Loading ...Sen. John Cornyn of Texas got an amendment voted on Thursday that pitted Democrats against one of their biggest advocacy groups: MoveOn.org.
It wasn’t like this was an easy call for most Democrats. It wasn’t MoveOn.org vs. the National Rifle Association or the Federalist Society. It was MoveOn.org vs. a highly respected, unanimously confirmed, highly decorated military man.
Since Vietnam, it’s generally been considered bad form by the vast majority of the American public to trash the military. Calling the commanding general of forces in Iraq a traitor is at least a step or two up from “bad form.”
So, who sided with MoveOn.org and their libel against Gen. David Petraeus?
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Clinton, the likely Democrat presidential nominee, is going to have this vote used against her in the general election campaign. She might’ve been able to get away from her “willing suspension of disbelief” line to the general, but this is a recorded vote. It sticks. How many people are going to be willing to vote for a commander-in-chief who supports the libel of the troops? What effect will such a commander-in-chief have on the morale or esprit de corps of the military?
Whatever the merits of the Cornyn amendment, I note that both of my Senators, Inouye and Akaka, voted against it. Senator Inouye is a WW II Medal of Honor winner, a true war hero, which makes his position a bit of a surprise even though he is a loyal, high-ranking Democrat. Akaka, on the other hand, is a nice fellow but is as dumb as dirt, and no position he takes comes as a surprise to me.