The American Spectator

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Tony's Awards

3.25.08 @ 12:01AM

McPEAK SPEAK
Re: Robert M. Goldberg's McPeak on Display:

Gen. McPeak, in addition to the qualities Mr. Goldberg describes, is also the retired flag officer most likely to repel Air Force veterans from Senator Obama's candidacy. I say this as a retired (reserve) sailor, but the zoomies I knew over a career of 27 years uniformly detested him.

This message contains a "punnish" allusion to one of the reasons they did. Maybe one of them will explain.
-- Ed Girard

I wonder if anyone on the Obama campaign staff is aware of the contempt in which McPeak is held by a significant segment of Air Force veterans of the '80s and '90s. His term as Air Force Chief of Staff was a near disaster with the troops, morale-wise. He's a cold, humorless fish, unlike any other high-ranking officers whom I've ever observed. As a colonel we trained him (in my squadron) to fly the F-111A circa 1980, and I have personally seen him in action on a daily basis. His name is a joke with USAF vets of the previous two decades. Ask anyone.
-- Phil Brandt
Maj., USAF (Ret.)
Austin, Texas

Hey, wait a minute! I'm STILL waiting for a commentator on McPeak's "Bill Clinton as McCarthy" comment to point out that "McCarthyism" -- in the sense of "false accusation" -- is as wrong and even more outdated a term as "Swiftboated" (also used incorrectly in the sense of "false accusation"), or to continue to claim Reagan was an "amiable dunce."

The slander by McPeak was to McCarthy, not Clinton! And to point out McPeak's questionable positions, and relate THOSE somehow to "McCarthyism" -- double slander!

McPeak may be completely wrong on Israel, and one may well (somehow) link that history to considering a hypocrite in complaining about Bill's statements about Obama's patriotism (which could also have been wrong)...but NONE of the above, in any way, is a reflection on -- or of -- McCarthy!

Has no commentator read the recent scholarly and popular works (finally) rehabilitating McCarthy's reputation? He performed the difficult, much-needed, and ultimately unpopular service of weeding out actual Communist agents who had embedded themselves in all levels of the federal government, and their supporters and co-conspirators in society.

How quaint that legacy must sound to liberals who practically deny the concept of "national security" let alone ignore today's terrorist and other threats thereto; but in the aftermath of WWII and start of the Cold War, Communist infiltration really and truly was an actual, existential threat to the Union. Every release of historical documents from "the other side" has only ever CONFIRMED CP membership and outright spying by individuals the Left has claimed as "innocents" for decades -- NEVER ONCE, to my knowledge, confounded the charge.

I guess using "McCarthyism" in its erroneous historical sense, is just like the many "journalists" who continue to ignore the support for the accuracy of the statements of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and who let dust collect -- if they ever bothered to obtain a copy -- on Reagan In His Own Hand, one among many tomes documenting the deep thinker that Reagan was -- no mere "talking head/actor," he.

Of course this is just scratching the surface of cultural myths that have the facts (and values) exactly backwards, but let's start whack-a-moling them ALL of them wherever they pop up!
-- Kevin Amaro
Hayward, California

Thank goodness and Tyrrell (in many instances the same) for getting the complete story out on another military kook. Many of us thought General Clark was more than enough with his "suck up" mentality to the Clintons and left wing views. Even Fox News did not note that the latest general had been picked up for driving under the influence and had a well known reputation for Jew and Christian bashing. This why the Commander in Chief of the armed forces is a civilian and not just another soldier. Keep up the good and necessary work right thru the election in November.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

Tony McPeak's comparison of Bill Clinton with Joe McCarthy brought out the old memories...unfortunately, it didn't bring out memories of what he looked like. Yesterday, on Fox News, of all places, I saw the story illustrated with old film of Eugene McCarthy. Big difference.
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

SNATCHING DEFEAT
Re: Jennifer Rubin's Why Not Defeat?:

Terrific, timely slogan for the political campaign the Democrats and their supporters seem to be running now.
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Trade, John McCain, Bill Clinton, Television, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, NATO, Africa, Oil