Credit goes to Paul Begala for being the very first Democrat to accurately state what happened in the 2002 Chambliss/Cleland campaign:
That, after all, was the fate of former Sen. Max Cleland who supported Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq. All he got for his goodwill was a ruthless general election campaign engineered by the national GOP on behalf of Saxby Chambliss, who ended up taking Cleland’s seat after attack ads charged that the Vietnam triple amputee was soft on national security.
They didn’t say he was Osama or Saddam.
They didn’t question his patriotism.
They portrayed him as soft on defense because he chose to elevate union interests over Homeland Security interests.
Rick
Paulie Forehead just proves that cliche about stopped clocks being right at long intervals.
Cordially…
jeff
Damn, rick beat me to the “stopped clock” line. Serves me right for taking a long lunch.
shark
That, after all, was the fate of former Sen. Max Cleland who supported Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq. All he got for his goodwill was a ruthless general election campaign engineered by the national GOP on behalf of Saxby Chambliss, who ended up taking Cleland’s seat after attack ads charged that the Vietnam triple amputee was soft on national security.
I like the premise- that Cleeland showed Bush “goodwill” and was stabbed in the back by eeeeeevil Republicans.
How about….rewriting it to reflect the truth:
That, after all, was the fate of former Sen. Max Cleland who supported Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq because it was the politically prudent thing to do given the popularity for those moves with his constituency . All he got for his calculations was a ruthless general election campaign engineered by the national GOP on behalf of Saxby Chambliss, that he should have expected who ended up taking Cleland’s seat after attack ads charged that the Vietnam triple amputee was soft on national security.
charles austin
As Shark notes, I guess Max didn’t really believe in tax cuts or the Iraq War, he just wanted to earn some political chits to spend later.
Sandi
Why was it necessary to say “Vietnam triple amputee” instead of Vietnam vetran? Does Bagala really think it will lend credibility to Cleland’s claim’s if he is an amputee? Or does he think it is a gross wrong to challenge the word of an amputee? Cleland is either right or wrong without reguard to any physical handicaps. Cleland’s recent faux petulance was well acted, but without form.
Jef a
In fact, they did say he was a de facto terrorist and compared him to both Osama and Saddam.
Rick
Ooooh…looks like a fringer just showed up with his own set of facts. Most amusing.
Cordially…