Sen. John McCain and Republicans were absolutely beside themselves last week, reacting angrily to what otherwise seemed like a normal attack from Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean.
Responding to McCain's first campaign ad on Friday, Dean called McCain a "blatant opportunist who doesn't understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years."
Given that McCain's ad featured him in a North Vietnamese hospital bed as a POW, Republicans said Dean was attacking McCain's military service and began lashing back, demanding Dean apologize and the next day calling on Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to denounce him for not apologizing.
At the same time, Republicans are trying to fight back against the 100 years war line, arguing it's been taken out of context.
What's going on here is a battle to set the tone for the rest of the campaign. If Republicans can force Dean to backtrack or make Democrats pull back from his charge, they will have set a ceiling on what attacks are acceptable for the next seven months. If, on the other hand, they fail, Dean is free to ratchet up the criticism, though always with the limit that he cannot explicitly attack McCain's military record.
Maybe more important is the 100 years argument. It's been debated back-and-forth, and Democrats continue to press it, even as a number of conservative columnists defend McCain, arguing he did not mean 100 years of war but rather military bases in a peaceful nation, just as the U.S. has in Europe, Japan and elsewhere.
If Republicans lose this argument, expect the next seven months to be the most vicious we've ever seen.
— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (4)
Goodness gracious, John McCain is trying to get into the sound bite squabbles?
Wonders never cease!! Just when I thought I had things figured out. Meaning that Hillary's self-styled "aggressive" campaigning was filling in the Karl Rove spot this year and everybody (the mythical everybody) knows we don't like that any more. So here comes Mr. Serene McCain now wanting to look like he too can do campaign trail tantrums.
Well and good. Do we expect his post-primary campaign ads to be generous and respectful?
We will see.
Posted by Gaias Child | March 31, 2008 12:44 PM
I appreciate all that McCain did for his country, but he returned home after being a prisoner of war. Many soldiers died including over 4000 in Iraq - they came home in coffins, some never made it back home. Kudos to all you have done McCain, but we need a change. We cannot continue to lose lives unnecessarily just so your oil hungry friends get richer and richer. McCain is enjoying his luxurious life. What about the thousands of soldiers who are dead? More soldiers and civillians will die with your proposed 100 year policy in Iraq. Out with the old and in with the new.
Posted by marie | March 31, 2008 12:53 PM
Apologize for that? Why don't Republicans first start with Buchannan's comments insinuating that blacks should be thankful for slavery.
Posted by Hypocrisy | March 31, 2008 6:33 PM
Statements regarding the next century really need to be taken in the certainty context with which they are presented. As long as we are acting as the global stabilization force for the free world, we will have our military in harms way. That is the cost of our freedom, regardless of what the Kennedy, Murtha and Durbin think of military. Our forces have been and are still globally stationed. Anyone that is naive enough to believe that we will not guard our national security interests and pull behind a Maginot Line of Homeland Defense does not understand the impact of multilateralism. We are economically, politically and therefore militarily integrated globally for better or worse!!! That multilateralism is global in consensus but regional according to dominate economic and military force interests in compliance. Why else would China and Russia vote as they do on the Security Council. Regardless of what people think, the Middle East is of vital national security interest to the United States as well as the globe, OIL DUH!!!!!! Precipitously withdrawing from that region will only come when we have no interests, that is a reality. Any presidential candidate that says differently has no concept of national security or is making the statement with caveats (misspeaking) simply to get elected.
Posted by Larry Stone | April 1, 2008 5:41 AM