You think it's easy being a lone crusader for truth? Sometimes the miasma of hypocrisy gets so thick you need a gas mask to breathe.
In the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Sen. Saxby Chambliss really did ask, if we allow gays in the military, won't we then have to allow adultery and body art? Saxby Chambliss! What is he even doing on the Armed Services Committee (besides steering defense contracts to Georgia)? Apparently he's got more of an interest in the military than he did during Vietnam, when he had five student deferments, plus one medical deferment for a football injury.
None of this abashed him at all when he first ran for the Senate. He defeated the incumbent, Max Cleland, who got a Bronze Star and a Silver Star and lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam, by showing pictures of Cleland with pictures of Osama Bin Laden. Hmmm... someone with endless student deferments beating someone with a Bronze Star and a Silver Star from Vietnam, by claiming to be tough on terrorism. Why does that sound familiar?
Oh gee, that's just like Mr. Tough Guy himself, Dick Cheney, the leader of the pack, or rather flock, of Republican chickenhawks. Why does no one ever call the Republicans on their pieties about the military?
John McCain, of course, does have military experience, could even be called a war hero. But his highly developed sense of honor apparently is losing out to his desire for survival in the Republican Party. Yes, he did say this about Don't Ask Don't Tell in 2006: "... the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to." But it appears he was bluffing; how could anyone know they'd really do it? He was hiding behind the uniforms, just like his chickenhawk friends. Hand me my gas mask.
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