Dirty pool from the Left on McCain's service record

You know your making headway when the only thing the Left can throw at you is unfounded lies and vitriol about the honorable aspect of your life. John McCain is feeling that right now. Over the weekend, General Wesley "Weasely" Clark and a number of those on the portside of the 'Sphere launched into a new line of attack on John McCain. Unlike the New York times, which has swung and whiffed about a half dozen times, these nutters think they're going to gain traction in going after his war record:

The highest-voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex or age, but John McCain's military service.

McCain's campaign on Sunday issued a pair of outraged statements after retired general and Barack Obama supporter Wesley Clark said he didn't think that McCain’s service as a fighter pilot and prisoner of war was relevant to running the country. Obama has consistently praised McCain's service, and called him "a genuine American hero."

But farther to the left — and among some of McCain's conservative enemies as well — harsher attacks are circulating. Critics have accused McCain of war crimes for bombing targets in Hanoi in the 1960s. A widely read liberal blog on Sunday accused McCain of "disloyalty" during his captivity in Vietnam for his coerced participation in propaganda films and interviews after he’d been tortured.

"A lot of people don't know ... that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity," wrote Americablog.com's John Aravosis. "Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief?"

OK, Sparky, let's play your stupid, little game. Yes, McCain did do certain things while in captivity. It's called "breaking." They broke him. I can't recall too many people who haven't broken after enduring months and months of torture -- both physical and psychological. The NVA was good at it. The Koreans were good at it. The Japanese were good at it. Our enemies have always utilized torture as a means of extracting information. Hell, the Germans used it on spies they caught, and then their bodies were mutilated and hung.

What strikes me about this line of attack is that in 2000 Al Gore tried to use his service in Vietnam to prove he was fit to be president. That, despite the fact that he was "in the rear with the gear" typing on a typewriter. In 2004 John Kerry made his service in Vietnam the focal point of his qualifications while supporters like Dan Rather tried to besmirch George Bush's military service. But all of that seems to have gone by the wayside. Now McCain is facing attacks regarding his service. Typical of the hypocrites on the Left.

We'd like to remind General Clark of his own embarrassing situation where his orders to a British commander in Kosovo, if carried out, would have started another war. But I'm sure General Clark doesn't want to remember his own asininity in the face of slandering John McCain.

If this is the route Obama supporters are going to take, we're going to fire back with facts to show that their guys in combat don't exactly have stellar records either. And we do find this line of attack hypocritical from them. They prop their "heroes" up like they are the second coming, but God forbid a Republican cite his service as part of the qualifications to be the next commander-in-chief. Oh, and for the record, the Democrats have forgotten that to be president, you need not have served in the military. If that were a qualification, Barack Obama would be ineligible. So let's drop this line of attack, okay? It's tedious and serves no purpose to slander an American hero.

Publius II

ADDENDUM: K-Lo at The Corner has a statement released by Vets for Freedom chairman, Pete Hegseth. We suggest you read it all because he hits the nail on the pinheaded general.