Bent Corner

Gen. Wesley Clark, working now for the Obama campaign was on CBS’ Face the Nation were he proceeded to demean and disparage Senator John McCain’s military service.  From Politico:

“He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron,” Clark said.

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

Let’s call it Swift Boating 2.0.  When John Kerry was running for President, the Republicans belittled his service in Vietnam.  I remember even seeing photos of women wearing purple band-aids on their faces at the GOP National Convention.  The message was that Kerry wasn’t a war hero.  He did really deserve any of his military citations including the Silver Star and those Purple Hearts.

It was disgusting then and it disgusting now.  The difference of course is that it’s the Democrats that are now belittling the military service of a Republican. The Swift Boating of 2004 did not actually come from anyone working in the Bush campaign.

Is this what Obama means when he says that he is all about Change™?

llen R. Malcolm writes over on the Washington Post:

Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished? Democrats need not be so fainthearted. Both of the party’s remaining candidates have raised tens of millions of dollars. Both have the respect of Democrats nationwide. Each has a progressive agenda that stands in stark contrast to Sen. John McCain and his adherence to Bush administration policies.

Yeah, what she said.

I get irritated listening to the rhetoric coming from Obama supports and/or the mainstream news media calling for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. I’m not a big fan of quitters. I never have been. What’s the harm in Hillary staying in the race while there are still a few remaining primaries left?

I realize Barack Obama has a lot more money. I realize Barack Obama has a lot more support in the mainstream news media. I realize Barack Obama has the support of the entrenched, inside the beltway Democratic power base, men like Kennedy and Kerry. I also realize Barack Obama has a slight advantage in the number of pledged delegates — 1,592 to Hillary’s 1,424 — along with a slight lead in the popular vote.

Pledged delegates are not going to decide this race. It’s mathematically impossible for either candidate — Obama or Hillary — to pick up enough pledged delegates in the remaining primaries to reach the magic number of 2,025. Even if Hillary quits and lets Obama run unapposed in the remaining contests, he still can’t reach 2,025.

So why the pressure on Hillary to quit?

I think it’s because Obama supporters and/or the mainstream news media don’t want her to take back her lead in the popular vote. That’s something she has a very good chance of doing after West Virgina and Kentucky hold their primaries. Recent polls in West Virgina show Hillary with over a 40 point advantage.

Eight years ago when the Presidential election was finally over and Gore won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college vote to Bush, many of my fellow Democrats were quite perturbed at the situation and rightfully so. Though technically it was correct and legal to pick the president by counting the electoral college votes, many felt it went against the spirit of a true democracy to choose a president in a way other then by a popular vote. The idea was that the President should be chosen by whoever gets the most votes.

I think many Obama supports and/or the mainstream news media fear a Democratic Convention in August where Obama has a slight lead in the pledged delegate count while Hillary has a slight lead in the popular vote. It would put the superdelegates in the uncomfortable situation of following the will of party leadership and selecting Barack Obama as the 2008 Democratic nominee while shunning the candidate with the most overall votes.

If that mean lady would just quit and let that man run unopposed, it would make their job a lot easier.

With the results of Tuesday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries tallied up, I think we finally have a clear winner for the Democratic nominee for President. It looks like Republican John McCain will be squaring off against Barack Obama.

If you are a Republican, I can’t help but think this is good news to you. It almost certainly assures another Republican President till at least 2012.

I simply don’t think Obama has a chance of beating McCain. I might be wrong. I’ve been wrong before and I most certainly will be wrong again. With that said, I just think comes with a lot of things the Republicans will jump on and capitalize to make him look as though he has no business in the White House.

Most of the time Republicans have to make stuff up about their opponents. They wont have to do that with Obama.

Former Vermont governor, failed presidential candidate, and current Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has issued an ultimatum of sorts to Democratic superdelegates; he wants them to decide now who they will be voting for at the Democratic National Convention in August.

He wants to lock down the Democratic nominee as soon as possible.

