Badger Paul
02-09-2011, 07:59 PM
http://conservativetimes.org/?p=7918
Looking at the upcoming CPAC conference agenda, it appears there will be other things to do and other places to go in Marriott D.C. hotel while the American Conservative Union sullies itself by offering its “Defender of the Constitution” award to Donald Rumsfeld. Those attending CPAC who wish not to have to take a cold shower afterwards can boycott this travesty without disrupting the proceedings or causing a scene. Maybe the sight of a lot of empty chairs in the ballroom will make the conference organizers realize they screwed up royally.
One can argue Donald Rumsfeld is partially responsible for Obamacare because if were not for his disastrous wartime leadership as arguably one of the worst Secretaries of Defense ever, the country would not have gone to hell in a handbasket and perhaps voters wouldn’t have been desperate enough to vote for untested Obama in 2008. If that’s not enough reason why Rumsfeld should not be given so much as a free membership in ACU then ask yourself what part of the Constitution Rumsfeld supposedly has “defended?” Hmm? Certainly there’s none I can recall carried out by the Pentagon he ran from 2001-2007 or by the Administration he represented. In fact, some of the people who worked for him seemed to be hell bent on violating the document.
And if not for these reason then perhaps for Rumsfeld’s new autobiography, which is nothing more than score-settling tome in which Rumsfeld take absolutely no blame for why the war in Iraq became a fiasco. Indeed, everyone else is at fault but him. I thought taking responsibility for one’s actions was a hallmark of “conservative” values. Hell, Robert McNamara apologized for his screw ups in Vietnam (albeit many, many years too late) so I suppose we have to wait 30 years for Rumsfeld to say maybe, just maybe, he might have gotten a few things wrong? He’ll dead by then! (maybe that’s the idea).
And on top of all of this, why would a politically conservative organization give an award to Rumsfeld at all? His reputation, from the time he served in Congress as a suburban Chicago member of the House to being defense secretary under Gerald Ford was more or less that of a Richard Nixon-style centrist. Certainly nothing Rumsfeld did or said in the Ford Administration prevented Ronald Reagan from running against Ford for the GOP nomination in 1976. He employed the worst kind of neoconservatives in his inner circle in the Pentagon like Douglas Feith who Gen. Tommy Franks described as “The most stupid person on earth.” It is these people who tried to fit their warped ideology over Iraq only to find out that it was a square peg in a round hole, hardly the kind of actions which describe someone as “conservative”. So why is ACU doing such thing? To whom are they trying to suck up to? The Tea Partiers? There’s hardly any clamor in those circles to fete Donald Rumsfeld (unless they’re saying people like Rumsfeld are as much responsible for the rise of the Tea Parties which is a backhanded way of doing so). Do they feel the need to reassure Conservative Inc. they’re still on the same team even given all the announced boycotts of the event by groups within the conservative establishment (of which AC U is one of them)? Well there are a lot people they could have honored without stooping so low as to have anything to do with Rumsfeld.
Apparently apologetics and regret and for other people, not “conservatives”. One would think humility and reflection are supposed to be a time-honored virtue of the truly conservative (non-ideological) mind and yet the ACU is now about to give an award to a most un-conservative man. Whether this due to Potomac Fever, or because the group needs the Benjamins or not doesn’t matter. What matters is those attending CPAC this weekend who have not been struck ill or selling out not give their presence or their applause to this abomination, but rather be someplace else and show the Powers that Be they understand something went terribly wrong between 2001-2008 and wasn’t because of earmarks.
Looking at the upcoming CPAC conference agenda, it appears there will be other things to do and other places to go in Marriott D.C. hotel while the American Conservative Union sullies itself by offering its “Defender of the Constitution” award to Donald Rumsfeld. Those attending CPAC who wish not to have to take a cold shower afterwards can boycott this travesty without disrupting the proceedings or causing a scene. Maybe the sight of a lot of empty chairs in the ballroom will make the conference organizers realize they screwed up royally.
One can argue Donald Rumsfeld is partially responsible for Obamacare because if were not for his disastrous wartime leadership as arguably one of the worst Secretaries of Defense ever, the country would not have gone to hell in a handbasket and perhaps voters wouldn’t have been desperate enough to vote for untested Obama in 2008. If that’s not enough reason why Rumsfeld should not be given so much as a free membership in ACU then ask yourself what part of the Constitution Rumsfeld supposedly has “defended?” Hmm? Certainly there’s none I can recall carried out by the Pentagon he ran from 2001-2007 or by the Administration he represented. In fact, some of the people who worked for him seemed to be hell bent on violating the document.
And if not for these reason then perhaps for Rumsfeld’s new autobiography, which is nothing more than score-settling tome in which Rumsfeld take absolutely no blame for why the war in Iraq became a fiasco. Indeed, everyone else is at fault but him. I thought taking responsibility for one’s actions was a hallmark of “conservative” values. Hell, Robert McNamara apologized for his screw ups in Vietnam (albeit many, many years too late) so I suppose we have to wait 30 years for Rumsfeld to say maybe, just maybe, he might have gotten a few things wrong? He’ll dead by then! (maybe that’s the idea).
And on top of all of this, why would a politically conservative organization give an award to Rumsfeld at all? His reputation, from the time he served in Congress as a suburban Chicago member of the House to being defense secretary under Gerald Ford was more or less that of a Richard Nixon-style centrist. Certainly nothing Rumsfeld did or said in the Ford Administration prevented Ronald Reagan from running against Ford for the GOP nomination in 1976. He employed the worst kind of neoconservatives in his inner circle in the Pentagon like Douglas Feith who Gen. Tommy Franks described as “The most stupid person on earth.” It is these people who tried to fit their warped ideology over Iraq only to find out that it was a square peg in a round hole, hardly the kind of actions which describe someone as “conservative”. So why is ACU doing such thing? To whom are they trying to suck up to? The Tea Partiers? There’s hardly any clamor in those circles to fete Donald Rumsfeld (unless they’re saying people like Rumsfeld are as much responsible for the rise of the Tea Parties which is a backhanded way of doing so). Do they feel the need to reassure Conservative Inc. they’re still on the same team even given all the announced boycotts of the event by groups within the conservative establishment (of which AC U is one of them)? Well there are a lot people they could have honored without stooping so low as to have anything to do with Rumsfeld.
Apparently apologetics and regret and for other people, not “conservatives”. One would think humility and reflection are supposed to be a time-honored virtue of the truly conservative (non-ideological) mind and yet the ACU is now about to give an award to a most un-conservative man. Whether this due to Potomac Fever, or because the group needs the Benjamins or not doesn’t matter. What matters is those attending CPAC this weekend who have not been struck ill or selling out not give their presence or their applause to this abomination, but rather be someplace else and show the Powers that Be they understand something went terribly wrong between 2001-2008 and wasn’t because of earmarks.