Saturday, April 17, 2004

A little quiz

Two stories have recently arisen about Senator Kerry, a little compare and contrast might be in order. Read the following stories and consider the following question; how do the following stories reflect on the party of the principle?

In the first story, as previously reported, Senator Kerry, who is also the Democratic candidate for President, while skiing was knocked down inadvertantly by his secret service agent. To quote conservative columnist Tony Blankly on the subject, "But what may become the enduring exemplar of the Kerry style was his spontaneous expletive on the ski slopes when his Secret Service guard bumped into him by accident (while guarding him): "I don't fall down. The S.O.B. knocked me over." To instinctively say that about the man who is sworn to put himself between Kerry and a bullet, paints a lasting and contemptible character portrait."

In the second story, Republican Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, now retired, reported that Senator Kerry did not deserve the first Purple Heart he recieved. The presumably liberal Douglas Brinkley (who is writing for Salon.com) had the following comments on this incident. "Does anybody dispute that Kerry's wound was created by enemy action? As the stipulation also makes clear, Kerry would have been awarded a Purple Heart even if he never bled, if, for example, he had suffered a concussion from a grenade. So to set the record straight: Kerry deserved his first Purple Heart -- period. To say otherwise is to distort the reality of the medal.

Unfortunately, the Boston Globe and New York Post stories omit fully reporting the bylaws. They present Hibbard at face value, downplaying the fact that he is a Republican criticizing a fellow veteran hoping to cause him public embarrassment.
"

Actually they are both representative of their parties. The first demonstrates that Democrats are elitist snobs who don't appreciate what they have been given and cuss a lot. The second demonstrates that Republicans are brave people willing to speak truth to power 35 years after the event happened, at a time when it will cause the most political damage.

Some of you might think that I am showing Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, now retired, a lack of respect. The man is a veteran after all. To that I would respond, well, Senator Kerry's a veteran too, and that doesn't seem to be slowing Republicans down anyway.

No comments: