{"id":9538,"date":"2007-01-06T10:10:39","date_gmt":"2007-01-06T15:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9538.html"},"modified":"2007-01-06T10:10:39","modified_gmt":"2007-01-06T15:10:39","slug":"conservatives-go-after-shalikashvilis-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/conservatives-go-after-shalikashvilis-stroke\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives go after Shalikashvili’s stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I noted<\/a> earlier this week, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili, wrote a New York Times op-ed<\/a> calling for the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It was a strong piece, especially for someone who has defended the policy in the past, saying the end of the ban on gay soldiers is “eventual and inevitable,” and that the military “cannot afford to lose” those who want to serve. <\/p>\n

Concerned that the tide might be shifting against them, some far-right activists decided to push back against the retired general. You won’t believe the chosen line of attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conceding that the General’s stance would assist efforts to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, [Agape Press, the news service of the American Family Association] reported that [Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative military watchdog group] said Shalikashvili is “struggling” to keep his health. “She says it is ‘really sad’ to see someone like the General being used by the homosexual propaganda machine as ‘the latest tool of a public relations campaign,'” reported Agape. […]<\/p>\n

Contacted by PageOneQ, Donnelly said she “wished the General well in his continuing recovery.” When questioned further as to whether she had knowledge that the General had not recovered, Donnelly replied, “Yes, I do not think he — wait, that is all I am going to say, I wish him well in his recovery.” […]<\/p>\n

Donnelly told PageOneQ, and Agape reported, that Shalikashvili suffered a stroke within “the past year or so.” In fact, his stroke took place in August of 2004, two and one half years ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A decorated four-star general comes to recognize the error of an indefensible policy, so the right goes after him for being a stroke victim?<\/p>\n

Just how callous does a person have to be launch such an attack?
\n
\nSteve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network told PageOneQ that, “Even for Ms. Donnelly, her newest line of attack is an all-time low. To even insinuate that a four-star General is unable to reach his own conclusions about this issue is outrageous.”<\/p>\n

“How can Ms. Donnelly claim to have any respect for our men and women in uniform when she treats military leaders with such distasteful disregard?” asked SLDN’s Ralls. “Left without a single fact to support her bigoted views, she has stooped to a new low to divert the public’s attention from the truly courageous stand General Shalikashvili has taken. Shame on her,” he continued.<\/p>\n

Of course, Ralls is assuming Donnelly is capable of feeling shame, which appears unlikely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I noted earlier this week, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili, wrote a New York Times op-ed calling for the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It was a strong piece, especially for someone who has defended the policy in the past, saying the end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}