Press Bias, Teresa Heinz Kerry, & The Myth Of Max Cleland

15 Jun, 2004 by John Hawkins

Print this article Font size -16+

If you’re looking for a perfect example of liberal bias, then you need look no further than this article written by Emily Fredrix at the Associated Press. Fredrix simply regurgitates a piece of Democratic Party myth as fact, even though the GOP has always denied it and despite the fact that it’s not true in the least…

“(Max) Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm as an Army captain during the Vietnam War, lost his re-election bid in a bitter campaign against then-Rep. Saxby Chambliss. The GOP had raised questions about Cleland’s patriotism because of his position on legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security.”

As I have noted before, Max Cleland’s patriotism was not questioned in that campaign. That’s nothing but pure spin that was dreamed up by the Cleland campaign as way to try deflect the voter’s attention from the ex-senator’s refusal to vote for the Homeland Security Department. The spin didn’t work in Georgia, but since 2002, the Democrats have been trying to sell it nationwide. However, it doesn’t even pass the laugh test. How can anyone who knows anything about politics believe the GOP could win a Senate seat in GEORGIA of all places by attacking a man crippled in Vietnam as “unpatriotic”? The people peddling this story are nothing but liars and charlatans and their numbers include Teresa Heinz Kerry…

“Teresa Heinz Kerry says anger, not ideology, prompted her to become a Democrat. The wife of Sen. John Kerry the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says her emotion stemmed from the way the Republican Party, to which she had pledged allegiance, treated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002.

“Three limbs and all I could think was, ‘What does the Republican party need, a fourth limb to make a person a hero?’ And this coming from people who have not served. I was really offended by that. Unscrupulous and disgusting,” she said, her reference being an indirect one to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.”

There are a lot of things I could say about Teresa Heinz Kerry, but one of them isn’t that she’s dumb enough to actually believe this. My guess is that they simply decided it was too embarrassing for her to continue on as a Republican when her husband was running for President as a Democrat, so she concocted this lame story. In her mind, maybe it’s better to lie through her teeth than say, “John didn’t want to see a never ending stream of news articles about my party affiliation during the election cycle so I became a Democrat”.

Also, I hate to have to get into this again, but since Max Cleland is apparently going to allow the Kerry campaign to misrepresent him as a hero (which doesn’t speak very well for his character), somebody needs to set the record straight.

Max Cleland was not injured in combat. He picked up a grenade he saw on the ground, in a non-combat situation, and it went off. That’s how he lost his limbs. Cleland deserves a lot of credit for serving his country, because he was hurt in the line of duty, and for becoming a success after he got back from Vietnam, but he’s the victim of a tragic accident, not a hero.

Furthermore, while Cleland does have a silver star, he has admitted that he didn’t deserve it. Apparently, one of Cleland’s men felt bad because of what happened to him and made up a story to get him a medal.

Again, I’d rather not have to bring this up. But, since Max Cleland is willing to stand back and let the Kerry campaign try to turn him into this mythical figure who heroically lost three limbs in combat with the enemy in Vietnam (that’s always the implication even if they don’t say it) and then was then voted out of office after those eeevvviiilllll Republicans challenged his patriotism, somebody has to set the record straight. At one time, Cleland himself, at least to some extent, seemed willing to do that, but now it looks as if he’s content to live the lie…