Four-Star General Smacks Down GOP Congressman Who Attempts To Walk Out During Testimony

[Tx4obama]

VIDEO here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/four-star-general-smacks-down-gop-congressman-who-attempts-to-walk-out-during-testimony/

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In a rare show of verbal intensity, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno smacked down Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) when the politician attempted to walk out of the testimony after speaking his mind about an Army program he would like to cut.
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[Xipe Totec]

1. If you'd like, Congressman, we can continue this conversation in the back alley.

Bring your friends, if you want; I like a challenge.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. Excuse me, but are we supposed to cheer someone in the military for doing this?

Somehow I don't think that his display of arrogance is in our best interest.

You can believe it if you want. I don't.

[CTyankee]

3. It sounds to me like Odierno was trying to respond and Hunter was trying to shut him down.

So I wonder, what's the matter with Hunter?

[BlueToTheBone]

4. He's a republican.

[CTyankee]

5. Oh, yeah! Who woulda thunk?

Of course, certain responders excepting...

[BlueToTheBone]

7. It's almost a given...someone do something really crazy?

They are republicans.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. They are probably both Republicans. It is a bad precedent to set.

[baldguy]

6. Is it better to have a Congressman support the military only under Republican administrations

And try to destroy it when a Democrat is President?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

8. I don't know what that means. What I do know is that it is dangerous to our system of Democracy,

such as it is, to have any military officer of any rank display arrogance and contempt towards any member of Congress, the Senate, or anyone in the President's staff.

Although it may be entertaining to see one right-winger go after another right-winger, we can be sure that the General's displayed contempt towards the Congressman is not the only contempt that he and other military officers can display towards "stupid civilians."

It is a dangerous precedent.

Truman was right in firing MacArthur.

[baldguy]

10. It means that, over & above anything else the military should be totally nonpartisan.

That's what keeps the military from having undue influence over our democracy, and helps keep the fascist tendencies of the military in check. Duncan Hunter's treatment of Gen Odienro, and the GOP's differing treatment of the military under Obama (and Clinton, and Carter) vs they way they treat it under Republican administrations, threatens that.

[Bucky]

11. I share the concern, but the Congressman was trying to do a hit and run cheap shot.

I assume, based on military people I know, that Odierno started off in the proper deferential mode. It just looks like he'd had enough grandstanding from a know-nothing neocon. Yes, the military must always defer to Congress. But a few heated words is not the same as failing to respect civil authority. They're people first and their jobs second.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

13. We disagree. Congressmen grandstand all the time. A few heated words is the same as failing

to respect civil authority. The identity of the particular Congressman, or his politicial leanings, is irrelevant.

When senior military officers go down this path, and it is remembered by them and junior officers, there is no going back.

[Cha]

12. I read the transcript.. it was a thing of beauty.. Someone tweeted "Bravo" to

General Odierno on the obama diary..

JOBoomr @JOBoomr

@GENRayOdierno Bravo, General! http://www.mediaite.com/tv/four-star-general-smacks-down-gop-congressman-who-attempts-to-walk-out-during-testimony/ …

thanks for posting the Vid, Tx