When I heard Rich Lowry of the National Review was shocked and appalled by John McCain's treatment at the New School Commencement, one specific thought passed through my head. Unfortunately, Glenn Greenwald already shared that thought, so I'll just him take it away:
Apparently, heckling a war hero during a speech is a despicable act. But it's perfectly OK to waive purple band-aids at decorated, wounded war veterans; and it's fine to accuse them of being soft on Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein even after they voted for the Iraq invasion and co-sponsored creation of the Homeland Security Department; and there is nothing wrong with going to the floor of the House and labeling a war hero a "coward" and then following it up with a year's worth of accusations that they are also a traitor. Calling into question a war hero's patriotism, their courage, the seriousness of their war wounds, and their allegiance to the United States is all perfectly fine. Just don't boo them at a speech.
Oddly, Rich Lowry's Chivalrous Code of Conduct for how a War Hero should be treated wasn't much in evidence when he penned this column back in July, 2004 -- entitled "Max Cleland, Liberal Victim -- in which Lowry snidely dismissed complaints about how Cleland was treated during his election defeat with tough-guy, suck-it-up, politics-is-tough sermons like this:If you can't criticize the Senate votes of a senator in a Senate race, what can you criticize? . . . If John Kerry wants to surround himself with veterans like Max Cleland, fine — their country owes them a lot. But, please, stop the whining.Today, though, Lowry is effetely lamenting the fact that McCain was booed at a highly politicized college by liberal students when McCain praised the Iraq War. John McCain is running for President, but he's a war hero, so no booing him.
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