprise.
In the moral intergrity department, Rudy is the Republican stand-in for Bill Clinton.
That remains to be seen.
Left-wing vets oppose Rudy! What a surprise.
Left wing vets oppose anyone who supports the GWOT.
How do you feel about the fact that many right wing vets oppose Rudy?
It’s obvious that you were involved in the Tet. Or close to it. I just missed it, but the aftermath was every bit as bad. The VC/NVA had established solid routes in Cambodia as a result.
The thing that really effected me most was not the people who had deferments, (My brother for one) but the people who used the Guard as a way to say they served but avoided having to take all of the risk.
I was also spat upon at Penn Central on the Tarmac. My bags were also stolen from the carousel and later found on the road with spray painted “BABY KILLER” all over them.
The indignities were too numerous to list.
Mandatory military service was not problem free.
I would prefer to see mandatory military training.
A 4 to 6 month initial training cycle for 17 to 22 year olds with 2 or 3 refresher cycles occuring prior to age 25.
this would be agood beginning of balance between responsibility and liberty.
If it matters my service was for 3 years beginning in 1969, with 1 year in ‘nam.
“Hillary Clinton’s three-year stint as a Liutanant in the Army.”
???? Or are you just referring to her stint as a member on the Committee for Armed Services (which sickens me to no end!!)
Thanks for your service . I understand what you are saying , but unless they admitted to that, one has to speculate as to if they joined for nefarious reasons I always give them the benefit of the doubt. It was a hard time to be of age.
“And more to the point, should we lose in 2008, who are you going to get who served in the military? There are fewer and fewer people who have served in the military (let alone in combat), due to the gap between Viet Nam and the Gulf War. I understand your desire, but at some point it is going to be impossible to find a candidate who has served.”
But this should become an incentive to join the military, if you want to get into politics, and to gain the votes of those who support the military—you join! We should really have to lower our standards to a draft dodging schmuck...
Seems you have bought into the WP/CBS political propaganda on Bush’s NG service. Flying a high performance jet fighter is not exactly the safest way to “avoid the draft.”
I know of no biography that has Hillary in the army, someone enlighten me.
“Rudy’s jury-rigged deferment stinks mightily.”
Not at all. I wasn’t smart enough to work the system like that, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. When I was in the military I often used little-known — or well-known — regulations to get the best I could for myself and my subordinates.
“Calling it technically “legal” doesn’t remove the stench.”
It wasn’t “technically” legal; it was perfectly legal. (To judge by the information available to date.)
“The problem is that FReepers like you and Marple are trying to foist a vile moral leper on the rest of us and then want to blame us for not supporting him and allowing another vile moral leper to win.”
Woah. You need to look at my 167. I don’t think Rudy is fit to be president, but not because he worked the system for a deferral. We still have to give him the presumption that if his deferment had been refused, he would have served.
“If Clinton ends up in the White House, you can thank the Rudy groupies for the result.”
I think it’s a bit too early to say that. However, I don’t think Rudy is electible because, frankly, he’s ugly.
“Rooty-Tooty, reporting for duty!” has better cadence. :)
“World War II service
Fonda played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941), and was acclaimed for his role in The Ox-Bow Incident. The following year he played opposite Gene Tierney in the comedy Rings on Her Fingers (1942), but he then enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, “I don’t want to be in a fake war in a studio.”[7]
Previously, he and Stewart had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain from the Nazis.[8] Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and won a Presidential Citation and the Bronze Star.[9][10]”
Well, at least he didn’t go to Russia like Bubba did and bad mouth our country. Hitlery is no better than Bubba, in fact she is much worse.
If she gets into the WH, there will be a civil war.
I don’t think Rudy is electible because, frankly, he’s ugly.
That was cold!!!!!!LOL
I know of no biography that has Hillary in the army, someone enlighten me.The previous poster was joking ;)
Thanks, I completely fell for it.
“That was cold!!!!!!LOL”
Yeah, but in this day and age, you have to get the chick vote.
We are a nation of 300 million people. What you suggest just isn't practical. There are over 8 million people ages 18 to 19 (men and women,) and more than 28 million between the ages of 18 to 24. Just the administrative challenge of operating such a system would be daunting, not to mention the costs.
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