Congress Can Learn a lot from Veterans

By: Steve Yuhas

As the attacks on Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly over the last couple of weeks have shown – sometimes the benefits of being a public figure are outweighed by the costs. 

For O’Reilly the problem was what he calls the left wing smear machine taking his remarks about race out of context and feeding them to the mainstream media to paint him as racist.

Limbaugh was faced with a similar problem when remarks he made about “phony soldiers” were neatly packaged for the media by left wing groups that purport to be “watchdogs” for the American people.

The accusations about both are absurd, but still – everyone from talk show hosts to media types decided that what they received in talking points and press releases was true and both O’Reilly and Limbaugh are paying the price.  O’Reilly is no more a racist than Limbaugh is a man who believes that veterans, real veterans, not supporting the battle in Iraq are un-American.

What happened with Limbaugh in particular surprised me.  Some Democrats, particularly the leadership of both houses, decided to divert attention away from their 11% approval rating and make Limbaugh part of the Congressional Record – again.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) claimed Limbaugh’s comments were particularly egregious because his program is heard on Armed Forces Radio.  One of eight Chief Deputy Whips in the House, Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), went further and declared that Limbaugh had no right to talk about Iraq at all. 

Schakowsky’s said of Limbaugh, “Men and women who serve in Iraq differ from Rush Limbaugh in two critical ways. First, unlike Mr. Limbaugh, they actually served in the military. Second, unlike Mr. Limbaugh, they understand that the war in Iraq is making our country less safe and destroying the military.”

One has to wonder if Schakowsky realizes that using her standard of serving in the military as a requirement for talking about the war would leave many in Congress ineligible as well as many in the radical left (and right).

After WWII 3 of 4 members of Congress had military service as part of their biographies; with the 110th Congress those numbers are abysmal - just 35 Senators and 119 Representatives are vets.

I’m sure she meant to exempt members of Congress because using her formula of “veterans only” for critiques of the War on Terror, the Congress could not even muster a quorum.  Maybe one of the things wrong with America today is that in order to jab an opponent you end up denigrating yourself in the process. 

It is true that many people making war and peace policies have a distinct disconnect from those executing them, but either way – it is tough to know what she meant since prior to Congress Schakowsky was a female Ralph Nader.  I’m sure it is tough to demand that toys be sturdy and that Pop-Tarts have enough chocolate to be called chocolate Pop-Tarts, but being a “consumer advocate” turned legislator hardly required courage.

The point is that between O’Reilly being taken apart by the mainstream media over remarks that were taken out of context and Limbaugh being told by a non-veteran member of the House that only veterans are able to discuss the war – our national discourse is ugly.

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) opened the door to the kind of dialogue we see today as it relates to politicians (on both sides of the aisle) and subsequent rulings have allowed virtually anyone who does not live in a cave to be considered a public figure for purposes of news or blogs.  Perhaps it is time to revisit the cases that made it okay to defame people based on things they did not say and to disallow the type of discourse that takes place in politics today. 

The Supreme Court could not have imagined a day when anyone with a computer and some downtime could spew inaccuracies and mistruths onto the Internet which would ultimately be picked up by the mainstream media.

The fact that two high profile people have been victims of this smearing technique and that it is protected is wrong.  Whether on the right or the left we must return to a time of more civility – a time when expressing an opinion doesn’t get you dragged into the Congressional Record or declared a bigot.

Talking and discussing the War on Terror and the battle taking place in Iraq is important and I suppose as a veteran myself I am permitted, using the new standard laid out by Rep. Schakowsky, to talk about the war and give my opinions during my radio program.  My veteran status doesn’t mean that I’m any more right than a veteran who disagrees with me and neither of us has an exclusive right to the First Amendment just because we wore the uniform.

The problem today is that people who disagree with the far right and the far left are excoriated and destroyed with the intention to damage the person instead of the idea.

That tactic is not only wrong, but I’ll go out on a limb and call it un-American.  We are better than the debate taking place in the Congress over Limbaugh’s remark and we are better as Americans as it relates to O’Reilly.  I’m just sorry that so much time, effort and money is spent in the smear campaigns and so little spent to talk about issues and disagree in a way that makes sense.

It takes no sagacity to call people racist or to clutter the Congressional Record with obvious untruths, but it is happening.  Need I remind Congress that America is at war with people who want to behead us?

One can only hope that things change because this war is not going away; even Democrats have agreed that American troops will be in Iraq long after January 20, 2009.  I have never heard a veteran say the things that were said by some people in Congress such that only veterans can speak about war.  Perhaps it is that which sets veterans apart from the rest of the population – we realized we wore the uniform for everyone where the political cloakrooms shield legislators from serving others.

Funny, vets are able to disagree about the War on Terror and still end up having a beer together at the end of the day because we share a bond that no other people can possibly share.  As much as I’m in favor of the war I have more in common with a veteran against the war than a Congressman who claims that they know it all because they sit on a committee.

Folks in Congress could take a lesson or two from enlisted or officer clubs where we leave egos at the door and just sit and talk – sometimes loudly – and fight for our position, but know that the discharges on our wall mean more than the political one-upmanship taking place on Capitol Hill.  Instead of the next Congressional junket to Europe maybe a bus trip to Quantico is all Congress needs to do some work.

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO and may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com