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The Senate’s Unremembered Ex-POW
The Spectator ^ | 2 Sep 2018 | Joseph P Duggan

Posted on 09/02/2018 9:21:00 AM PDT by Rummyfan

His path to distinguished service in the United States Senate led through the Naval Academy, aerial combat over hostile territory, and long years of confinement, beatings, and torture in the Hanoi Hilton.

He was a man worth remembering.

No, his name was not John McCain.

Six years before McCain’s election to the Senate, Alabama voters sent retired Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton to Washington’s upper chamber.

Both the parallels and the divergences in Denton and McCain’s lives tell something about the last few decades of our political history.

Twelve years older than McCain, Denton was born in Mobile in 1924, the same year as George Herbert Walker Bush. After studies at the Jesuits’ Spring Hill College, Denton transferred to Annapolis where in 1946 he graduated in a class that included a young man from Americus, Georgia, named Jimmy Carter. Denton excelled academically, earning a master’s in international relations from George Washington University and winning the Naval War College’s award for best thesis. Diligent in his study of philosophy and history, he was respected as a strategic thinker.

Denton, at 41, was one of the oldest active American pilots in Vietnam when his A6A Intruder, leading a squadron of 27 other aircraft, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. (His friend and contemporary, George H.W. Bush, meanwhile was one of the youngest American pilots in the Second World War.)

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: denton; jeremiahdenton
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Denton’s cause was explicitly the preservation of Western Civilization. As he understood it, this was a civilization with deep, ancient, theological, philosophical, and cultural roots. This traditional order for which Denton fought and legislated, which scarcely exists anymore, is about much more than democracy, even much more than liberty.
1 posted on 09/02/2018 9:21:00 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Up4later


2 posted on 09/02/2018 9:28:09 AM PDT by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
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To: Rummyfan

I read “When Hell Was In Session”, by Denton, back in the early 80’s. It was a good book, I don’t even know if it’s still in print. When Denton was in the Senate he was fiercely pro-life, and was at times quite emotional about it. The left/msm loved to ridicule him for it. Funny how they treated THAT (conservative) war hero compared to how they treat traitor John McCain.


3 posted on 09/02/2018 9:30:17 AM PDT by Artemis Webb (Maxine Waters for House Minority Leader!!)
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To: Artemis Webb

And let’s see what happens when former Senate Majority Leader and true war hero, Bob Dole passes away.

I suspect all we’ll get is a bunch of Viagara jokes.


4 posted on 09/02/2018 9:32:27 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Rummyfan

He was elected as Senator from Alabama in the Reagan Sweep of 1980. Was awarded the Navy Cross.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton


5 posted on 09/02/2018 9:32:36 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: Rummyfan

Reading his book “When Hell Was In Session” in college instead of doing calculus sure snapped me out of a funk...like with a 2x4! BACK US Going to get bumpy being a Catholic soon but he showed the way.


6 posted on 09/02/2018 9:37:24 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: dfwgator

No, they will love Bob Dole, but not for his heroism.

He was GOPe, a reach-across-the-aisle guy, and he got wiped out in two presidential elections.

The Left loves a Republican who, like McCain, can’t win.


7 posted on 09/02/2018 9:40:56 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: dfwgator

Bob Dole was a true war hero but was a political squish at crucial times.

John F. Kennedy was a true war hero and was a true patriot, a conservative at times and a liberal at other times.

John McCain was a traitor. Even though the corporate news media would ban comments that he was a traitor, he was indeed a traitor and a false confessor, confessing while knowing the UCMJ required maximum resistance while in captivity.

John McCain’s 1969 “Tokyo Rose” Recording Released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLg9IvsUY2g

McCain plots with ISIS to start a secret war to boost the global cabal against Trump:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3682262/posts?page=1395#1395


8 posted on 09/02/2018 9:42:09 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V (Proud Member of the Deranged Q Fringe))
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To: Fightin Whitey

But Dole supported President Trump, and I would think Trump will speak at his funeral.

I also suspect when George HW Bush passes, even he won’t get nearly the coverage as McCain did.


9 posted on 09/02/2018 9:42:40 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Dole and Bush will be embraced because they are Not Trump, and because their funerals will be arranged to emphasize that.


10 posted on 09/02/2018 9:50:21 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: dfwgator

Good point. Yes, POTUS will certainly speak at Dole’s funeral and we can bet he will speak with 100% class and with strength and eloquence.

GHWB, when he passes, will get the expected presidential funeral but sometime after when GWHB’s funeral is forgotten, the remaining JFK documents will be released confirming GHWB’s role in the JFK assassination.


11 posted on 09/02/2018 9:50:23 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V (Proud Member of the Deranged Q Fringe))
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To: Artemis Webb

Yes...


12 posted on 09/02/2018 9:50:51 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs)
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To: Artemis Webb

The difference was McCain could be used at a sledge hammer against Trump and the 65 million people who voted for him...

And Denton wasn’t part of the very profitable ‘deep state’...


13 posted on 09/02/2018 9:53:18 AM PDT by GOPJ (ANYONE asking YOU to be violent is an FBI undercover cop or thug from the SPLC - YOU are warned...)
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To: Rummyfan

He lost to Richard Shelby in his reelection bid. I am sure shenanigans played a part in the loss.


14 posted on 09/02/2018 9:58:48 AM PDT by petitfour (APPEAL TO HEAVEN)
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To: dfwgator

Curious

Being the GHWB was a former President,
and it’s only fitting that other living former and current Presidents attend,
I wonder if Trump will be disinvited to GHWB’s funeral?


15 posted on 09/02/2018 10:04:39 AM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Rummyfan

Somewhat off topic, but I want to get these thoughts out there.

I think McCain’s funeral-Trump bash was to insulate him from questions his role in the current Russian hoax. “How dare you question our dead hero?” It was McCain who obtained the Steele Dossier, circulated it to congress, the press and the FBI. He has always been dirty, petty, and vindictive.

I think the love fest was to give cover least others start asking questions about his dealings with ISIS, the dems, etc.

The guy was no hero. Yeah, he endured a lot as POW, so did many others. In his political life he was scum.


16 posted on 09/02/2018 10:08:06 AM PDT by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda)
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To: Hostage

Obviously you [and others like you] have not read many POW memoirs from the period.


17 posted on 09/02/2018 10:16:53 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Rummyfan
He never served as a U.S. Senator, but should have-.

Sadly, he lost to George McGovern in 1974:

Leo Keith Thorsness (February 14, 1932 – May 2, 2017) was a colonel in the United States Air Force who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War. He was awarded the medal for an air engagement on April 19, 1967. He was shot down two weeks later and spent six years in captivity in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war. After his military service, Thorsness served one term in the Washington State Senate.

That this caliber of American patriot would lose to the likes of George McGovern reminds me that South Dakotans have a little Arizona in them.

18 posted on 09/02/2018 10:19:15 AM PDT by daler
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To: daler
That this caliber of American patriot would lose to the likes of George McGovern reminds me that South Dakotans have a little Arizona in them.

But let's not forget that McGovern was a war hero too - bomber pilot in WWII. What happened to him afterwards to shape his politics I don't know.

19 posted on 09/02/2018 10:25:45 AM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: Rummyfan

McGovern was more a war hero than McCain was.


20 posted on 09/02/2018 10:26:22 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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