McClosky on Hardball!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

Said W was in the Guard "when people did that to avoid service"--talking about how people that haven't been to war are the ones who strut around..."a choice between two men who dodged combat and one who volunteered, we're better with the one who went"! This guys a Republican!

[Jacobin]

1. Did you just hear Tweety say:

"I thought Dick Cheney was a moderate republican. What happened?"


Tweety is woefully ignorant or blatantly lying.

Cheney had the most radical RW voting record in the house when he served.

[calico1]

2. This is something that a lot of people who aren't old

enough to remember don't realize and that a lot of war mongers don't want people to know--that if you wanted to avoid going to Vietnam, you joined the Guard. I'm glad he said it because that is the way it was.

[olddem43]

5. Of course, the only people that got in for a long time were -

the rich and well connected. Most professional athletes, for example.

[Ducks In A Row]

3. Chris asked the question

"How come they're angrier at him Pete, than they are at the guy who didn't serve, the President?"


he'll never get a rethug on the show now.

[Cha]

6. Glad tweety got Pete McCloskey..but who

is Pete McCloskey?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. McClosky

won a Navy Cross and Silver Star and Purple Hearts...and he's a former Republican Congressman...what in the world can Shrub do?

[Cha]

7. Found this on Pete when I was looking to see

what State he represented..

"Earth Day 1970 launched the environmental movement across the country and beyond, by harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of college students.

In 2003, former Congressman Pete McCloskey, co-sponsor of that first Earth Day, sees the need to do it all over again."

[Cha]

8. I guess he's from California..

Found this at SanFrancisoGate by Pete..dated July 4, 2004

This guy rocks ..why is he a repub?

"Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a multiple amputee combat veteran of Vietnam, was castigated as unpatriotic when he opposed a part of President Bush's war policy in Iraq. A true war hero, John McCain, rose to his defense, but was himself later castigated as unpatriotic by House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay when he opposed another administration policy of refusing the honor of a public reception to wounded soldiers returning home.

Ironically, the politicians who most eagerly use the term "unpatriotic" have often declined to take the risks taken by Nathan Hale and the signers of the Declaration of Independence: facing hostile rifle and artillery fire, or worse, being hanged. Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and George W. Bush somehow never chose to face machine-gun or artillery fire during the wars of their own youth"

More @..
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/04/EDGD56N5O81.DTL

[pennylane100]

9. He is the last of a dying breed.

A truly liberal republican. He is one of the very few republicans that I respect.I think his district is now represented by Anna Eshoo, a democrat.

[bobbieinok]

10. from other thread on Hardball and McClosky

in the mid 60s he was a repub House member from CA

my ex and I in grad school registered as repubs to vote for him in the primary, reregistered as dems later and voted for him in the general election

as I remember, he was vocally anti-VN War

[Jade Fox]

11. McClosky: probably the most liberal Republican ever...

He was a Congressman from Northern California, and opposed Vietnam.

The Guard (Coast Guard as well) was the number one choice for those
trying to avoid Vietnam, especially those like Bush who didn't want to
look too obvious about it. There were long waiting lists. Bush had to have
had pull to have gotten in so easily. What I'd like to know is if that was
legal, and what do the guys who he passed over think about it? There
must be many of them still around.

[checks-n-balances]

12. I remember McClosky, and his discussion on H'ball was EXCELLENT

He made some terrific points:

- That Kerry's 1971 testimony was NOT an accusation against those on the Swiftboats, or those particular ones in the ads today

- That his testimony was NOT an indictment against all who served in Vietnam, and (most importantly)

- That the Kerry remarks currently in dispute were mostly reporting of the TESTIMONY OF OTHER VETS about systematic atrocities they - witnessed or participated in themselves

- That Kerry is a hero for having served and then for trying to stop the war that he saw as unjust and immoral - to paraphrase McClosky - as much as the present war is

- That the thinking and the memory of these SBVT are clouded due to their anger & bitterness that they have taken personally and have never gotten past it

- That those presidents who have served in combat have been less likely to lead us into war except as last resort

HATS OFF TO THIS SHOW FOR INTERVIEWING MCCLOSKY. This man has the greatest integrity I've seen for a long time, because he speaks the TRUTH despite remaining in the GOP (although his breed of GOP is practically extinct nowdays). He bucks the party line, unlike Dole and sometimes McCain, who have thrown away their integrity by still supporting GWB.

Bravo to Norville & McClosky for their intellligence and their questions tonight!!

Edited for spelling mistakes