Guest Post by Colonel Morris Davis, Attorney and Former Chief Prosecutor for Guantanamo Military Commissions. Colonel Davis is a Prince William County resident.
South Carolina has a reputation for setting the political bar as low as it can go and seeing who can slither under it. It’s the place where in the 2000 presidential primaries Karl Rove put the shiv to John McCain’s bid with a whisper campaign asking people if they’d be less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he’d fathered an illegitimate black child. While McCain hadn’t, oddly enough, the long-time South Carolina senator and leading segregationist Strom Thurmond had and hid the fact for decades until his death. It’s the state currently under the stewardship of Governor Mark Sanford who last year gave the phrase “hiking the Appalachian Trail” a whole new meaning when he lied to his wife and his constituents about his whereabouts while he was bumping bellies with his “soul mate” down in South America.
The bar was recalibrated downward again last week at a Tea Party Patriots rally in Greenville, S.C., by William Gheen, head of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). Interestingly — at least to me — Gheen and I are from the same small town, Shelby, N.C., and we’re both graduates of Shelby High School, although I’m several years older and don’t recall ever meeting him. Gheen fired up the Tea Party base and had all of the Patriots in the crowd cheering when he said:
“Barney Frank has been more honest and brave than you (referring to South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham). At least we know about Barney Frank, nobody’s going to hold it over his head. Look, I’m a tolerant person. I don’t care about your private life, Lindsey, but as our U.S. senator, I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen, I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it.”
ALIPAC issued an email press release saying:
The national border security organization known as Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is officially calling for U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to make his homosexual lifestyle public knowledge in the interest of political integrity and national security.
“U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC.” I personally do not care about Graham’s private life, but in this situation his desire to keep this a secret may explain why he is doing a lot of political dirty work for others who have the power to reveal his secrets. Senator Graham needs to come out of the closet inside that log cabin so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.”
On the ALIPAC website, it says Gheen is a “veteran campaign consultant” known for “creating new voter outreach methods.” There’s nothing new about the slash and burn tactic of ambushing opponents with sleazy innuendo. Rove and others of his ilk in the radical right mastered the tradecraft long ago. The citizens of South Carolina have swallowed the bait before — ask John McCain — but I hope by now they have wised up and won’t let Gheen set the hook and drag them over the transom.
What brought the wrath of the radical right down on Senator Graham is that on occasion he breaks ranks with right wing orthodoxy and, heaven forbid, works with colleagues on both sides of the aisle on legislation. Isn’t that what our elected representatives in the legislative branch are supposed to do? If, as Gheen, ALIPAC, and the teabaggers seem to expect, all elected representatives stay in strict lockstep with the party then every vote in the Senate is a preordained 59-41 tally. What’s the point in convening Congress if there’s guaranteed gridlock and an immovable impasse? We don’t need fewer members like Senator Graham, we need more; members who don’t have their heads so far up the rear ends of the Svengalis that pull the strings of their parties that they’ve lost sight of why the voters sent them to Capitol Hill.
It’s disappointing to see groups like ALIPAC and the Tea Party Patriots try to stake a false claim to patriotism. The motto of Gheen’s organization is “fight back with ALIPAC,” but it appears the only fighting Gheen’s a veteran of is a verbal ambush of his own making on a career military officer. Gheen never served a day defending the country as a member of the armed forces (another PINO – Patriot In Name Only) while Senator Graham has been a member of the U.S. Air Force for 28 years. It’s one thing to talk the talk like Gheen, but Senator (Colonel) Graham has walked the walk in defense of America.
I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay when the Supreme Court struck down the judicial system created by President Bush’s executive order and put the ball in Congress’ lap to craft a solution. Senator Graham invited me to his office and asked one thing: “What do you need from me to get the job done right?” That’s the attitude I’ve seen from Senator Graham; what’s the right thing to do, not what’s most politically expedient or what’s tracking best in the polls. In my view, that’s called integrity and there’s not enough of it on Capitol Hill.
The people of South Carolina elected Senator Graham to represent them in the legislative branch of government, not to be head deacon at their church. William Gheen and his type want to derail a good man — an actual patriot, and a dedicated public servant — by pandering to prejudice. I don’t care about Senator Graham’s sexual preference or if he even has one, but I do care about the direction our country is headed. We need leaders with integrity and principles who put the needs of the citizens ahead of their political fortunes. We need more Lindsey Graham’s and the citizens of South Carolina should be proud he’s their senator. I hope they don’t get teabagged by a d-bag like Gheen.
