Yes, playing politics with Tomb of Unknown is offensive
On Memorial Day, Vice President Joe Biden will handle the somber duty of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, while President Obama will mark the day at a national cemetery back home in Illinois.
A few hours ago, Erick Erickson, CNN’s house conservative and founder of Redstate.org, decided that this represented a political opportunity that he should not miss.
He tweeted:
“Obama skipping the Tomb of the Unknowns this weekend for Chicago is offensive. Chicago can wait. The Commander-in-Chief has a job to do.”
Pretty quickly, it was established that President Reagan had occasionally skipped annual duties at the Tomb.
As had President George H.W. Bush.
As had the more recent President Bush.
Caught red-handed, Erickson has just responded with another tweet:
“Diff b/w Reagan and Bush not going to Tomb and Obama? No one questioned their support for soldiers and belief in American Exceptionalism.”
Man oh man.
In itself, the incident is of little import. You could file it under IOKIYAR — “It’s OK if You Are Republican” — and forget about it. But I note it because it reflects all too well the childishness and pettiness that has come to infect American politics. Really, is this the best we can do? Has the capacity to feel shame disappeared?
But there’s also something deeper here. Erickson, Glenn Beck and others have tried to use this as an excuse to attack a president they don’t like. Fine, they don’t like him. But in trying to politicize a sacred national rite, haven’t they done precisely what they accuse Obama of doing? Is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier really just another ground from which to launch political attacks?
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404 comments Add your comment
Cutty
May 25th, 2010
5:27 pm
First!
atltrafficqueen
May 25th, 2010
5:29 pm
Yes, people are shameless. Erick Erickson, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich are the first to come to mind.
Cutty
May 25th, 2010
5:29 pm
“Diff b/w Reagan and Bush not going to Tomb and Obama? I never questioned their support for soldiers and belief in American Exceptionalism.”
Fixed Erickson’s tweet.
joan
May 25th, 2010
5:33 pm
I am glad he is not going. For him to go would be the height of hypocrisy. The man spits on all things American and is not fit to lay a wreath on the tomb of a brave man.
josef nix
May 25th, 2010
5:35 pm
He should attend and he should lay the wreath. He is Commander in Chief and this is a time when our sons and daughters are in harm’s way in foreign wars. This is not a Democrat or a Republican thing.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
5:35 pm
Thank you Joan, for weighing in, and for refusing to turn such a rite into an excuse for partisan politics.
mike
May 25th, 2010
5:36 pm
Of course Jay is right about this case. His criticisms might carry some weight if they were not inevitably directed at conservatives. By training his fire on one side exclusively, he demonstrates that his selective outrage is just an excuse to attack people who don’t share his views. Are we really to believe that Jay sees no such hypocrisy among liberal pundits?
Most Americans recognize that partisan pundits like Jay and Erickson are two sides of the same coin and find the false outrage coming from both sides equally pathetic. My only question is whether Jay knows this and is just pandering to the far left audience or if he is so overcome by partisanship that he genuinely believes that “his side” is really any different than “their side”.
Kamchak
May 25th, 2010
5:36 pm
But in trying to politicize a sacred national rite, haven’t they done precisely what they accuse Obama of doing? Is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier really just another ground from which to launch political attacks?
Yes.
Another episode of one word answers to simple questions.
DoggoneGA
May 25th, 2010
5:36 pm
” is not fit to lay a wreath on the tomb of a brave man.”
How do you know he was brave? When he was buried there he was unknown. He is there to represent all in the armed forces who died in battle…his own bravery is not part of the equation.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
5:37 pm
Since Newt has been mentioned quite a few times recently…
I see the current crop of “conservatives” is drafting thier own “Contract with America” I wonder if they will discard it as quickly as Newt and Co. did in 94′?
Matilda
May 25th, 2010
5:37 pm
What a TOOL! (Apply the term to this Erickson person, and to the Joan person at 5:33 who cites a very ugly and biased opinion as if it were a fact that existed outside the tiny, bigoted little minds of haters.)
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
5:37 pm
I’ve never seen a thing about this Erick the Buffoon, other than what I have read here.
That seems like a VERY good thing.
Another clueless, never done nothing of import nobody trying to pretend otherwise?
