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February 06, 2008
Entertaining Considerations By Russ Vaughn
I am troubled by tonight’s primary results, especially troubled by the prospect that I may be forced to vote for an unprincipled political chameleon like McCain in order to save our country from two politicians, Bill and Hillary Clinton, who are even more unprincipled, even to the point of felonious criminality. I wrote this piece this morning and tonight stand by it even more. Hillary just slapped my face and that of many other honorable veterans with her sneering, gratuitous reference to swift boating in her gloating victory speech. It just demonstrates how twisted their leftist thinking is when they use this term of honor as a pejorative.
I will follow the dictates of my old regimental motto: Honor and Country,
Russ Vaughn
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
Entertaining Considerations
I was afraid this was going to happen when McCain started coming on stronger in the primaries. To an even greater extent than John Kerry, John McCain possesses the ability to politically divide American veterans more than any other presidential candidate. With Kerry, a key determinant of which way veterans’ loyalties fell was party affiliation. I’m sure there were many liberal Democrat veterans, particularly Vietnam veterans, who held their noses and supported a man they viscerally disliked because he was their party’s candidate and represented their overall liberal positions. It was easy for those of us who were politically conservative Vietnam vets to take a hard, unrelenting stand against the man we knew had smeared us because he was the candidate of the party whose positions we opposed.
Today, this division among veterans in general and Vietnam veterans in particular has been turned by McCain’s candidacy into a family fight among Republican veterans that threatens our already diminished prospects for victory in November. While virtually all of us admire and respect McCain’s military service and POW sacrifice, there are millions of us who feel that is simply not enough for him to be able to command our political loyalties four decades later. Setting aside the fact that McCain sided with John Kerry in 2004 and denounced those of us who dared to question Kerry’s very questionable war record, there are many reasons why we do not see John McCain as being someone we can trust to represent the mainstream views of the Republican party. I will spare you a Sean Hannity, rapid-fire recitation of the litany of McCain’s transgressions against his own party because I think there is a single issue far more compelling.
Go ahead and Google “McCain switching parties?” and look at the pages of hits which take you to articles from every sector of the media examining whether or not John McCain was preparing to switch parties as far back as 2001 and continuing into the 2004 campaign. The most chilling of all these reports is one from the Boston Herald in which McCain is quoted as responding to ABC’s Charles Gibson’s question as to whether he would even entertain the idea of running as John Kerry’s VP if Kerry extended such an offer,
“John Kerry is a very close friend of mine. We’ve been friends for years. Obviously I would entertain it.”
That is a very telling quote. In his own words, to further his political ambitions, John McCain would have considered abandoning his party and his supposedly conservative principles to serve on the ticket with one of the most liberal candidates ever to run as a Democrat presidential candidate. Even worse, reading down, one reads that Kerry now claims it was McCain’s people who initiated such a proposal, not that we’d be inclined to lend too much credibility to that particular source. Some very close friends, huh? No wonder then that McCain was able to denounce his fellow Navy Vietnam veterans as “dishonest and dishonorable” when they dared to attack Kerry’s self-promoting war record. McCain was selfishly attempting to curry favor with the man and the party which could do the most for his personal political future.
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2004/08/06/mccain_on_swift_boat_veterans/
Now I ask you, just who was being dishonest and dishonorable here? Was it the sailors who served in combat with Kerry and raised issues with his war record that Kerry never successfully refuted and refused to release the Navy records which he claimed would do so? Or was it the self-serving maverick politician who was entertaining the possibility of forsaking his Republican party to fill the number two position on the Democrat ticket?
A good friend and fellow Old War Dog, Bill Faith, cites Mitt Romney’s contradictory and self-serving statements about not serving in Vietnam as proving Romney unworthy of his vote. To that I would respond that talking out of both sides of one’s mouth is congenital in politicians and that perhaps Romney might have gone AWOL on the issue. But Romney’s transgression completely pales against John McCain’s admitted willingness to “entertain” the possibility of full-fledged desertion to the enemy in the midst of political combat.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want a commander-in-chief who even entertains such considerations.
