BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Well, for one, I have started wearing a mask when I leave the house, much like the Chinese during the SARS scare. The Republicans have given up on the issues. Instead, they are beating the rugs like my grandmother used to do, hanging them on a clothes line in the back yard and beating the hell out of them with a broom and looking for dust bunnies under the bed. That’s about all they can do.

The truth of the matter seems to be that John McCain is an honorable hero when it is convenient and Sarah Palin is a homely soccer mom when she want’s to cry sexism and accuse the media of playing “Stump the Candidate.” What ever happened to Carly Fiorina? Did she finally realize she was defending the indefensible?
So, this weekend the Republicans began their campaign of character assassination:

“It’s really important for Americans to start knowing who the real Barack Obama is,” vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Sunday in Long Beach, Calif.
Palin led the attacks that Republicans took up across the television dial. The focus was on Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground who lives near Obama in Chicago, served with him on two charity boards and held a reception for him in 1995.

Tim Pawlenty defended Palin on Sunday morning television.

“It goes to the issue of judgment,” Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said on ABC’s This Week. “What kind of judgment would allow an unrepentant domestic terrorist to host a political event for you in his home?”

I’m not going to defend Bill Ayers. Neither Palin or Pawlenty were around to see what was going on during those times. For that matter, I believe Obama was eight and probably not living on the mainland of the U.S. But, I will say that before they pass judgment on the actions of one man or one group of people during that war era, another war we were lied into and our brothers and sisters died for, perhaps they should study history and see how the government was treating the citizens.

But, I forget. John McCain was serving his country.

John McCain was training in his AD-6 Skyraider on an overcast Texas morning in 1960 when he slammed into Corpus Christi Bay and sheared the skin off his plane’s wings.

McCain recounted the accident decades later in his autobiography. “The engine quit while I was practicing landings,” he wrote. But an investigation board at the Naval Aviation Safety Center found no evidence of engine failure.

The 23-year-old junior lieutenant wasn’t paying attention and erred in using “a power setting too low to maintain level flight in a turn,” investigators concluded.

The results of the investigation indicate that John McCain lied then.

While he has contended that the engine quit, investigators collected extensive evidence indicating otherwise. Cockpit instruments that froze on impact showed the engine was still producing power. When water quenched the exhaust stack, it preserved a bright blue color, showing that the engine was still hot. And an aviator behind McCain reported that the engine was producing the black smoke characteristic of Skyraiders.

Did John lie or is he just confused again? But, that was a small one time thing wasn’t it?

The crash was one of three early in McCain’s aviation career in which his flying skills and judgment were faulted or questioned by Navy officials.

In his most serious lapse, McCain was “clowning” around in a Skyraider over southern Spain about December 1961 and flew into electrical wires, causing a blackout, according to McCain’s own account as well as those of naval officers and enlistees aboard the carrier Intrepid. In another incident, in 1965, McCain crashed a T-2 trainer jet in Virginia.

Oh, but accidents happen.

“Three mishaps are unusual,” said Michael L. Barr, a former Air Force pilot with 137 combat missions in Vietnam and an internationally known aviation safety expert who teaches in USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program. “After the third accident, you would say: Is there a trend here in terms of his flying skills and his judgment?”

When asked about these lapses in judgment and responsibility, the McCain campaign offered no comment. John McCain did serve five years as a POW and it is obvious that he enjoys his hero status. In fact, that was about all we heard at the Republican campaign. The first telling of the story was sufficient. But, this election is not about electing a war hero.

In light of these recent revelations about McCain’s negligence, irresponsibility and lack of judgment in three accidents that preceded his captivity, I will only say once again that being shot down over Viet Nam does not qualify a man for the office of the President any more than being a hocky mom qualifies a woman to be Vice President.

When the going gets tough both McCain and Palin are eager to sell their souls if need be to gain offices in the White House. As more and more of McCain’s past comes to light, we can see that John McCain will lie to cover his tracks, just as he did when he crashed the first plane.

McCain and Palin are looking under Barack Obama’s bed for dust bunnies. Unfortunately for the he-she ticket, they are beating a dead horse, or a dead bunny. We have all heard about Jeremiah Wright. We all know about Bill Ayers. Everyone knows the name of Tony Rezko. It’s no longer news. It is history. But, the worst part is not that the McPalin ticket doesn’t seem to realize that we have all been there and done that during the primary season. Now, they want it to be open season. Unfortunately politicians who live in glass houses should not throw stones. But, if you want to waste the American taxpayers’ time the way the past administration has wasted our tax dollars we are prepared. “Bring it on” to quote “W.”

Or, do us all a favor and get to something of substance.