How many do we need?
Saul Good
May 25th, 2010
5:39 pm
Difference between them? Obama never “sent” them into an unnecessary war which he called for and started.
mike
May 25th, 2010
5:40 pm
AmVet –
“I’ve never seen a thing about this Erick the Buffoon, other than what I have read here.”
I will second that and I am a right wing nut.
Why is Jay taking the soapbox he has been granted and wasting it by pointing out the hypocrisy of a guy who nobody knows or cares about? Somehow pundits have come to think that we really care about pundits. We don’t. We care about issues and policies.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
5:43 pm
Mike, I did a little research and I was wrong. He IS somebody!
“The London Telegraph named Erickson the sixty-fifth most influential conservative in America in 2010.”
65th!!! WOO HOO!!!
My question is, who are those other 64 lamebrains ahead of him???
D-Boe
May 25th, 2010
5:44 pm
I recall family members of Iraq war vets having to buy them their own kevlar vests and other protections for their Humvees because the military (Commander-in-Chief) didn’t provide them. I think that goes directly to whether a President actually supports the troops or not. Jus sayin.
saywhat?
May 25th, 2010
5:44 pm
“Diff b/w Reagan and Bush not going to Tomb and Obama? No one questioned their support for soldiers and belief in American Exceptionalism.”
And only rabid rightwing morons blinded by partisanship question Obama’s support for soldiers. As for American Exceptionalism, you can keep that jingoistic crap as far away from the presidency as possible please. (Nice non-sequitur by the “brilliant” Erickson. WTF does American Exceptionalism have to do with laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns anyway?)
joan
May 25th, 2010
5:44 pm
The guy in that tomb is there of symbolize the courageous fighting men of our country who gave their lives so that we might destroy this country from within, rather than have it destroyed from without. To infer he might not have been brave is so very much this generation of fools. And yes, Jay, everything political is partisan. You know that. Obama is better off in Chicago, and I wish he would stay there.
@@
May 25th, 2010
5:44 pm
I don’t know who this Erickson fella is, but I’m never in favor of using the military for political gain. They’re the most noble among us and should never be exploited.
It’s one of the reasons I took offense to many of Luckovich’s cartoons. The military was, often times, his target of choice.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
5:47 pm
Mike, just wonderin’…
Have you ever gone to Wooten’s blog, or Kyle’s blog, to chastize them for not taking liberal positions?
You know, since being evenhanded is so important and all?
Saul Good
May 25th, 2010
5:48 pm
BTW…SO glad that both Cheney and Bush’s kids enlisted to go fight in Daddy’s war… I mean the Bush twins were WAY too busy get ****faced to join up and support their Daddy’s “Crown Jewel”….ya know…the fight the “War on Terror” with our military…in Iraq…where it began. I guess they were doing their part by going out and “shopping” to help.
Foxy Lady is #1
May 25th, 2010
5:48 pm
mike – the pundit of pundits. can a person’s existence be any more worthless.
@@
May 25th, 2010
5:48 pm
That’s MIKE LUCKOVICH OF THE AJC, just in case anyone outside the area is reading here. Needless to say, leftists are big fans of MIKE LUCKOVICH OF THE AJC.
DoggoneGA
May 25th, 2010
5:49 pm
” To infer he might not have been brave is so very much this generation of fools”
Except no one has done that…but it’s no big surprise that you interpreted it that way.
Del
May 25th, 2010
5:50 pm
Good old Joe while in Belgium said in a speech there that Brussels and not Washington D.C should be recognized as the capital of freedom. Talk about the village idiot and it happens to be our Vice President pandering in Europe.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
5:51 pm
Honest question, @@. Can you cite any of those cartoons in which Mike attacked the military? Just curious.
Chris Salzmann
May 25th, 2010
5:52 pm
joan May 25th, 2010 5:33 pm SAYD
joan
May 25th, 2010 5:33 pm SAID: I am glad he is not going. For him to go would be the height of hypocrisy. The man spits on all things American and is not fit to lay a wreath on the tomb of a brave man.