Russ Vaughn
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Wild Thing's comment........
Thank you Russ for sending this to me. I heard Hillary say that too about swiftboating and I almost chocked when she said it.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 6, 2008 04:50 AM
Comments
McCain is a turncoat. Remember, Benedict Arnold was a war hero too.
America is in BIG trouble and those who can save her have either dropped out or been pushed out by the lefty wackjobs of the day.
McCain makes me sick! Not only is he old and on the verge of senility, he's an even bigger flip flopper than Kerry ever was.
Now watch--he'll win and switch parties to democrat.
He's a two timing snake in the grass. And they said Fred Thompson had a trophy wife? Cindy looks and acts like Barbie!
Posted by: Lynn at February 6, 2008 07:50 AM
Far too many Vietnam veterans served, not because they loved war, but because they believed in the principles of freedom, even the freedom of foreign peoples, we served because we were called upon by our president to serve not because we liked our president or respected him. LBJ was beyond any respect I ever have ever had for the man, it was the position and the international status of the office that we were upholding, our national honor. It was our word as humanitarians to support the very people we obligated ourselves as a nation by treaty to support, we bled and died to uphold our obligations, so as a nation we could stand tall and proud in the world as a beacon of strength and moral value. It is sickening to see someone without any moral convictions soil the nation's honor simply for the power of the office, to whittle away all that we and those before us have fought to preserve. They will do to the current group of soldiers and veterans what they have done to all those since WWII, betray their trust and dishonor them. I'm sorry but right now I have to turn my back toward those sorry sons of bitches, they are unfit for my vote and it will dishonor me and all my bretheren to cast my vote for them.
Posted by: Jack at February 6, 2008 04:37 PM
Thanks again Russ for another realistic writing. Things look bleak right now. Conservatives need a leader to reunite and rebuild the movement. I do not know where that leader will come from. Maybe Newt Gingrich again. Sure won't be Fred Thompson. He did more harm than good with his silly foray. Maybe some, now, obscure member of Congress.
We sure do need a leader. The Republican Party has shafted us.
Posted by: TomR at February 6, 2008 07:11 PM
I will follow the Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" when it comes to John McCain. He abandoned the Republican Party and conservative values when he joined the Democrats opposing us on core values and key issues.
So, now that McCain wants conservative and Republican support in his quest for the Presidency I spit in his face. What goes around comes around. I will not vote for him and will oppose him all the way. If any other conservatives or Republicans need an assist, I grant you amnesty (McCain knows all about amnesty) to abandon the party and either not vote for a president at all, or even vote for the Democrat candidate if that keeps McCain out of the White House and away from the president's nuclear 'football'.
Posted by: Les at February 6, 2008 07:17 PM
There is a new group of Conservative Voters, they (MSM) are calling them 'Suicide Voters'. To sabotage McCains chase after the brass ring.
I think I already joined.
Posted by: Mark at February 6, 2008 09:27 PM
Lynn your right and I think even Hitler was considered a military hero. Not sure if he fought or they just awarded him medals, but there is Murtha and Kerry and others too that became traitors to our country.
Thompson and his wife would have been wonderful and I would have been proud to see them in our White House.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 12:36 AM
Jack, AMEN I agree so much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 12:38 AM
Tom it sure has, our own party is giving us the middle finger and we are supposed to say well ok. No this is wrong in every way.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 12:39 AM
Les, absolutley! He has a lot of nerve to think we will just say oh ok sure why not.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 12:47 AM
Mark, if that is what they want to call us then so be it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 01:00 AM
In 1999 I helped get out the 'W' vote in my pathetic blue state of socialism (for Karen Hughes and Mindy Tucker)... McCain was vicious back then and we saw a lot of his 'RINO' characteristics appear as 'W' got more delegates... If REAR Admiral McCain was a 'Ronald Reagan foot soldier...' I was Donald Trumps business advisor! MITT ROMNEY IN 2008!!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at February 7, 2008 01:47 AM
Darth, good one!!!!! LOL That is great how you put that.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2008 05:06 AM
