A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on May 22nd, 2008 in Campaign News

Senator John McCain stepped off of the False-Outrage Express today to launch one of the most reprehensible political attacks of the campaign. It went like this:

“And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did,” the Arizona senator said in a harshly worded statement issued Thursday.

Well, Mr. McCain, I served six years in the US Navy and, since you feel it is necessary to invoke the ghosts of your family, let me say that it took Vietnam almost twenty years to kill my father through alcoholism and my grandfather was awarded multiple Purple Hearts for the wounds he received while a POW of the Japanese in World War 2. He was in his sixties before the rice mold growing in his lungs developed emphasema. So, let me lecture you on how you are betraying our comrades in arms.

I agree with you that being President means that you must make tough decisions based on what is right rather than what is politically expedient. Please explain why it is right for us to now turn our back on our veterans. I’d really like to hear this come from your mouth, Senator McCain, since taxpayers footed the entire cost of your years at the Naval Academy - why is it that the grunts that actually risk their lives now are worth less than you have received? In fact, it seems rather niggardly to me for you to stand up after four generations of your family have had free educations at taxpayer expense and say that it is simply too expensive to give equal consideration to others. Have you no shame, sir?

Apparently not. You tout your “alternative” as being generous when the real effect is to cut our young veterans off from the guarantee of a college education they now have. For generations, our deal for veterans has been that a single enlistment qualifies a veteran for full educational benefits - you would impose a “sliding scale” on that deal. Instead of serving six years and having a bachelor’s degree before they are thirty, you would have them serve a full career to be able to get that benefit. Have you no shame, sir?

Apparently not. You claim that allowing veterans to have their full benefits will encourage them to leave the military. The truth of the matter is that it has not handicapped our military to date. But shutting younger veterans out of their full benefits will save millions of dollars - so it’s nice to see that you’ve fully embraced the Bush Doctrine of cheap compassion and a swift kick in the seat of the pants for the veterans your decisions send into harm’s way. You talk of allowing veterans to pass their benefits along to their children - but of what use is that unless you realize that they will be too old to utilize those beneftis themselves? You would send them into battle and them have them hand down their future to their children as if it were somehow a wonderful new entitlement. Have you no shame, sir?

I agree with you fully when you say, “How faithfully the President discharges those responsibilities will determine whether he or she deserves the honor.” Your actions today - and your cowardly and dishonest attack against Senator Obama, who has stood to keep faith with our veterans - have proven that you are not fit to speak the President’s name, much less to aspire to that position. Have you no shame, sir?

No. You have no shame. I do, though - and I am ashamed of you and your actions.

Technorati Tags: John McCain, False-Outrage Express