Tancredo leaves in a huff
I’ve been having mixed feelings about this incident ever since I heard about it. Not a real classy move on the part of Moulitsas, who is not a real classy guy. On the other hand, Tancredo is a blowhard who wears his ignorance like a badge of honor and deserves regular putdowns. What he said about the VA sounded like bullshit to me, and obviously it did to Moulitsas, who came prepared.
I long ago declared universal amnesty for all those of military age during Vietnam: draft dodgers, conscientious objectors, unwilling conscripts, gung-ho soldiers, the educationally deferred, the whole lot. But as I get older, I feel less and less sympathy for those who had a chance to serve in their generation’s war, and vocally supported that war, but sat on the sidelines. When I hear them arguing for wars they will never have to fight, I get annoyed.
Maybe Tancredo had a legitimate reason for sitting out Vietnam. I’ve seen enough of depression in my life to believe that it can be genuinely debilitating. But if that’s the case, why didn’t Tancredo stand his ground against an attack on a medical condition he could not have helped? By storming off, he reinforced the notion that there is something shameful about getting treated for depression.
Chances are, he is ashamed that he sat out the war. And that makes him bluster all the harder about wars that others must now fight. Only the grave will get all of us old soldiers and non-soldiers over Vietnam.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I’m glad someone else is conflicted about this. There are few people more deserving of genuine hatred in modern politics than Tom Tancredo… but this didn’t sit well with me either.
What I found the most annoying is that the video was posted all over liberal blogs, and not a one of them mentioned why Tancredo stormed off – they deliberately made it look as though he was pissed that Markos was so full of factual information about the health care debate, and not because he personally insulted Tancredo.
Anyways, it was still kind of fun to watch, but I don’t like the blogs I like falling into the bullshit machine of telling the most politically convenient tale at the expense of thet truth.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am
I don’t know why Markos did not cite statistics on customer satisfaction with the VA system – it gets higher marks than Medicare. Too often those who defend our side of the spectrum, like Ed Schultz, are shallow.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
In fairness to Moulitsas, it sounded to me like he was quite prepared to do that. Tancredo’s exit ran the issue off the rails.