When Janet Jackson exposed one of her pastied breasts on network TV, Calm 'Em Powell's bratty son, Micheal launched an FCC investigation. When Ann Coulter, who is one of network TV's most prominent propapunditgandists and has her own nationally syndicated radio show, wrote: “If Cleland had dropped a grenade on himself at Fort Dix rather than in Vietnam, he would never have been a U.S. Senator in the first place. Maybe he’d be the best pharmacist in Atlanta..." NOTHING, no outcry, no reprimand, no loss of access, NOTHING. (Similar to the double-standard for Kenny Boy Lay and Martha Stewart, eh?) Yes, Coulter has made cruel remarks before, hateful and lying remarks, indeed even genocidal remarks. But for this one she should lose her syndicated column, her syndicated radio show and her access to the propapunditgandist forums on network TV. For this remark, certainly the sponsors of her radio show should be pressured by the public into withdrawing....The _resident LIED and rushed to send US soldiers, even National Guardsmen, into a foolish military adventure. His own "record" of "service" in Alabama during the Vietnam war is full of very disturbing holes. US blood and treasure is being dissipated while Al Qaeda grows stronger, fueled both by the US's distraction and by the incredible boost in recruitment that the _resident's neo-con wet dream has wrought. And it is in this surreal atmosphere that Coulter attacks Cleland, lying about how he lost his limbs, denigrating his sacrifice, AND her remarks goes unretracted and unpunished. That's how far the "US mainstream news media" has fallen: "WAR is PEACE, HATE is LOVE, LIES are TRUTH." It is an Orwellian nightmare. Yes, Coulter's hit piece on Cleland was disgusting, but it was also a lie (he didn't "drop" a grenade, he picked one up that someone else had dropped)...Of course, Coulter's disgusting, deceitful column was syndicated nationally and, of course, she can elaborate on it and spin it any way she wants on her nationally syndicated radio show. Here is Max Cleland's dignified response, broadcast on -- local TV in Atlanta, Georgia. What a disgrace for this country! Where is John McCain (R-AZ)? Where is Chuck Hagel (R-NE)? Where is Richard Shelby (R-AL)? All Republicans, all men who served with honor and distinction in Vietnam. [For insight into Coulter's role in the "vast reich-wing conspiracy," just read David Brock's explosive Blinded By The Right.] But yes, a day of reckoning is coming: Election Day, November 2004. And in spite of the triple lock (#1 overwhelming advantage in campaign dollars, #2 the complicity of the "US mainstream news media," #3 black box voting), Coulter and her ilk will be consigned to irrelevancy by the forward momentum of events beyond their distortion. Unless, of course, as Tommy Franks said, with a nod and a wink, in a Cigar Afficiando interview, we have another 9/11 and marshal law is declared...Coulter's attack on Cleland shows what US soldiers really are to the _resident who sent them to war unnecessarily and to Coulter and his other running dogs in the "US mainstream news media" -- cannon fodder, nothing more. "Do as your told, slog off to war, bleed and die, but DON'T challenge the Bush cabal." Yes, more than ever -- it's the Media, Stupid.
WXIA, Channel 11, Atlanta, GA: Former Sen. Max Cleland defended his military service record Saturday night in response to comments from columnist and television commenter Ann Coulter that accused him of playing up injuries he suffered in the Vietnam War for political gain...“I volunteered for a combat mission with the 1st Air Calvary division going into break the siege at Khe Sahn, and if that isn’t a combat mission, you ought to ask some of the people that were there and the 200 guys that were killed in that mission.”
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http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42979
Cleland Responds to Coulter Attack
Former Senator Max Cleland on "Hardball With Chris Matthews."
Cleland in Vietnam.
Max Cleland
Former Sen. Max Cleland defended his military service record Saturday night in response to comments from columnist and television commenter Ann Coulter that accused him of playing up injuries he suffered in the Vietnam War for political gain.
Coulter, in a column published this week, said that Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, is no war hero, but rather a victim of a tragic, accidental grenade explosion who plays up his amputations for political gain.
“If Cleland had dropped a grenade on himself at Fort Dix rather than in Vietnam, he would never have been a U.S. Senator in the first place. Maybe he’d be the best pharmacist in Atlanta,” Coulter said in her column, published on February 11.
“He didn’t ‘give his limbs for his country,’ or leave them ‘on the battlefield,” Coulter said. “There was no bravery involved in dropping the grenade on himself with no enemy troops in sight.
In fact, Cleland was wounded picking up a grenade that someone else dropped, during what he says was a combat mission.
“I volunteered for a combat mission with the 1st Air Calvary division going into break the siege at Khe Sahn, and if that isn’t a combat mission, you ought to ask some of the people that were there and the 200 guys that were killed in that mission.”
As he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Cleland has questioned President Bush’s military record and touted Kerry’s, who served as Navy lieutenant during the Vietnam War.
“(Bush) goes into Iraq and then three weeks in the battle stands on an aircraft carrier, dressing up pretending to be a super hero, and the guy hardly showed up for drills in Alabama,” Cleland says. “He got favorable treatment in Vietnam.”
Rusty Paul, a Georgian Republican Party strategist, said Coulter crossed the line with her comments.
“You can’t take away from Max Cleland his record of service to this country and the sacrifice that he’s made, regardless of the circumstances. To me, that’s out of bounds to talk about that,” he said.
Paul, however, said attacking the politics of Cleland and Kerry was well within bounds. “I think the voters would prefer to talk about what George Bush’s view for the future is versus John Kerry’s rather than what happened 30 years ago,” he said.
President Bush released all his Vietnam-era records Friday to counter Democrats’ suggestions that he shirked his duty in the Texas National Guard. • (Bush Orders Release of Vietnam Files)
Hundreds of pages detailed Bush’s service in the Guard in Texas and his temporary duty in Alabama while working on a political campaign there in the early 1970s. Democrats have questioned whether Bush ever showed up for duty in Alabama.