We need more - not fewer experienced military professionals to start another chapter of service in Congress. Without informed Congressmen, those who control the purse strings are at the mercy of the competence of their staffs, the K-Street hordes, and opaque Flag officers.
Especially for the Navy - we need it like you read about. Those "Navy" types in the House and Senate that come to the front do not play to their full potential for the Navy. Sen. McCain (R-AZ) is nice, but his information is dated, his focus is elsewhere - and we don't even see him that concerned with USNA. Ditto Sen. Webb (D-VA). He is more focused on stovepiped rice-bowl issues than the big picture - at least that is how is reads from the cheap seats. In the House - well there is Rep. Sestak (D-PA). Mostly focused on his favorite topic - Joe Sestak.
So, what do we do?
I would cry for more Navy Captains & Commanders - but we aren't doing that well.
UPDATE: CORRECTION: Congressman Massa is a retired Commander as is Cunningham; not retired Captains. I dorked that up in the original post; bad on me - so I modified the above a bit to reflect that. Ok, no CDR/CAPT. The Flag Officers aren't doing that well either. It isn't supposed to be this way - we are much better than this.
Captain Commander Cunningham (R-CA) - we know how that worked out. CAPT Schrock (R-VA) - that made us all feel like we need a bath with a bar of lava soap. Now we have Captain Commander Massa (D-NY).
I would cry for more Navy Captains & Commanders - but we aren't doing that well.
UPDATE: CORRECTION: Congressman Massa is a retired Commander as is Cunningham; not retired Captains. I dorked that up in the original post; bad on me - so I modified the above a bit to reflect that. Ok, no CDR/CAPT. The Flag Officers aren't doing that well either. It isn't supposed to be this way - we are much better than this.
As usual - I think we are going to have to go to the Chief's Mess and the CWOs to fix this.
46 comments:
Barnett has an interesting take on this as well...
Maybe some recently fired captains will run for office once their retirement dates have passed... works for flags, why not O-6s?
The problem is that everyone on your list is in the Navy. You need some Zoomies for quality representation! *ducking*
I respect Massa's service but he sounds almost unhinged here. Whatever the truth is about his proclivities, I think the people of his district can do better.
Sid, good link and sounds like a good novel. Like Barnett, I'm pleased that a new generation of vets who are not Vietnam-centric will be entering government. I hope that lots of Gulf War and GWOT vets will be elected on federal and state levels in 2010.
who says you gotta be a Captain? I dont have a job lined up yet when I retire!
Designator dozens is a dumb game. Every village will have an idiot. Here's the problem...
Who has not had this conversation?
"How is Captain Filindeblank? "
"Total politician"
None of us would think that response was a valentine.
The only thing worse you could say would be "Exudes the stench of a Detailer".
Anybody one would want in the job wouldn't seek it.
According to Massa, a staffer at a party made a comment about chasing a girl there and Massa made a joke along the lines of "maybe I should be f'in you?" Also (according to Massa) it wasn't even this staffer who made the complaint, but another person who was just there. I can understand his anger, given that he believes this complaint was manufactureed from a nothing event simply as retribution from his own party's leadership for not toeing the line and voting as told.
Again, this is Massa's story, but if there was a lot more to it I'd tend to believe he'd be mroe likely to just sneak off and fade away than to up the ante. The again ("I did not have sex..."), politicians have been known to miscalcilate how to handle scandal before.
Kristen - Amen! It is depressing how much the 2008 election felt like we were still fighting about Vietnam. These days, on a good day, when someone is being charitable, I have "salt and pepper" hair. I was 14 when Saigon fell. Let's move on, people.
Phib,
Not to nit-pick, but wasn't Massa a retired commander vice a captain?
Separately, I'm not sure a career in the military is conducive to legislative service. That is not a knock on those who serve, but more an understanding that military command is more in line with the executive branch. Sure having more veterans in congress is a good idea, but I'd prefer someone who served a few years and then spent some time in the real world where payroll is paid out of earnings rather than a careerist who spent decades expecting the magic budget money to pay for everything.
Let's see, here. Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Ted Stevens, George W. Bush...
Um... Bit of a mixed bunch there, eh? :-P
When you think about it, the Navy has demonstrated a tremendous showing since WW2; Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, just considering the Oval Office.
Of course, the Army had Truman, and Ike. And Wesley Clark... :-[
A note: I did a bit of googling to check my memory for offices besides the Presidency, and I was annoyed to regularly encounter a bit of left-wing slander -apparently a cut & paste job wherein the original author was never named- which cites every single Democrat who served the last fifty years (including Teddy Kennedy's "service" in Europe), but manages to find only Republicans who never served. Go figgre.
That's not just lame, it's pathetic. I have no problem acknowledging Democrats who serve, such as Kerrey & Webb, not to mention Rangel & Murtha. I'll even give Al Gore some props, even though he had a desk job, since he actually went to Vietnam and the desk was in Saigon.
Those goobers have taken derangement syndrome to a new level.
