Accidental Blogger

Ever since Congressman Jack Murtha declared the Iraq war a failure and called for troop withdrawal, I have been waiting with bated breath for the Republican smear campaign to go into high gear. Many had predicted that Murtha, with his long career in the armed forces, as a hawk on defence and decorated war hero, was immune. I knew better.

The super efficient slime machine of the conservative right wing follows a predictable pattern of operation. If a favorite political cause is questioned, the entire cadre gets into the business of digging dirt with the efficiency of an army of killer ants. The Republican attack dogs  don’t look for the enemy’s Achilles Heel.  They direct their attack at what is perceived to be the adversary’ biggest  strength. If it is music, they will present evidence of lip-synching. If it is scholarship, they will find proof of plagiarism. If the opponent is a decorated war hero, watch out! They will manage to taint him/ her with allegations of cowardice and spuriously obtained medals. It is amazing that this bunch of draft dodging, non-combantant, arm chair warriors, effortlessly manage to take on every military hero that dares to cross their political path. John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry and now Jack Murtha.

E. J. Dionne Jr. says " I UNDERESTIMATED the viciousness of the right wing." 

Last November, Rep. John Murtha, a Democrat and a decorated Marine combat veteran, came out for a rapid American withdrawal from Iraq. At the time, I wrote: "It will be difficult for Bush’s acolytes to cast Murtha, who has regularly stood up for the military policies of Republican presidents during his 31 years in Congress, as some kind of extreme partisan or hippie protester."

No, the conservative hit squad didn’t accuse Murtha of being a hippie. But a crowd that regularly defends President Bush for serving in the Texas Air National Guard instead of going to Vietnam has continued its war on actual Vietnam veterans. An outfit called the Cybercast News Service last week questioned the circumstances surrounding the awarding of two Purple Hearts to Murtha because of wounds he suffered in the Vietnam War.

John Kerry, as well as John McCain — who faced scurrilous attacks on his war record when he was running against Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary — could have warned Murtha, if you’re a Vietnam veteran, don’t you dare get in the way of George W. Bush.

What’s maddening here is the unblushing hypocrisy of the right wing and the way it circulates — usually through Web sites or talk radio — personal vilification to abort honest political debate. Murtha’s views on withdrawing troops from Iraq are certainly the object of legitimate contention. Many in Murtha’s own party disagree with him. But Murtha’s right-wing critics can’t content themselves with going after his ideas. They have to try to discredit his service.

Moreover, the 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 Gov. Clinton’s various stories and 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, Vietnam service wasn’t the thing at all. When a Democrat goes to war, there must be something wrong with the way he’s done 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.

"War’s a nasty business," Murtha said on CBS’ 60 Minutes Sunday. "It sears the soul." Unfortunately, politics is a nasty business, too. And there is no honor given to those who serve if they choose later to take on the powers that be.