Oh please. There is absolutely nothing in Al Gore's academic record to suggest that he is a "smart boy," though hes has planted the rumor in many a journalist's fertile, sympathetic brain that his SAT score was just marvelous. Al flunked out of Law School and then flunked out of Divinity School---what a smarty.
Then the "smart boy" went to Vietnam. Not for 12 months, like everybody else, but for 5 months, so that, as he admits, he could go back home and help get his poor father re-elected to the Senate. No doubt the world as we know it would have fallen into darkness had young Al not run home to help his daddy.
And where did Albert the Golden spend his 5 months? ----why, he was billeted with the 229th Engineers smack in the middle of Ton Son Nhut Air Force Base, widely considered the "safest" chunk of real estate in the RVN.
Bill Clinton is not man, he's a coward and a liar!
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A particularly vicious letter appeared on the pages of the “other paper” this week. While it is a bit unusual for one newspaper to comment on letters to the editor of another newspaper, but the outright lies contained in the “Opie” letter demand that the record be corrected for any Twin City Times reader who happened to catch the attack on President Bush in Monday’s Opie.
It was certainly disappointing to learn that the Opie letter was written by a member of one of Lewiston’s premier law firms. One would expect that the attorney would have checked his sources more thoroughly before making such damaging statements regarding our President.
The local attorney, a Democrat contributor personally and part of a firm that apparently contributes exclusively to Democrat causes, has taken up the current Democrat criticism of President Bush’s landing on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The local barrister, evidently under the influence of a bad case of “flight suit envy” (a condition normally reserved for the females among us), was sufficiently upset by the image of the President mobbed by the Abe Lincoln’s crew to toss verbal ‘bombs’ at Bush’s own military record.
To make the statement that President Bush went AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard unit and publish it in a major Maine daily newspaper is truly unfortunate. A little research on the matter would have shown the counselor that this AWOL allegation would, in the end, make him look foolish.
The AWOL allegation bubbled around in the press and on the internet during the 2000 Presidential campaign. Even the most liberal mainstream media organizations, try as they might, have dismissed the AWOL allegations as pure poppycock.
George Magazine, founded by Teddy Kennedy’s late nephew John F. Kennedy, Jr. stated “it’s time to set the record straight” and reported that Bush was a granted an honorable discharge. The then 1st Lieutenant Bush was credited with five years and four months of service.
The New York Times, certainly no paragon of conservatism, sent two reporters to sniff out the AWOL story. They reportedly spent six months interviewing around 1,000 individuals and found the allegation baseless way back in 1999.
Even the ultra-liberal Boston Globe found no merit in the allegations.
A little research would have gone a long way.
The letter also dumped upon those that serve their country in the National Guard, inferring that it was a haven for more affluent young people who are seeking to avoid going into harm’s way. I am tiring very quickly of the incessant Democrat ranting and whining about National Guard service.
When George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard, guess where his unit was deployed to? If you guessed Vietnam, you would be correct.
President Bush was an excellent pilot and flew the F-102 Delta Dart. The F-102 was a high performance, delta winged air defense interceptor. If you consider that fully ¼ of all such aircraft had their ejection seats used (i.e., crashed), for our local attorney to intimate that Bush was risk averse and hid out from danger in an Air Guard unit is utterly laughable.
For the attorney to impugn the character, bravery and combat readiness of America’s National Guardsmen and women is pathetic. It was the Air Guard who flew combat air patrol over America post 9-11. It was the Air Guard who flew in combat over Vietnam and Iraq in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was our own Maineiacs, from the Maine Air National Guard, who flew air-to-air refueling missions in support of all recent American military campaigns.
I think the attorney owes our Maine Guard an apology. To write that serving in the National Guard is pretending to be in the military is utterly insulting to our citizen soldiers and aircrews!
In an incredible display of effete intellectual snobbery, our attorney friend then dumps on the intelligence of the American voter and frets that their simple minds will be swayed by photographs of Bush in his flight suit. Bush will be remembered for his leadership post 9-11; for throwing the Taliban out of Afghanistan; and for kicking Saddam’s sorry butt out of Baghdad. Flight suit envy will play a minor role, for sure.
I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party of the little guy? Sounds like today’s Democrats fancy themselves as the intellectual elite.
Still whining about the 2000 Presidential election, the letter writer then shames the President for winning. The last I checked, the President was duly elected as per the Constitution of the United States.
The attack letter concludes by attempting to compare the Vietnam era records of Al Gore and Bill Clinton to President Bush. It accuses the President of being rich and born with a silver spoon in his mouth, thereby giving GWB the world on a silver platter.
I would question the attorney’s assertion that Gore was ‘smart’ and ‘from Tennessee’. Gore flunked out of law school and failed 5 of 8 courses at divinity school before dropping out. Gore was raised in a swanky Washington, D.C. hotel and spent minimal time in Tennessee. You see, his dad was a powerful United States Senator.
Gore’s Vietnam record is also cloudy. Make no mistake about it, anyone who served in Vietnam was in harm’s way. There was no such thing as a rear echelon in Vietnam. But Gore’s service was markedly different than the boys from Lewiston that fought in Vietnam.
Gore was a reporter in an Army unit. None of his work has ever been found. He had a bodyguard assigned to him and spent 6 months there, just long enough to earn a Vietnam service medal. The normal tour for an Army soldier was 12 months.
He made E-5 in an incredibly short 11 months. Did Daddy have anything to do with any of this? You decide.
The letter concludes by paying homage to a certain Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas. Again, taking a back handed slap at the President’s intellectual capacity, our erstwhile attorney praises that icon of the left, former President Clinton.
Since the term “Rhodes Scholar” was mentioned, let’s look at Clinton’s Oxford experience. Clinton never completed his studies at Oxford. He spent most of his time organizing anti-war rallies and traveling to other European countries, including the Soviet Union.
The London Daily Telegraph reported other activities that reportedly earned him an invitation out of England.
Sigh! So much for our loveable Bubba, the Rhodes Scholar who was a bit short on scholarship.
Due to editorial restrictions at Opie, it’s too bad that its readership will see only the attack letter on Bush. Once again, the Twin City Times will provide you with a balanced viewpoint and a bit of truth.