So Now The Rightwing Freaks Are Attacking MURTHA'S Purple Hearts

[ruggerson]

Do these people have no honor whatsoever?

Every time you wonder if Republicans can sink to a new low.... they do!

http://www.strangemilitary.com/content/item/113084.html

Jack Murtha's 'Fake' Purple Hearts - An Open Letter

May 5, 2002

Dear Jack,



I’m writing on matters of joint concern. A number of weeks ago I was talking with someone who is a mutual acquaintance and your name came up. It was an unusually frank discussion and I considered it private. I did relate some opinions about you and shared some recollections about experiences with you in Congress. I was, to be honest, critical about how you misled me about ABSCAM where you convinced me you had voluntarily told federal agents about the offer of money to you and I learned later, after I had successfully defeated the ethics charges against you, that you had merely manipulated the system to cooperate with federal agents to avoid prosecution.

I also shared my recollection of when you admitted, back in our corner, that you didn’t earn your purple hearts (you indicated you had small scratch on your cheek that wasn’t even directly related to an APC that ran over a small anti personnel mine that was behind you). The other purple heart you even declined to explain.

At the time you were feeling particularly vulnerable, because it wasn’t too long after you had called me crying and sobbing, thanking me for “saving your life” before the ethics committee. There was no doubt in my mind that you were expressing to me that you did not believe you did anything sufficient to earn the purple heart, and that you didn’t want to be active in my efforts to laud Vietnam Veterans that served with us.

Given what I know about the brave men who served in the Marine Corp., I did not criticize you, but to be honest, I was shocked and disappointed in you personally. We both knew what was at issue, and we both know what happened and that you wanted to avoid the limelight. Later, we ended up having to run for the same seat. It was a good clean race and I admit I knew I couldn’t win, simply on the basis of voter turn out alone. During that time some people came to me with documents indicating you had used influence, after the fact, or had embellished your purple heart awards. I did not respond, and I said nothing. In doing so I may have betrayed my comrades in arms because I knew then what you had told me in the corner of the house - but I had told no one about that and I stood mute. But a few weeks ago my conversation was private and I was not seeking to do you any harm, though it would be ridiculous for me to infer that I have any respect for what you’ve done.

[fooj]

1. Cowardly rat bastards make me sick!

:grr:

[quinnox]

2. Oh Christ

There they go again, Cowardly republicans attacking war heroes.

Unbelievable!! How low can they go?

[sarcasmo]

3. Attack, Attack, it is the Rove playbook. Which is why Gore needs to run in

08. A Gore/Boxer ticket, IMHO would be outstanding.

[LostinVA]

7. I love the sound of that ticket!

[Yoda Yada]

4. Then, I guess the Republcians DON'T support the military...

...because that's who gave Murtha his medals.

(But I guess the Bushies wouldn't know that, since they stay home during wartime.)

[rfranklin]

5. Actually it was Dumbya who compared his scratches to serious....

wounds when he had the five minute photo op with the soldiers in the hospital.

[Yoda Yada]

8. ...that was a pretty ugly glimpse...

...of who George W. Bush really is. He has absolutely no idea that it isn't always about HIM.

[catmother]

9. OMG. i saw that. what an asshole he is. nt

[Lost-in-FL]

6. The tactic won't work anymore.

After it was used against Kerry people is now questioning if voting for AWOL Bush was the right thing to do.

[ruggerson]

10. And here's the rightwing blogosphere kicking into action with it

from "CNS News", otherwise known as Completely Nutty Slanted News.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=/SpecialReports/archive/200601/SPE20060113a.html

Murtha's War Hero Status Called Into Question
By Marc Morano and Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff
January 13, 2006

Read Article About Murtha's Links to Abscam

(CNSNews.com) - Having ascended to the national stage as one of the most vocal critics of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha has long downplayed the controversy and the bitterness surrounding the two Purple Hearts he was awarded for military service in Vietnam.

Murtha is a retired marine and was the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress. Since 1967, there have been at least three different accounts of the injuries that purportedly earned Murtha his Purple Hearts. Those accounts also appear to conflict with the limited military records that are available, and Murtha has thus far refused to release his own military records.

A Cybercast News Service investigation also reveals that one of Murtha's former Democratic congressional colleagues and a fellow decorated Vietnam veteran, Don Bailey of Pennsylvania, alleges that Murtha admitted during an emotional conversation on the floor of the U.S. House in the early 1980s that he did not deserve his Purple Hearts.

" is putting himself forward as some combat veteran with serious wounds and he's using that and it's dishonest and it's wrong," Bailey told Cybercast News Service on Jan. 9. Murtha served in the Marines on active duty and in the reserves from 1952 until his retirement as a colonel in 1990. He volunteered for service in Vietnam and was a First Marine Regiment intelligence officer in 1966 and 1967.

[aquart]

11. This is a PAID attack. Selling out a vet for cash.

Low? Oh, they can go lower. And will. For money.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

12. I am so shocked and suprised by this! nt.

[tinrobot]

13. I'm shocked and Bush and Cheney's purple hearts!

Oh wait... that's right, they don't have any.

Chickenhawks, every last one of them.

[BrotherBuzz]

14. There's no there there

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2006/01/pa12_don_bailey.php

<snip>

Bailey's been peddling his lies since 2002, when Murtha was once again involved in an incumbent-vs.-incumbent race. Yet if Murtha supposedly made some confession to Bailey during the ABSCAM goings-on in 1980 (as Bailey claimed to the National Journal), why didn't Bailey use that against Murtha in 1982? The answer doesn't change: The story is bullshit, and Bailey hadn't bothered to invent it yet. Rather, Bailey - after spending two decades losing a whopping four more races - dreamed up his tale in 2002 as a way to settle an old score against Murtha. (He failed, badly: Murtha won the primary that year 54-30.)

I obviously expect every gutter-dwelling conservative website... but I repeat myself. I obviously expect every conservative website to fawn all over Don Bailey's every phony word. He's a less credible witness than a nun-beating crack dealer - in other words, perfect for the non-reality-based community. But if the traditional media wishes to pay attention to Bailey's pedigree, they'll realize there's no way he could be telling truth. His story doesn't add up, and his motives are so nakedly venal that it should be plain for anyone to see.

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2006/01/pa12_don_bailey.php

....


This current round of swiftboating is particularly odious in my mind.

[rzemanfl]

15. Maybe we need to play the same game. I would like to see

more coverage of McCain spending years in Hanoi with his Vietnamese mistress smoking opium and having sex while building up a fat pile of cash from his military pay. These people are so fucking far beneath contempt...

"Corp.,"??????????

[bluestateguy]

16. Did John McCain give aid & comfort to N. Vietnam when he was in captivity?

Hmm? The American people are waiting for answers.

[rzemanfl]

18. No, see above, he was busy in his opium den with his Viet-

namese mistress and letting that military pay pile up while G.W. Bush was braving the Texas skies in the "exceedingly dangerous" F-102. I actually saw this argument being made for Bush's "bravery"-that the F-102 was a "widowmaker" or "flying coffin" despite the fact that the Air Force bought like a thousand of them and flew them over the U.S. with live nukes on board.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

17. Hmm, I wonder if they ever write any letters about poppy bush

bailing out of that burning airplane during world war two and leaving his buddies on the plane to die? Probably not.

[1620rock]

19. ....these people stoop to the unspeakable.

:mad: :puke:

[UTUSN]

20. Come on, Kick it up for LIMBOSEVIC's circus tomorrow - ASSHOLES

and I am calling the wingnuts assoholes, not us