TOO BIG FOR HIS BRITCHES

My grandmother was full of sage wisdom. She was always ready to identify any human folly with an old-fashioned saying that usually "hit the nail on the head". I often think of her when I read or hear of the latest rant from GOP Party Spokesman Rush Limbaugh. "Ignore the stupid" I can hear her say whenever I am tempted to express an opinon on some insane comment from Rush. For a long time, I have kept that advice. But finally, Rush has gone a little too far. His recent comments on torture and John McCain were wrong and deserve comment.

On April 17th, Rush was ranting about the release of torture memos from the Bush Administration. He was defending torture as necessary because Rush thinks torture works. To prove his point he took a former Vietnam POW's statements out of context.

Said Limbaugh, "The idea that torture doesn’t work– that’s been put out from John McCain on down– You know, for the longest time McCain said torture doesn’t work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?"

Now insisting that torture works is pretty twisted. But it takes a really sick mind to try proving your point by taking a war hero's words out of context. Because John McCain does NOT think torture works. Sen. McCain has written about his experiences with torture in his book, "FAITH OF MY FATHERS". Yes, he "broke" and gave them information. It was information that they already had, was outdated or that he made up.

"Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed."

I am sure that the Vietnamese found this information extremely usefull! Probably as useful as all of the lies given to interrogators on Guantanamo.

Now we can argue whether torture works or not. We can discuss whether the President should have released the memos or not. What we should not do is to disrespect the service of a veteran and former POW by using his words out of context to "prove" a point the Senator disagrees with. What happened to respect for service?

As I recall, Rush and every other conservative was horrified by the disrespect showed Sen. McCain when it was suggested that being shot down did not necessarily qualify you to be president. That was a MAJOR issue at the time! Now, I may not believe that military service makes you Presidential but I do think it earns you a certain amount of respect for that service. And using the personal story of a POW who disagrees with you is certainly not showing proper respect. So how does Rush justify this? And why does no one on the Right call him out for it?

My grandmother had the perfect explanation. Rush is having so much fun being the "leader" of the party that he's gotten too big for his britches! And someone from his side of the aisle needs to call him on it.