August 26, 2004
Il Postino
Democrats send a man with no legs to deliver a message to President Bush...
In one of the more craven stunts in recent political memory, Senate Democrats sent triple-amputee and former Senator Max Cleland to Crawford, Texas to deliver a letter to the President regarding the ongoing Swift Boat vets accusations and political activities.
Good Lord.
The envelope could have contained a pirate's treasure map for all it was worth, the real message was the postman, not the postage. Using Cleland as a prop is pretty low. The White House, well aware of the coming stunt - and that word is used in total context - had a letter of their own prepared, and a local representative and veteran was on site to receive the Democrats letter and give Cleland a letter for Kerry.
Of course, much of this is devolved from the specious claim that Max Cleland lost because his "patriotism was questioned" by his opponent, a meme that has gotten so bad it now appears as a factual aside in print:
"Cleland lost his own 2002 bid in Georgia for re-election to the U.S. Senate after a bitter campaign in which Republicans questioned his patriotism. Cleland lost both his legs and one arm while serving in Vietnam."
This is at the end of the story, and is presented as if it were objectively factual background information. Max Cleland lost because he was a Democrat in an increasingly conservative state. But Reuters acts as if he lost his re-election bid when Republican jingoists knocked him from his wheelchair and beat him unconscious with an artificial limb...
As for how the Cleland Express story turns out, Cleland kept his letter undelivered, and no letters were exchanged:
"I tried to accept that letter and he would not give it to me," said (Bush representative) Patterson. "He would not face me. He kept rolling away from me. He's quite mobile."
Again, Good Lord.