And I thought Doctor Dean was a stickler for keeping to a schedule. He disenfranchised Democrats in both Florida and Michigan because both states dared to hold their primaries before Dean said they could.

He can’t have it both ways. He can’t penalize the voters in Florida and Michigan because they supposedly voted early and then demand that superdelegates do the very same thing by declaring who they plan on voting for in August.

Decision Time, Says Dean [Yahoo]

Roscoe Bartlett
2412 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
20515-2006
Dear Roscoe Bartlett –

I’m writing this letter in regards to comments you made shortly after your historic vote last March against the continued funding of our troops in Iraq.

You stated that you were against a time table for withdrawal. Wouldn’t you agree that our military has already accomplished everything they were asked to do? They have:

• Ensured that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
• Removed Saddam Hussein from power.
• Allowed Iraq to become a democratic and free country.

Our troops have successfully done their job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. You need to work towards bringing them home. Their mission has been accomplished.

You stated back in March that another reason you voted NO was because one-fifth of the spending bill was pork. Expenditures unrelated to our national defense. As though the continued occupation of Iraq has anything to do with the defense of our nation. Now that the Democrats have caved and removed any type of timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, voting YES on the supplemental spending bill should be fairly easy for you to do - unless you really are a fiscal conservative. All that pork is still firmly attached to the bill.

Rick Rottman

Hagerstown, Maryland

I don’t care how much money she’s raised or how much money she’s raised for other politicians. I don’t care that her last name has a certain ring to it that hearkens back to a time when someone much more suited for the job of President sat in the Oval Office. More suited then the guy presently sitting there.

I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton.

The simple reason I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton is because of her vote on Iraq. In October 2002 she voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action against Iraq. Big mistake. She has stated in the past that she wasn’t sorry for her vote. Now that she is running for President, she says that she wishes she had not voted the way she had, but she blames the Bush administration for false information about Iraq.

Frankly, I’m not impressed.

She and other elected leaders could have and should have used the power of their office to press the Bush administration into proving the case against Iraq. She now blames her vote on Iraq on Bush. She claims that it was Bush “who misled this country and this Congress“.

The problem is that she believed him.

Hillary Clinton asking to be my President is a lot like someone who was ripped off by one of those stupid Nigerian email banking scams asking to be my money manger. For a lie to work, it takes two people. The person telling the lie and the person believing the lie.

The fact is she failed to even consider that Bush was wrong when he claimed Iraq posed a threat. The fact that she wont even admit it was a mistake for voting the way she did is embarrassing. I think it says a lot about her character. She wont admit her mistakes. I’ve had enough of that particular character flaw in my President.

Also, I will never vote for anyone that wears a Yankee hat. Especially if they are not from New York. Hillary Clinton is from Chicago. She used to be a Cubs fan. I guess I could understand someone being a Yankee fan if they were raised that way from a very early age. If they were brainwashed into being a Yankee fan. With Hillary, that isn’t the case. If we were to elect Hilary to be President, who’s to say she wouldn’t wear that retched Yankees hat everywhere she goes?

Democrat John Edwards talks a lot about his humble beginnings. He likes to talk about there being two Americas. One that’s rich and one that is not. The above is a aerial photo of John Edward’s home. Guess which America he is in?

His recreation building contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room called “John’s Lounge.” Maybe instead of announcing his candidacy for President from the ninth ward in New Orleans, he should have made it from John’s Lounge. That at least would have been honest.

The guy is a fake. He’s a hypocrite. It’s not even as though he actually built his wealth with the sweat of his own brow. It’s not like he invented something innovative or spectacular. He didn’t build anything. He didn’t create anything. He didn’t even amass his wealth the old fashioned way by being born into it. No, he made his millions being a personal injury trial attorney. Two things had to happen for Edwards to make money. A doctor had to make a mistake and a patient had to suffer because of it.

The Edwards empire was built on the misfortune and misery of others.

