by Jack Lee
Congressional candidate Charlie Brown has been accused of appearing in full uniform at a radical political event where a soldier was hung in effigy. Just the thought of this made me really mad! No doubt this was the whole purpose of the political ad too. But, how true was it? If it was true this is a court marshal offense! No soldier may appear in uniform or otherwise at any radical political event, nor in uniform at any event that brings discredit upon the military.
“Needless to say, appearing in uniform to hang an effigy of a soldier to show support for the radical anti-war left is so far beyond acceptable that its unbelievable. And Representative Brown is banking on you thinking its unbelievable as hes now denying he ever wore a uniform to the protest.” said one republican blog.
OK…I had to know! Was it really true? I reviewed the video in question and it appears Brown was in fact wearing an old style (mil spec) boonie hat and field jacket. At the time Brown had been discharged from the USAF since 1998. Given these facts, the military has no jurisdiction. It may be offensive, but it was not illegal. These items are sold on the open market and worn by many people as casual ex-military clothing.
The effigy was not “hung” by the neck, as implied, it was suspended on high where people could read the sign attached, “Bush lied and I died.” A small difference perhaps, but still an important one if you are concerned about being truthful. The current ads against Brown are really throwing the mud. In fact the mud type ads seem to be McClintocks main issue. He’s not pushing his own agenda, he’s just hitting Brown with the anti-war and uniform thing. That’s his choice, but truth in political advertising is very important to me and I also prefer campaigns that stay on the issues and don’t dive into the slime. Yes, I found the picture somewhate offensive since Brown was a former Air Force Officer and this was a rally by a bunch of anit-war kooks, but it didn’t quite measure up to the level of what the current radio ads claim.
Do we need this kind of hyped up story to beat Brown? I don’t think so. Like I said, I would rather see a race run strictly on the issues. However, being a realist I won’t completely discount the value of making Brown’s anti-war association known.