On the Democrat side we have Bob Kerrey, Navy Seal, Medal of Honor, Senator from Nebraska. I disagree with him on almost every issue but I respect him, unlike his fellow Democrats who crapped all over him because he was a SEAL who did what SEALs do. He was a successful businessman who was a governor, senator and is now a college president.
To be honest, I has serious doubts about ANY military officer who is a Democrat considering the Democrats have hated, demeaned and attacked the military since 1968.
Massa seems to be going off the deep end, then again, he IS a SWO :)
FL needs something more than RINO "leadership" Flat out bring it. I actually would have loved to have debated Obama. I would have brought a white board and pens and just made him do the math for his 95% tax cut statement. Make him actually deal w/ facts and numbers. I think that works w/ a lot of pols.
Many have already hit the target. The reality is that those core values that motivate, inspire, maintain a career servicemember (officer or enlisted) are not the core values enjoyed by most successful politicians. "Square peg into a round hole."
<span>The only thing worse you could say would be "Exudes the stench of a Detailer". </span>
You owe me a new keyboard, GB.
hahaha
Mefixie.
I'm confused-- Massa's campaign website shows a photo of him with 4 stripes sitting next to his son (I presume) who is in a Midshipman's uniform.
Paid as an O-5 but retired as O-6 (time in grade issue)???
http://www.massaforcongress.com/about.html
"To be honest, I has serious doubts about ANY military officer who is a Democrat considering the Democrats have hated, demeaned and attacked the military since 1968."
I agree.
Run, Mr. T, run! I might move all the way to FL just to vote for you!
Dave, it's devolved into a he-said, he-said, thing and I don't know which of them is lying. But Massa has changed his story a few times now, and he just sounds irrational in the clip that the CDR posted. And he's a liberal Democrat in a district that (I think) voted for McCain. I like having vets in Congress, but I'd rather see a different one in that seat.
Casey, I hadn't thought about it, but you're right. Navy is pretty overrepresented in the White House. Must be something in the shipboard chow. :)
Andrew, 'zactly. Let's move on.
I think that is him and his dad. That tripped me up too.
I think it would be fun to send some from the USMC to stir things up. Why don't those guys ever run?
(Pete Pace for President!)
With R. Lee Ermey as Secretary of State? :)
As for Graham, or for that matter Brown, does being a military LAWYER really count?
Not to quibble but "Duke" Cunningham was a CDR too. From what I hear he was lucky to have made it that high too.
I always blamed Bill and Hillary for what happened to Bob Kerrey. Don't think it was a coincidence that all that stuff about "war crimes" came out around the time that he was positioning himself for a run at the White House.
C-dore,
Unquestionably, that was not a coincidence, re: Kerrey. 2012 will be interesting again if the bloom is off the rose (Obama) and Hillary is a serious challenger again for the Dem nomination.
Not quibbl'n - accuracy. I dorked that whole thing up. Make that CDR/CAPT.
MTH - it is up to the CWOs .....
Old NFO, I always get in trouble for saying stuff like that although it's usually about chaplains and dentists. :)
Massa was once Wes Clark's dog robber? This just better and better.
Eagle 1, Not just once but several times. At "massaforcongress.com" he calls it his "capstone military assignment". That tells me all I need to know.
URR, there no doubt in my mind that Bill was behind a similar stunt to limit GEN Shalikashvili's independence as CJCS. Quite a coincidence that the stories about his father being a "member of the Waffen-SS" appeared just prior to the confirmation hearings.
C14 - it does say something that Cunningham, the first(?) Ace out of Vietnam, retired as a _CDR_. In hindsight, his community knew him fairly well.
Because that worked so well for Mr. Perot.
-LT L
Amen
Ah! Makes sense now, although the picture is confusing (and looks frighteningly contemporary). If you look at properties it says something like "eric+father"...
Thanks for the clarification!
Too bad it didn't work out for him, and too bad for our institutions that it didn't work out.
But wait.....an Air Force Reserve Lawyer....how many strikes is that?
Kristen, try to keep the Z score above .5
Four.
The AF attachment was worth three by itself :)
Senate Majority Leader! Speaker of the House! Or better yet, President of the United States! he could really clean house then. I'd by a ticket for that show :)
Sucht hings are quite ridiculous. Hitler's regime gave the people of conquered countries a number of opportunities to serve agains thie Soviet master. Some went the SS route, others the Wehrmacht. I knew several who went Wehrmacht in our Army. One guy I met, after his retirement and was working with me at TNDOT was Estonian and spent over 20 years as an Arty Surveyor in the US Army.
If Hitler had used more east Europeans in that way, he would could have beaten Stalin and the world probably would have been better off.
Thanks Kristen, 2 reasons why I cant run .. yet:
1. Congressman Jeff Miller - R Florida 1 is a solid conservative.
2. I know who my dad is....
QM, You are correct. GEN Shalikashvili's father was an officer in a Georgian-nationalist, anti-communist military organization after the German invasion. After the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt units like this were absorbed into the Waffen-SS. Of course, that distinction and the historical perspective that goes along with it, was absent from the news reports about the General.
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