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ORIGINAL: truckinslave
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Max Cleland lost because of despicable right wing smears and lies.
I've asked others to show me those smears and lies. Haven't seen them.
(There was, years ago, a horrific scandal involving the Senator and some taped telephone conversations. He was done very wrongly. But it wasn't a factor in the cycle wherein he lost, and as I recall wasn't even Repulican inspired).
The fact is he won in the first place because of his status as a Viet Nam "hero". The truth is that he blew himself up, drunk, playing with a grenade (well, at least, that's the accepted story. Suicide attempt? Who knows?)
I actually met the Senator once or twice, observed him several times, talked to some people who knew him pretty well. I do not know anyone who had a bad personal opinion of him, or had a bad personal experience with him. Certainly including me.
But he was no hero, and he wasn't smeared, to my knowledge.
It never ceases to amaze me how low some people will stoop to make a political point.
Listen closely sock puppet, Max Cleland lost three limbs serving his country. For you to make light of it is beyond reprehensible.
The True Story of Max Cleland's Vietnam Injuries
The 2nd of the 12th Cavalry was engaged in a combat operation at the time of this incident. Max Cleland was with the Battalion Forward Command Post in heavy combat involving the attack of the 1st Cavalry Division up the valley to relieve the Marines who were besieged and surrounded at the Khe Shan Firebase.
The whole surrounding area was an active combat zone (some might call the entire country of Vietnam a combat zone). (Is Iraq a combat zone?) Max, the Battalion Signal Officer, was engaged in a combat mission I personally ordered to increase the effectiveness of communications between the battalion combat forward and rear support elements: e.g. Erect a radio relay antenna on a mountain top.
By the way, at one point the battalion rear elements came under enemy artillery fire so everyone was in harms way.
As they were getting off the helicopter, Max saw the grenade on the ground and he instinctively went for it. Soldiers in combat don't leave grenades lying around on the ground. Later, in the hospital, he said he thought it was his own but I doubt the concept of "ownership" went through his mind in the split seconds involved in reaching for the grenade.
Nearly two decades later another soldier came forward and admitted it was actually his grenade. Does ownership of the grenade really matter? It does not.
Maury Cralle'
Battalion Executive Officer
2d/12th Cavalry Battalion
1st Air Cavalry Division
During the assault on Khe Shan