Cargosquid, as I’ve said before, I guess you’re quite a bit younger than I am. I don’t think our country has experienced recent turmoil that could come close to rivalling the Vietnam War era. I was a college student and protestor during much of it and my husband – then my fiance – was there in Vietnam. The armed services experienced problems – fragging, desertions, insubordination – within the ranks. The country was split. I’ve known guys who spent time in the brig because they were denied conscientious objector status. I’ve known Vietnam Veterans against the war. I’ve known draft card burners. I’ve known SDS members and YAF members. Nothing was black and white. Some people will forever vilify John Kerry and Jane Fonda. Others will vilify Lt. Calley.
If you haven’t lived it, IMO you won’t have much street cred. You can read about it, watch movies about it, form an opinion about it, but it won’t be in your pores.
Actually, Moon, I had never even heard of Gheen until this guest post came up. Thanks to El Guapo in #40, I now understand why. I just don’t have much time for the likes of Gheen. He appears to reach that level of “fringe” which we have discussed here before and for which neither us has much sympathy on either side. Gheen doesn’t represent me, but I have no intention of backing out of any political joust with Graham because I fear being “tainted” by the antics of someone of little consequence in the “way out there” category. For awhile there, I toyed with the idea of rewriting the Colonel’s submission to show the way in which he could have gotten me to condemn Gheen’s actions without all the extra brouhaha. But I decided that would just a tad “uppity” of me. I personally don’t like “uppity.”
@Wolverine “The Colonel started off by taking Gheen to task for a specific action. I could agree with him on a dislike for that action. But the Colonel also revealed his strong political bias and did so in ways I consider to be demeaning and insulting.”
Actually, I was turned off at the Colonel’s very first sentence: “South Carolina has a reputation for setting the political bar as low as it can go and seeing who can slither under it.” The whole state, really? It was a pretty good bet that the ensuing screed was not going to be dignified or even slightly objective. And even the most honorable military service doesn’t make one immune from criticism in a free society.
And I also don’t feel that I have to display the whatever is considered the requisite amount of outrage over Gheen’s actions. I said he did wrong. What he did seemed like too obvious an offense to go on some tear.
@Moon-howler “It is probably’far-left’ that i find off putting.”
I didn’t use the term “far-left”. It is funny to see that that term offends you so much more than the sexually-loaded terms that you seem to now have adopted.
To Starry, Go read history. Sometimes, you’re a squirrel. This time you’re an idiot. At least, that much I can say here. Being a family level blog and all that….. Oh, and about punches? Can I challenge you? You seem to be insulting me.
Censored, you know what. Don’t care about the confusion. The UCMJ doesn’t care either. Sorry about any of your trials and tribulations. But it was people like Kerry that caused those tribulations by lying. He is a lying POS and should have been tried by court martial. There were concerned citizens back then. He wasn’t one of them. When you put on the uniform, you have other duties and responsibilities and he betrayed them.
Which sexually loaded terms am I using or adopting?
I didn’t say far left offended me. It is a dead giveaway as to what’s coming next.
You did mention left. Sorry if I attributed ‘far’ to you.
Whatever happened to Gainesville Resident? (Not to change the subject or anything, but I was wondering.)
@Wolverine
I had heard of Gheer on TV this week. I am also semi familiar with ALIPAC and not in a favorable way. I am very opposed to his tactics.
The Official Tea Party needs to separate itself from creeps like him.
Actually I dont see the difference in referencing South Carolina politics and Chicagos. Both have their share of blight. Remember that dance Jon Stewart did at the end of his skit involving Bernie Goldberg and the name of that dance? I believe Colonel Morris had gotten to that point. There comes a time when we all just aren’t as polite as we would like to be. It is the human condition.
Exactly how does the “Official Tea Party” separate itself from the Gheens of this world of blogs and PAC’s and other access to the mass media? Although I see from time to time those people who claim to be leading the “Tea Party” effort at a local level and I do see a “Tea Party Express” on the road in rented buses, I cannot identify an “official” Tea Party to which I ought to send my dues and demand any rectifying course of membership action. I’ve already pronounced on this blog my personal feelings on the violence issue. I seem to be in the same situation as Eugene McCarthy was in 1968, when he could get many of his “hippy” supporters (for lack of a better word) to “Get Clean for Gene.” But neither he nor George McGovern in 1972 could manage to convince the Weathermen to stop trying to hurt people. It appears to me that, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, you will always attract some chiggers when you walk through a field of tall grass.
Agree with your second para in #61, Moon. Look, if I personally ever start to use tactics here like telling posters or anyone else that they have their heads up somebody else’s behind, do me the favor of calling me on it. That’s not me. Perhaps just a bit of spoiled beef or an underdone potato, as Dickens would have said it.
