Suddenly, we have public, progressive political figures who DON'T MINCE WORDS. One is the incredibly heroic Cindy Sheehan (see post below). The other is Paul Hackett, who will be running for Congress in 2006 in Ohio.
Hackett, a lawyer and a Marine who just served in Iraq, is being smeared by Rush Limbaugh. This is because the right is terrified that Hackett represents the future of progressive America and the Democratic Party. They're afraid of Hackett because Hackett is not afraid of them.
So yesterday Limbaugh, who himself dodged Vietnam because of an anal cyst, accused Hackett of going to Iraq to "PAD HIS RESUME." Hackett responded on the Ed Schultz show. Here it is in brief, and it's BRILLIANT:
That's typical for that fat-ass drug addict to come up with something like that. There's a guy -- I didn't hear this, but actually when I was on drill this weekend, I've got to tell you, he lost a lot of Republican supporters with his comments. Because they were coming up to me, telling me, "I can't believe he said that! And besides that, he called you a soldier. He doesn't know the difference between a soldier and a Marine!"
So generally, the consensus is, you know, Rush doesn't know squat about patriotism. He's typical of the new Republican. He's got a lot of lip, and he doesn't walk the walk. The fact of the matter is, I went to Iraq to serve my country.
Media Matters has the whole blow-by-blow.