Some political observers may have missed it over the weekend, but far-right critics of Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) redeployment plan for troops in Iraq have decided not to attack his approach, but rather, attack his military service. In an eerie replay of the Swiftboat hacks, a conservative “news” site called Cybercast News Service ran an item arguing that Murtha didn’t legitimately earn his two Purple Hearts during tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam.
In response, the Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne Jr. has just about had it.
[T]he right has demonstrated that its attitude toward military service is entirely opportunistic. In the 1992 presidential campaign, when the first President Bush confronted Bill Clinton — who, like Cheney, avoided military service entirely — conservatives could hardly speak or write a paragraph about Clinton that didn’t accuse him of being a draft dodger. In October 1992, Bush himself assailed Clinton. “A lot of being president is about respect for that office and about telling the truth and serving your country,” Bush told a crowd in New Jersey. “And you are all familiar with Governor Clinton’s various stories on what he did to evade the draft.”
But from 2000 forward, the Republicans had a problem: They confronted Democrats, first Al Gore and then John Kerry, who actually did go to Vietnam, while it was their own standard-bearers who had skipped the war. Suddenly, service in Vietnam wasn’t the thing at all. When a Democrat went to war, there must have been something wrong with the way he did it. Gore’s service was dismissed because he worked “only” as a military journalist. You can even find Bush’s defenders back in 2000 daring to argue that flying planes over Texas was actually more dangerous than joining the Army and serving in Vietnam the way Gore did.
The Republicans had an even bigger problem with Kerry, who did unquestionably dangerous duty patrolling rivers. Not to worry. The Swift Boat Veterans simply smeared him.
The far-right attack dogs don’t honor the uniform unless there’s a loyal, conservative Republican inside it. Indeed, for these hacks, military service is largely irrelevant — if you stand in the way of the president’s agenda, your honor, valor, and sacrifices are fair game for baseless smears. Just ask Max Cleland.
There hasn’t been a White House press briefing since Friday, before CNS ran its attack against Murtha. Maybe some enterprising press corps member might check to see if the president is willing to denounce this baseless attack on a man Bush recently described as “a fine man, a good man, who served our country with honor and distinction as a Marine in Vietnam and as a United States Congressman.” The president must be disgusted by this smear of a war hero, right? Right?