Rockefeller & the rot at the center of the Democrat Party
We’ve all heard and read about the idiot comment Jay “Silverspoon” Rockefeller in an interview in one of his local papers. Here’s a refresher from the New York Times;
In an interview in his home state, West Virginia, on Monday, Mr. Rockefeller, a Democrat, told The Charleston Gazette that Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, could not relate to the everyday concerns of people on issues like health care.
According to the article, Mr. Rockefeller said: “McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.”
The Times reports that Rockefeller has apologized and McCain has accepted;
“I have deep respect for John McCain’s honorable and noble service to our country,” Mr. Rockefeller said in a statement. “I made an inaccurate and wrong analogy and I have extended my sincere apology to him. While we differ a great deal on policy issues, I profoundly respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words.”
Later in the day, Mr. Rockefeller’s office issued an updated statement, saying Mr. McCain had graciously accepted the apology and the two had sat together privately during a vote in the Senate in the afternoon.
Well, that’s all well and good. Senator McCain should accept his apology – that’s what gentlemen do in these times when it’s not quite fashionable to fire flintlock pistols at 20 paces at each other. But that doesn’t mean it’s over – not by a long shot. Rockefeller who has never had an uncomfortable day in his entire life, is indicative of the rot at the center of the Democrat Party and the political neo-new-Left as a whole.
The Nation in an uncredited response on behalf of Rockefeller (who apparently has a serious lack of gonads to back up his charge) writes, after establishing their anonymous credentials by establishing that the writer grew up (as it were) in an Air Force family (whatever that means or counts);
The campaign’s answer to criticism from McCain’s fellow senator was not to unleash the candidate and have him talk about his service in a thoughtful manner. It was to send a rather too frequently over-the-top supporter to launch a silly, bombastic attack on one of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s fellow senators.
“Senator Rockefeller’s statement is an insult to all the men and women who are serving or have served in America’s military,” said Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, USMC (Ret.), a longtime McCain ally. “Had Senator Rockefeller served himself, he would appreciate and understand that most who have been to war emerge with a much deeper concern for humanity than they otherwise might. If he knew what he was talking about, he would know that John McCain wasn’t dropping laser-guided missiles at 35,000 feet in 1967.”
The jab at the end is appropriate, but the rest of the statement a load of embarrassingly cheap political spin.
Um, how is it “embarassingly cheap political spin” to say that warriors “emerge with a much deeper concern for humanity”? I know it to be the truest part of the whole statement. But it’s been my experience that the Left always attacks that which hurts them most – so this nameless writer from the Nation understands that it’s imperative to strike at a comment that makes McCain appear more deeply and personally involved in the decision to take human lives than, say Barack Obama, whose only tussle with such moral dilemmas involved emptying a mousetrap while keeping his fingers clean.
The Left has already shown us what they think of human life – they defend the murder of the inconvenient, either pre-birth life, or the ill. Their record on human life includes a weeks-long bombing campaign against the Serbian people, conducted over 15,000 feet. I’m sure there are no records available for the numbers of Serbs killed by that bombing campaign.
Rockefeller could have made the same statement in relation to John Kerry, who had occasion to fire the .50 caliber machine into the dense jungle from his swiftboat, not knowing what the 1/2 inch bullets were hitting. But, I’m pretty sure Rockefeller wouldn’t say about Kerry what he said about McCain.
Democrats claim all of this experience by osmosis from being from Air Force families, or having a neighbor who had a cousin who knew someone who went to war in Nicaragua in the 1920s – but they never have personal experience. Knowing someone who wore a uniform once gives them instant moral authority in a discussion, they suppose.
Nope. It doesn’t work that way, The Nation’s brave anonymous writer.
I’m not saying that military experience gives me any moral authority in a discussion about the political application of force, but then, I’ve never said it does.
Bullshit walks.
UPDATE: I forgot to credit 509thBob for tipping me off to this. Love them tips.
Category: Politics, Support the troops
“Democrats claim all of this experience by osmosis from being from Air Force families,…..Knowing someone who wore a uniform once gives them instant moral authority in a discussion, they suppose.”
Amen. We’ve all met people like that. I was a 20 year Navy wife, and while I know a lot about the Navy and, of course, my husband’s career, it’s stupid to assume that I know everything about what he did or what he knew or felt while doing it. These moonbats really never stop and listen to themselves, do they?
Another excellent post. Not only are the Democrats comfortable with bombing campaigns over Serbia from 15,000 feet, but they are very comfortable with their foreign friends who conduct mass murders at arm’s length with pistols and machetes in places like the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1953 (after which they slacked off a bit), mainland China, Sandinista Nicaragua, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Angola, Iran, and many, many other places. And comfortable with their domestic friends of the SDS and Weather Underground here at home, who do it with booby traps and bombs. If you’re some variant of Marxist, or other anti-American, and murder up close and personal, you’re “showing your human concern” and your “romantic spirit”, and are Jay’s friend
Heh, He’s my Senator (our other one is mostly dead). I visited Rockefeller’s office with VFF in September. Decidedly a waste of time, then and now.
Toldjah so!
(Not that I’ll prevent flagging something similar in the future!)
McCain – shot down on October 26, 1967. Hillary’s birthday, BTW. No “laser guided” bombs or missiles until 1968. Maybe some television-guided weapons, but NOT Laser-Guided Munitions.
Not “35,000 feet” [i.e. distant “carpet-bombing”] but (as reported at a different site, 4,500 feet, or as suited for A-4 Close Attack aircraft and the missions that they executed, rather “down and dirty” as the vernacular goes). Makes the aircraft MORE vulnerable, increases ACCURACY of the attack mission, REDUCES “collateral damage.” INCREASES the RISK to the pilot.
John, your blog is excellent. Keep up the good work. My regards! I’m quite pleased to have made your acquaintance. I hope to keep our acquaintance “current.” I didn’t make the BNCOC ceremony for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center people, but my son and I did DOUBLE (or more) the reading material (overwhelming Science Fiction books) for our deserving troops on the Saturday after the ceremony.
As you know, your Blogroll is EXCELLENT, and I congratulate you for establishing further excellent links. As you may know, or may not know, these were mostly links I independently hit every day (when not buried under work). It’s a shame that Liberty Pundit no longer identifies the cross-links (like you) who sends him/them traffic.
“Rockefeller who has never had an uncomfortable day in his entire life, is indicative of the rot at the center of the Democrat Party and the political neo-new-Left as a whole.”
Precisely. As with most Democrats, they give the illusion of being for the “working class” when in reality, they’re just looking out for themselves. I haven’t seen one of them give up their digs in D.C. and move to where I live in South Lorain.