Franken exploited the death of a Minnesota soldier for his own political gain yesterday in a despicable ad — and an inaccurate one. Norm Coleman wasn’t in the US Senate when the vote to authorize military force was taken in 2002. He joined……

There are only 100 living recipients left . . . We’re losing a true national treasure.
Puritan1648 on September 16, 2008 at 9:01 PM

We’re not “losing” anything (i.e. we all die). We live in what they created. These people left our country (nee the world) a better place. I pray our offspring will say the same thing about us.

I didn’t post it because I thought it was a weak tactic, a hawkish version of Cindy Sheehan trying to rebut a policy argument with guilt over her suffering.

All politics aside, what is striking and meaningful about Joe Cook’s message is the morality of it– no matter what you feel about the war, parties, elections, et all, here is a poetic manifestation of the ethic that makes our society even possible. Only someone like this guy can speak with this level of authority on the ideal of sacrificing for something that is important.

I can’t believe this garbage. He’s 44 years old? A major, a volunteer……

I regret his death, but letting Stuart Smalley use him like this only dishonors this officer. He was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. He took risks, and lost his life.

His parents are blinded by sadness and their own political views; the people who used the parents are POS

I’ve read your posts twice and thought as best I can about them. And just because I’m old doesn’t mean I can’t learn or change my mind.

So, yes. You are both right. The Major’s parents have done their son a grave disservice by allowing their grief to turn into such hatred that they are willing to use their own son to spread a lie for political purposes. It is shameful. All members of the Armed Forces, living and dead, deserve to be free from such treatment.

However, I am still very angry at the Democrats for making this ad.

do you really suppose to tell these people what they can and can’t do with the memory of their son?

that would be akin to Democrats telling Goldstar Mothers who are proud of their child’s service that they are out of line for feeling that way.

Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:28 PM

Actually, it is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of that.

Aside from that fact though, you made a really good point there.

it is utterly absurd to suggest that Norm Coleman’s “standing up to Bush” would have made the difference. Minn just isn’t that important and Coleman just doesn’t have that kind of sway.

highhopes on September 16, 2008 at 10:46 PM

Especially since he wasn’t in the Senate yet at the time of the vote to go into Iraq.

I am fortunate that my son told me that if I ever spoke ill of his service and its result… he’d haunt me, I believe him.

MNDavenotPC on September 16, 2008 at 10:29 PM

And that’s what is missing from this ad- We know that those old folks are Bush-hating liberals. We don’t know what Maj. Anderson thought about what he was doing over in Iraq. They said they were proud of their son but not once did they say they were proud of his service in the military. That speaks volumes.

P.S. The fact that helicopter accidents don’t just happen in combat zones aside, it is utterly absurd to suggest that Norm Coleman’s “standing up to Bush” would have made the difference. Minn just isn’t that important and Coleman just doesn’t have that kind of sway.

By blaming someone that wasn’t in the Senate who didn’t vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, where he died?

Their son was 44 years old for Christs sake, you don’t think he could make up his own mind?

x-wing on September 16, 2008 at 10:39 PM

Indeed, this ain’t the UK we don’t have 15 year olds, and the man died in the service of the US Army as a career soldier doing his duty. To paint him as a victim is unseemly. Their taking their view public invites a rebuttal this is mine.

“Leave your son’s sacrifices with another state as his home of record, out of your state’s race.”

They can express how they feel and I won’t judge them for it.

Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:08 PM

By blaming someone that wasn’t in the Senate who didn’t vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, where he died?

Their son was 44 years old for Christs sake, you don’t think he could make up his own mind?

sven, I usually agree with you, but do you really suppose to tell these people what they can and can’t do with the memory of their son?

that would be akin to Democrats telling Goldstar Mothers who are proud of their child’s service that they are out of line for feeling that way.

that’s my only point. I don’t agree with or support their political message. and I won’t judge them for what they say or how they feel concerning the death of their son.

if you or anyone else wants to, then go ahead.

Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:28 PM

We must. I lost a good friend in Iraq two years ago who fervently believed in the mission. I cannot get the image of his lovely wife taking his memory and using it for Charmin to wipe her fourth point of contact if she were to replicate this set of antics.(she did not she is a lovely woman and I am tearing up now even thinking of her silent dignity)

I find the overt use of dead sons to advocate for the war unseemly, but I find the use of honroable dead men and women to undermine the recipient of their sacrifice to be enraging and showing a decided lack of honor and fellowship with the dead.

I cannot move from here, I apologize if you find my relatively polite and silent condemnation of this idiocy unseemly but I will not be swayed barring something from HIM saying “Norm Coleman killed me”…..

add in the non-combat related nature of his sacrifice and it would be akin to my mother running against a state senator for a training accident involving my death or something.

“no”.

sven10077 on September 16, 2008 at 10:16 PM

sven, I usually agree with you, but do you really suppose to tell these people what they can and can’t do with the memory of their son?

that would be akin to Democrats telling Goldstar Mothers who are proud of their child’s service that they are out of line for feeling that way.

that’s my only point. I don’t agree with or support their political message. and I won’t judge them for what they say or how they feel concerning the death of their son.

if you or anyone else wants to, then go ahead.

No I’m not. Freedom of speech is our right. That couple has sacrificed a son for this nation. They can express how they feel and I won’t judge them for it.

Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:08 PM

Judging their actions towards a fallen soldier is also part of that “right”.

The fact that they are selfish and incapable of granting HIM the dignity of HIS life and death speaks volumes not about HIM but them.

Why does Cindy Sheehan come to mind? If Obama wants to talk about “bitter”, what better place to start?

Their son died to assure that they have the right to say what they feel, even to the point of disparaging his memory.

May Major Stuart Anderson, late of the United States Army, rest in peace.

And may Norm Coleman beat Al Franken handily!

unclesmrgol on September 16, 2008 at 10:13 PM

I must have missed our invokation of the Alien&Sedition Act while I was doing my evening ablutions….

Freedom of speech is our right. That couple has sacrificed a son for this nation. They can express how they feel and I won’t judge them for it.

Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:08 PM

Agreed and well said. But we can darn well judge the Democrats who made the ad! And, I judge them to be vile.

Their son died to assure that they have the right to say what they feel, even to the point of disparaging his memory.

May Major Stuart Anderson, late of the United States Army, rest in peace.

And may Norm Coleman beat Al Franken handily!

Are you the same Hog that posts over at RWN?

x-wing on September 16, 2008 at 9:06 PM

No I’m not. Freedom of speech is our right. That couple has sacrificed a son for this nation. They can express how they feel and I won’t judge them for it.

What a shame that those people would use their son’s life and death as a political commercial for a scumbag Democrat. They should be ashamed.

Jaibones on September 16, 2008 at 9:50 PM

Grief comes in many forms. I’m willing to cut the parents some slack because I don’t know how they are dealing with the death of their child. Having one’s child pre-decease you has to be hard for any parent. This could be their way of dealing with guilt or some other emotion we don’t know about.

That being said, it’s unfair to link this death to the war in Iraq if (as reported here) the helicopter crash was unrelated to combat. Still sad but these types of accidents can and do happen on a regular basis. Using the logic of the video, Norm Coleman could just have easily sent their son to die in the swamps of Fort Bragg.

If the dead could only speak for themselves….
Puritan1648 on September 16, 2008 at 9:39 PM

I hear dead people speaking to all of us. And I bet you do too. Can’t you hear Captain John Paul Jones? “I have not yet begun to fight!”

And so, I pray that Americans will also listen to those of the past and present, great and common, who helped build and preserve our country, and not listen to people like Senator Harry Reid. “This war is lost.”

But then, I’m just a hopelessly old-fashioned old man. And it seems that far too many liberals no longer listen to what we have to say, and just want us to quietly go away.