McCain’s Damning Silence

TMV Columnist Shaun Mullen in his “John McCain: Playground Bully As Sissy,” quotes Brandon Friedman at Vet Voice:

…while McCain has given so much to his country, thousands of veterans–past and present–have given as much or more. In this war alone, thousands of troops have lost limbs, been paralyzed, and been burned beyond recognition. So to see McCain resort to playing the POW card when answering legitimate questions, in my mind, cheapens that experience.

This very legitimate comment brings up a related, relevant issue. The issue is McCain’s silence on — and thus his tacit approval of — slurs and smears against his opponent, Barack Obama. Especially the most vile and recent ones brought to your neighborhood bookstore by the co-author of the Republican bestseller “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” Jerome Corsi.

We are talking about Corsi’s latest master piece, “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” a 384-page book jam-packed with unsubstantiated allegations (despite the million “footnotes”), slurs and smears against Barack Obama, and one that promises to be a gold mine of material for innumerable “inspiring and noble” ads by the McCain campaign and its attack dogs.

What does all this have to do with John McCain’s military service, his sacrifices, and the war sacrifices of others? Bear with me.

Think back to the 2000 primary season when John McCain’s sacrifices as a prisoner of war in Vietnam were blasphemed by rumors put out by similar groups as the Swiftboaters; rumors that he had been too-scarred by his experiences and torture as a POW to be able to handle the rigors of the presidency of the United States. By the way, at that time, George W. Bush did the same about the attacks on his Republican opponent as McCain is doing today about the attacks on his Democratic opponent: Nothing!

Now, go forward—just a little bit—to the heinous attacks on triple amputee, Vietnam War hero, Senator Max Cleland. Led by righteous, never-served, Ralph Reed (who compared the hero who left three limbs in Vietnam to Osama and Saddam), these groups ravaged the heroism, and the political career, of this great American.

We all know—know it too well—the infamous swiftboating of John Kerry by the well-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, so aptly assisted by Jerome Corsi.

And so we have come full circle: John McCain who promised a “clean” campaign; who himself “has given so much to his country,” albeit not as much as triple amputee Max Cleland, and thousand of others; who himself was smeared by the likes of the Swiftboaters, now that he has a golden opportunity — no, an obligation — to condemn the slurs and smears by Corsi and his ilk…does and says nothing.

That is what make Brandon Friedman’s comments at Vet Voice on McCain “playing the POW card” related and relevant to his damning silence–a silence that says much more about the man than a thousand scripted “my friends” lines.

Senator McCain, there is still time to distance yourself, to break the silence. You showed you could do it, even in a “Cone of Silence.”