Wesley Clark

John McCain’s Truth Squad

Posted by on June 30, 2008 at 12:16 pm. NO Comments :

On Face the Nation this weekend, Gen. Wesley Clark made the obvious observation that John McCain’s captivity in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp was not a qualification to be president. McCain’s ordeal was certainly horrific, but not leadership training. Clark’s comments will no doubt be controversial, but the reality is that living in a hut for five years, far removed from any management or policy development responsibilities, does not prepare one for executive leadership positions. McCain has other experience to promote, like his tenure in the Senate, but if he is considered to be qualified to be president solely on the basis of his time spent in jail, then Martha Stewart is qualified to be his Attorney General and Snoop Dogg his Secretary of State.

McCain’s response to the matter is to set up a “Truth Squad.” Leaving aside for the moment that nothing Clark said was untrue because it was merely his opinion, there are serious problems the new McMod Squad. The principle members include folks like Orson Swindle and George “Bud” Day.

Lt. Col. Swindle has a long and infamous resume. He is the McCain campaign’s veterans liaison as well as a board member of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), an independent advocacy group that has long backed McCain. CAGW has also been associated with unethical, if not illegal, activities on McCain’s behalf, and is tied to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Swindle himself is also a Senior Policy Advisor at the big DC lobbying firm of Hunton & Williams. All of these duties violate McCain’s own policy of not allowing people working for “independent entities” from serving on his campaign staff.

Col. Day was a member of another organization that misused the word “truth” in their name, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. He is now the director and president of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, a group comprised of former swiftboaters and the owner of the rights to “Stolen Honor,” the crocumentary featuring the swiftboat liars. It is interesting that McCain now employs Day to speak on his behalf. In 2004 he called Day’s slandering of John Kerry “dishonest and dishonorable.” Apparently those qualities are required by the McCain of 2008.

Now McCain is criticizing Barack Obama for comments made by Wes Clark. Obama has already rejected Clark’s statements, but that hasn’t stopped McCain from demagoguing the character issue. McCain himself, not a surrogate, said Saturday that “Obama’s word cannot be trusted.” Will McCain now condemn himself for engaging in dirty politics?

Wesley Clark Ditches Fox – Signs With MSNBC!

Posted by on June 13, 2007 at 12:29 pm. NO Comments :

It’s About Time!

Hotline is reporting a shake-up in Punditville:

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark will now be exclusively on MSNBC as a military analyst, sources have confirmed to the Hotline. Clark has still not ruled out a possible White House bid and MSNBC would be a much more Dem-friendly audience than his old gig — Fox News Channel!

This is a long overdue move for Clark. It is a bit simplistic to say that he did this because MSNBC is a “more Dem-friendly audience.” He did it because Fox is an arm of the Republican National Committee. As I reported earlier, a Mellman Group study shows that:

“Fox News viewers supported George Bush over John Kerry by 88 percent to 7 percent. No demographic segment, other than Republicans, was as united in supporting Bush. Conservatives, white evangelical Christians, gun owners, and supporters of the Iraq war all gave Bush fewer votes than did regular Fox News viewers.”

Dems do not need Fox News and should not help to legitimize it as a news source. The departure of Clark is an extension of the trend to deny Fox the credibility with which it seeks to deceive its audience. The trend was significantly boosted by the rejection of the Fox-sponsored Democratic debate, as well as scholarly studies that prove that Fox is not a serious journalistic enterprise. We’re talking about a network with characters like Bill O’Reilly who makes up news, Roger Ailes who disparages Democrats, Neil Cavuto with his notorious “Cavuto Mark” and Rupert Murdoch who admits having tried to push propaganda on Iraq.

I have no problem with Democrats appearing on Fox as long as they are sufficiently disdainful, but they should not be on the payroll as analysts. That only allows Fox to claim they are balanced even though they only employ people like Clark to abuse them by getting into shouting matches that are distractions from the underlying issues.

MSNBC can make much better use Clark and vice versa. If he appears on Countdown or Scarborough he will bring thoughtful analysis to the discussion. If he appears on Hardball he will be a voice that Matthews can’t shut down. If he appears on Tucker he will thoroughly outclass the little twerp and, hopefully, awaken MSNBC’s programmers to the fact that they are wasting valuable airtime on him.

This is just another reminder that Fox News is TOXIC and must not be tolerated. And we have to guard against further poisoning of our media (i.e. Murdoch’s bid to acquire Dow Jones – see my Alternative To Murdoch For Dow Jones.