Now he wants to use the economic misfortune of others to propel his presidential aspirations. Not that this is new. He used this same tactic the last time he tried to be President.

I don’t think some guy with his own personal squash court has any business lecturing anyone that there are two Americas.

[Link]

I don’t know what is more ridiculous. Republican congressmen that think a 5-day work week is too brutal or Democratic congressmen that think Monday night to Friday afternoon constitutes a work week. It seems to me that neither group has any understanding what the American worker does each and every week.

Not that it should be any surprise.

Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.

With the hours they will be working, it’s a wonder they even qualify for medical benefits. It almost seems like they are working part-time. Sort of.

This from the Republican viewpoint:

“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

Those mean Democrats. They want members of congress to actually work. They want to keep congressmen like Jack Kingston away from their families. I guess that’s why they refer to it as public service. As in they are serving their nation. Whining about time away from the wife and kids sounds pathetic.

They had no problem sending American service members off to Iraq. I know Representative Jack Kingston enjoys posing with American service members when they come back from Iraq. I bet a lot of them want to be home with their wife and kids too. Instead, they are in Iraq stuck in the middle of a civil war. Maybe next time congressmen Jack Kingston uses an American soldier back from Iraq as a prop in a photo, he can tell them about the hardship for working a 5-day work week.

UPDATE - While Representative Jack Kingston (R-Ga) was whining about having to actually work five whole days a week in Washington DC, 10 more American GI’s were killed in Iraq today.

5-day work week is a Capitol Hill culture shock [Washington Post]

Congressman Charles Rangel wants to bring back the draft:

Congressman Charles B. Rangel has long advocated returning to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that House Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Yesterday he said “you bet your life” he will renew his drive for a draft.

“I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session,” Rangel said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably and prompting political leaders to think twice before starting wars.

Spreading military obligations more equitably is code for making rich kids serve in the military. Oddly enough, not that many rich kids enlist to serve in the military. In fact, it’s not just rich kids that choose not to join the military. Kids that can go to college tend to go to college.

Does anyone really think it’s only kids that cannot go to college or find a decent job also happen to be the most patriotic of their generation? That they somehow love America more then other kids? I don’t think so.

Some believe that the fact the military is supposedly an all volunteer force has caused too many Americans to feel detached when it comes to sending our military into harm’s way. War sucks, but they all volunteered, right? Too many people actually think like that. It stops people from asking questions when our leaders rattle their sabers. When they want to invade another country.

Maybe more people would be reluctant to wage wars of choice if they actually had loved ones in the military. A son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, or a grandchild. At least I would like to think so.

If Elvis Presley can be drafted into the Army and sent overseas to drive a truck, so can Paris Hilton.

Amid Uproar Over War, Rangel Renews Call for Draft [Washington Post]

It looks as though John Murtha wont be Majority Leader after all. Good.

Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland has been selected by the Democratic caucus to serve as Majority Leader in the 110th Congress, easily defeating Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania — who had been backed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — on a 149-86 vote.

I’m only sorry that Murtha actually got 86 votes. He deserved to get none.

Why his constituents constantly reelect him to Congress is their business. I have no say in that. I don’t understand why they would constantly reelect him every two years, but it’s really of no concern to me. I just know how I feel about him. When I listen to the FBI tapes from 1980 where he is offered a bribe and technically refuses to accept it, yet still leaves the door open for a future time leaves me massively unimpressed. I guess he technically didn’t break any law. He sure didn’t come off looking ethical.

Ethics are important.

Maybe the Democratic leadership misunderstood the American people this past election day. It wasn’t just Republican unethical behavior Americans were unhappy with. It was all unethical behavior that we didn’t like or want.

It’s been argued that the reason Murtha deserved the position of Majority Leader was because he had become such an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. Really? Isn’t that his job? Like all elected officials, it is his duty to speak up about when he sees that things are going wrong in Iraq. That the war was a mistake. That it’s being managed very badly. The fact that he now thinks the Iraq war is going badly gets him no points from me. It just shows that he is aware of the obvious.