Moon, there is no “official” Tea Party. There is just a bunch of independent groups. There can be a Tea Party of one. It’s a movement. I belong to the Tea Party, just because I say I do. And I condemned Gheen. Never heard of him before and I think he’s just trying to get cheap reactions. Red meat to the crowd, and all that.
@Morris Davis
Hey Moe–You remember that old saw–Never wrestle with a pig, you just get dirty and the pig loves it. It’s too easy to see that CargoSquid is a right wing idealogue who picks and choses his facts to meet his needs. So don’t try to confuse him with facts–he’s got his mind made up. Beside–what kind of guy has to hide behind an Avatar? Afraid to put his nads on the line I suppose.
@Posting As Pinko
Or scum at the shallow end of the gene pool!
This reminds me of an incident described in Hunter S. Thompson’s book ‘Better than sex: confessions of a political junkie trapped like a rat in Mr. Bill’s neighborhood’ about LBJ’s Congressional campaign in 1948 in which he defeated a wealthy and politically connected pig farmer. According to the book:
“Lyndon was running about 10 points behind, with only nine days to go… He was sunk in despair. He was desperate… he called his equally depressed campaign manager and instructed him to call a press conference at two or two-thirty ( just after lunch on a slow news day) and accuse his high-riding opponent (the pig farmer) of having routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children… His campaign manager was shocked. ‘We can’t say that, Lyndon,’ he said. ‘It’s not true.’ ‘Of course it’s not,’ Johnson barked at him, ‘but let’s make the bastard deny it.”
South Carolina politics is relatively tame compared to this.
Wolverine and Cargo, I don’t know what you do about those who want to hang on to the movement. You have Glenn Beck saying and acting like he is THE Tea Party. You have Sarah Palin showing up for rallies. You have clowns like Gheen showing up at rallies.
I don’t know how you have a populist group (the Tea Party) and preserve its reputation when there are the associations with Beck, Palin, Bachmann and others. Throw in a Gheen and it totally toxic.
I feel like creeps from all sides are tryin to swallow us all up.
Where does
@Posting As Pinko BTW, Pinko, I almost forgot to tell you how excellent I thought your post was today. Well said.
Still waiting to hear about my sexual words…..Were you sitting behind me at Backyard Grille yesterday when I dropped the F bomb? My former colleagues didn’t mind.
Moon,
Beck has been very supportive and influential of the Tea Party, but, he has never stated and has, in fact, denied leadership. His ideas resonate with them. Beck condemned Gheen’s statements and antics very strongly. I know that you don’t like him and can’t see him with unbiased eyes, so I won’t try to convince of the quality of the info that he puts out. Palin too is popular. Always has been with conservatives. Neither of them has anything to be ashamed of. Gheen, however, is an ass. And that group of Tea Party members should have that fact spelled out to them. Beck, Palin, and Bachmann may say things that you don’t like. Oh well. We are on different sides. You will always have toxic people attaching themselves to groups. Look at the Democrats. I’m sure you can find enough that I don’t have to name any……….I might pick some that you think are just fine…:)
George,
Apparently you don’t like avatars. Hey Moon, what do you think of our troll George’s attitude, since, you know, you use an avatar….
I have my reasons to use it and I don’t have to justify them to an ass like you.
I have heard Beck use the word WE when discussing the tea party. I assume we means him and them. I remember last summer or was it early fall. He was veyr much in the leadership position. Remember, I watch Glennsy baby almost daily. And you are right, I don’t care for what he says. However, I don’t hate him. I simply disagree with him. For $32 million a year, he can spout what he wants. I feel he is attempting to seduce the American people. He started out as a psychotic lion and now talks in those rich, mellow, less than ego-centric tones. I find the transformation in personality fairly firghtnening. He is shaping minds. Most definitely.
And I doubt we will ever agree on him. Don’t you wonder why he has stopped shrieking and jumping around and is now Mr. Moderate and Mellow?
And you are right. I don’t care for Bachmann or Palin. Centrists don’t like people like that, at least like them politically. And I agree, Gheen is an ass and a POS.
Ok, I am making a plea…I am asking the users to stop taking shots at each other. No name calling of other users.
Cargo is right..I am an animal….a howling wolf. And Cargo is a squid, I am assuming????But…George is not a troll either.
So lets do the civil debate thing everyone, even if you don’t mean it. Fight the issues like your life depends on it but leave the personal stuff out of it.
Thanks.
“Don’t Let a D-Bag Teabag Sen. Lindsey Graham” – Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Coffee Party. A place for civil discussion.
How could someone so smart say something sooooo stupid?
This smacks of the typical elitist lefts do as I say, not as I do attitude.