The American Spectator

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About Ms. Fabrizio’s article, and one letter written in response:

It is true that Franklin D. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy prior to his time in the White House. But it is also true that he took the job because Uncle Ted had served in that same position, and found it to be bully preparation for the presidency. It is also true that FDR, while serving the Navy Department, made an official trip to France during the last days of World War I, dressed in a uniform of his own design, its style heavily influenced by Uncle Ted’s Rough Rider uniform; it was a costume appropriate for the presidential guard in Munchkin Land. But, unlike Uncle Teddy, FDR didn’t get close to the trenches, and real soldiers serving there resented him.

As for the honorable Clinton and his kind, one can easily imagine the shrieks and low moans that would have ensued had the first President Bush stepped up to the podium at the 1992 GOP convention and declared himself to be, “Lt. George H.W. Bush, reporting for duty,” in an attempt to make his (genuine) heroism eclipse his position on the issues. We can be sure that if one of the first Bush’s surrogates had compared “my hero” to “your deserter,” as Michael Moore did in 2004 with the incumbent president and feminist general Wesley Clark, legions of ACLU types would have suffered hip displacement and ruptured tear ducts trying to contain their outrage. Their ability to practice such doublethink tells us who they are, and what.

p>The left is reacting to a situation they find distasteful in much the same way small children often respond to events beyond their comprehension or control — by calling names and throwing mud. It is additional evidence that boom-babies are growing old without growing up. Someone buy Maureen Dowd a new Tickle-Me Elmo. Get a couple for Clinton, too. br> — Edmund Dantes br> Coshocton, Ohio /p> p> INVITING FAILURE br> Re: Jed Babbin’s The Vietnamization of Iraq :