July 1, 2008
Webb: McCain Should 'Calm Down' on Using Military Service
@ 12:20 pm by Walter Alarkon
[KLP Note: We should send our congrats to Webb and Clark and also add Rand Beers to the mix...All are gifts that keep on giving....the Repubs couldn't have done better if they had thought of these yahoos themselves...]
briefingroom.thehill.com
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) waded into the debate over John McCain's military service Monday to say that the Republican should avoid using military service in politics.
Webb, a Barack Obama supporter, was on MSNBC's "Countdown" to talk about his G.I. Bill to increase education benefits for returning veterans which is now law. Webb criticized both McCain and President Bush for not supporting the bill. Then, unprompted, Webb weighed in on the debate over retired Gen. Wesley Clark's remark that "riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down" isn't "a qualification to be president."
"I think what we really need to work on over the next four, five months, and it goes back to the speech that Sen. Obama gave [Monday] and this little fight that I've been watching and that is, we need to make sure that we take politics out of service," Webb said. "People don't serve their country for political issues."
He continued: "And John McCain's my long-time friend, if that is one area that I would ask him to calm down on, it`s that, don't be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them because they don't, any more than when the Democrats have political issues during the Vietnam War. Let's get the politics out of the military, take care of our military people, or have our political arguments in other areas."
UPDATE: Webb's office e-mailed the Briefing Room a response to critics who have argued that Webb is criticizing McCain's military service.
"Senator Webb has never, and would never, demean the service of anyone who has stepped forward to serve our country. To the contrary, he was calling on those on all sides of the debate to refrain from implying that their political views are representative of the military writ large," wrote Webb's press secretary, Kimberly Hunter.
She stressed that Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy, has consistently argued against the injection of politics into military service by anyone. |
