Bill -

Since you are a veteran and patriot yourself, I suppose I can accept this type of remark from you.

For those of you who don't know, Bill served in Desert Storm. Bill has earned the right to comment about his fellow veterans.

But I can't imagine letting anyone who has never been in uniform get away with calling a guy who lost three limbs Viet Nam a buffoon.

I didn't serve in Desert Storm, but I am a patriot.

Cleland is also a patriot and a war hero, as I stated in my post. But his actions yesterday were a cheap political stunt - political buffoonery.

Cleland - rightly honored for his service - has lately taken to merchandising his war-hero status for political theater. He claimed in 2002 to have had his "patriotism" attacked by Republicans, causing him to lose his re-election bid. But no Republican has ever questioned his patriotism. The GOP questioned his voting record on national defense issues, particularly on the formation of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Cleland opposed it, as did many Democrats, because the new department wouldn't have as many rules to protect unionized bureaucrats.

I fail to see how losing limbs in combat innoculates a person against criticism of their voting record in the U.S. Senate. I seem not to recall any Democrats calling for people to not criticize Bob Dole on his political record.

Cleland voted wrong on Homeland Security, period. Losing limbs in combat is proof-positive that one is a war-hero and a patriot, but it doesn't prove one is infallible in their policy-making votes.

And Cleland yesterday engaged in pure political buffoonery.

"Cleland is also a patriot and a war hero, as I stated in my post." You're being waaay too nice in trying to make you point. Uhhhh patriot, maybe. War hero, no. He lost his limbs in an accident and not in combat. In the URL is a list of "real" war heros.

And here are more war heros. Sorry, Max Cleland may be the nicest guy in the world to those who know him, but he was NOT a war hero. That's a phrase that's being banteed around waaay too much for people who never earned it.

Sorry, but even if Cleland won the frigging Medal of Honor, that does not give him a free pass to lie, whine, snivel and moan about how his constituents discovered his voting record and then voted him out of office.

Cleland ran as a moderate, and as soon as he was in Washington he voted like a liberal. That doesn't fly in Georgia. He got beat because his values and voting record DID NOT REFLECT the values of those he claimed he represented.

Now he wants to use his status as a veteran to lie about Bush? Nope, that doesn't fly. I don't care how many medals he has.