Monday Mashup Part Two (5/24/10)

(Part One is here.)

I give you Kathleen Parker in the WaPo on Saturday (here, about the flap in Connecticut with Dem Senatorial candidate Richard Blumenthal over his military service)…

Who knows what motivated Blumenthal to stretch his truth? Perhaps it was survivor's guilt.

…

Had he gone to Vietnam, as he apparently thinks he should have, he would have learned…this: Real heroes never brag, and real Marines don't lie.

OK, Blumenthal screwed up, and I believe he has been justly punished at the polls; his once formidable lead against likely Repug challenger (and rasslin’ magnate) Linda McMahon has shrunken considerably (and on the controversy, I thought Media Matters made some good points here – h/t Atrios).

Well then, I’ll look forward to a column that I’m sure will be forthcoming from Parker in response to a similar deception from teabagger hero Chuck DeVore, running for the Repug U.S. Senate nomination from California (here). And I don’t recall Parker having anything to say about a similar deception regarding military service from Huckleberry Graham (here), as well as the granddaddy of them all when it comes to Repug dereliction of military duty (here).

And I would argue that Parker’s, shall we say, antiquated notion of women in combat is on display here. Maybe she should ponder all of this before she decides to pontificate about the military again.

Update 5/29/10: And I'll await the corporate media harrumphing from Parker and her pals on Repug Mark Kirk also based on this.

Update 1 6/2/10: Lather, rinse, repeat...

Update 2 6/2/10: And the Repug military embellishment "hits" just keep on' comin' (and yes, I know this is slightly different since the man in question is departed, but if nothing else, it proves that the Repug issue here crosses gender lines).

And speaking of war, Fred Hiatt of the Kaplan Test Prep Daily's Scribble Page (Parker's co-worker), is concerned that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going “unnoticed” (here).

As noted here, the Post allowed Vets for Freedom executive director Wade Zirkle to criticize Reps. Jim Moran and the late John Murtha in Hiatt’s Op-Ed section for their treatment of former Sgt. Mark Seavey, who chided the Democratic legislators at a January 5 (’06) town hall meeting in Virginia for saying that they "have talked to the troops and the troops are demoralized." Zirkle failed to note, however, that Seavey is one of the co-founders of Zirkle's organization (and Hiatt didn’t catch that somehow). I would say that that’s bound to have a “chilling effect” on any discourse on the war.

Also, if Hiatt is going to criticize anyone for silence on the war, he can start with his own Op-Ed writers, who also ignored it on its third anniversary (here). However, that wasn’t as bad as Hiatt’s own failure to question the veracity of the pre-war claims by Dubya and his pals, as noted here.

I reluctantly have to admit that Hiatt has a point about publicizing the wars. As far as I’m concerned, though, if he hadn’t failed so miserably in his duty to educate and inform on that score, our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan might not remain the mysteries that they are, sadly, to a great many people in this country.

And finally, it looks like the Garden State is getting wise in a big way to its bully of a governor (here)…

TRENTON, N.J. - Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans gathered Saturday near the Statehouse to protest Gov. Chris Christie's proposed budget cuts, saying they wanted to send the governor a message that his priorities are "out of whack."

They urged him to reconsider his proposed cuts in school aid and other programs they consider vital.

State Police estimated the crowd at 25,000, one of the largest ever to protest in the state.

Of course, that isn’t going to have an impact on Christie – as noted here, he “swiftly vetoed” a “millionaires tax” along with property rebate legislation (and this tells you what Christie thinks of clean energy development).

And what a charming tone he struck with the opposition party also in response to a reporter’s question here.

I’ve made remarks in the past about the supposed “coronation” of Tom Corbett as PA governor in the past, and I probably shouldn’t have, but the presence of Christie holding that state’s executive power is all the motivation we should need to do what we can to make sure a similar Republican tragedy doesn’t occur across the river.

Update 1 5/25/10: More from Think Progress here...

Update 2 5/25/10: A shockingly sensible editorial on Corbett from the Inky here...