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One of the panelists on CNN's "The Capital Gang" Saturday excoriated Ann Coulter in regard to her article last week on former Sen. Max Cleland, D-GA. Ann claimed that Cleland suffered triple amputations not in battle but when carelessly picking up a grenade while headed to a bar with some other soldiers. The "Capital Gang" panelist, it may have been popular liberal Al Hunt, but I cannot recall, said that Ann Coulter flatly lied about Cleland. Does anyone know the truth here? Do the people of GA know about this case perhaps?

I worked for the State of Georgia at the same time Cleland was Ga Sec. of State. He was hated by his department. I heard such terrible stories about what a miserable human being he was. People wanted to like him and tried to like him but it was impossible.

I have heard many versions of how he lost his limbs. My supervisor at the time, a big-shot state department head, told me his own troops did it to him. I have been told that same story by many others.

Personally, I don't care how it happened. The man gave service to the US. However, I have never given him my vote.

Check #63 at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/788361/posts?q=1&&page=51

Sounds like Ann was on the money.

Elsewhere, I read that until recently he thought that it was his grenade but a fellow soldier recently told him that the grenade had fallen off of the uniform of another American.

... The "Capital Gang" panelist, it may have been popular liberal Al Hunt, but I cannot recall, said that Ann Coulter flatly lied about Cleland. Does anyone know the truth here? Do the people of GA know about this case perhaps?
Here is the link to Ann's article posted here on FR ...
Cleland Drops A Political Grenade

I don't think she lied. She could have worded her criticism a little more delicately given the situation he is a triple amputee, however.
Mark Steyn also commented on her comments regarding Cleland in his last article:
Kerry should be wary of dredging up past

Excerpt:

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.