CHRIS SAYS: Bush sends American soldiers on a war based on lies and THAT makes him a great American. People like Joan should borrow Hitler’s line ” DEUTSCHLAND UEBER ALLES”. In fact, that was the first line of the German national anthem during Nazi times. That BTW, translates to “”GERMANY OVER EVERYTHING ELSE”. It was good enough for the Nazis and sounds fitting enough for Joan and her nationalistic ilk. But then Joan is a Tea Party follower so anything is possible.
@@
May 25th, 2010
5:53 pm
Asking me to go back in archives? Years back?
You wanna keep me busy and out of your hair, don’tcha, jay?
Chris Salzmann
May 25th, 2010
5:54 pm
@@ May 25th, 2010 5:48 pm SAID: That’s MIKE LUCKOVICH OF THE AJC, just in case anyone outside the area is reading here. Needless to say, leftists are big fans of MIKE LUCKOVICH OF THE AJC.
CHRIS SAID: Yeah, provide a couple of examples or did you just pull that, like everything else. out of your ……………….
josef nix
May 25th, 2010
5:54 pm
Bruin isn’t going to bring this one up and it’s liable to re-open the first can of worms he and I shared, but one of the times I came out singing President Obama’s praise as Commander in Chief and respectful of those who sacrificed their lives in the service of their country was when he bucked the liberal establishment and sent the traditional Memorial Day wreath to the Confederate memorial at Arlington, an action which gained him the accolades of that, gasp!, group the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
I resent Joan’s implications. And, no, this doesn’t change any of my sentiments expressed downstairs…
He should go, plain and simple, he is the President of the United States of America…and those GOP ones who didn’t go should have gone, too. This is a duty, an obligation…
Chris Salzmann
May 25th, 2010
5:55 pm
@@ May 25th, 2010 5:53 pm SAID: Asking me to go back in archives? Years back?
You wanna keep me busy and out of your hair, don’tcha, jay?
CHRIS SAYS: you know what they say, PUT UP OR ………… Typical Right Wing behavior. Anything less would be unexpected.
@@
May 25th, 2010
5:55 pm
And jay, I may or may not oblige, depending on my mood.
You are not the boss of me, mister, regardless of WHAT you think.
Kamchak
May 25th, 2010
5:56 pm
Mike, just wonderin’…
Have you ever gone to Wooten’s blog, or Kyle’s blog, to chastize them for not taking liberal positions?
You know, since being evenhanded is so important and all?
“Evenhandedness ain’t got nothing to do with it Jay. mike haunts the ajc blogs, because as a bitter ex-ajc employee, mike has an ax to grind.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
5:56 pm
Well, just one or two examples would probably suffice. I see most of his cartoons before they go in the paper, and I don’t recall that the military “was often his target of choice.”
But if there’s evidence to the contrary, I would have to concede differently.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
5:57 pm
Understood, @@. I was never thinking otherwise….
@@
May 25th, 2010
6:00 pm
There were plenty, jay, but since you’ve determined that this Erickson fella’s was one too many, one SHOULD suffice. But I haven’t decided whether I want to comply or not.
I may. I may not.
@@
May 25th, 2010
6:02 pm
jay, are you gonna take down Chris’s comment?
DoggoneGA
May 25th, 2010
6:02 pm
“Can you cite any of those cartoons in which Mike attacked the military? ”
At this point…I’d say the answer is no.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
6:02 pm
This sanctimonious and cowardly neo-con outrage is irrelevant and passe these days.
They had years and years to govern effectively and, even in eventual defeat, leave with SOME dignity and integrity. (Notwithstanding that the republic endured disaster after disaster under their leadership.)
But they failed to do so. Miserably. And seem damned proud of that.
The scurrilous and infamous name Newt Gingrich was again mentioned regarding this topic. Like way too many others in his camp, he is the poster boy of this sophomoric degrading of American civility, decorum and statesmanship.
It is one thing entirely for some goofball like myself, under anonymity of a blog, or even some malignantly mendacious Macon Moron like Erickson to say what we do, but the former leader of the House of Representatives??? Or the aforementioned former and reprehensible Vice President of the United States of America???
Have not these people a shred of shame?
josef nix
May 25th, 2010
6:03 pm
So, we shouldn’t be playing politics with the Tomb of the Unknown…looks like that’s not playing too well at Jay’s place tonight…just an observation, but look at how quickly we’ve descended into our traidtion of nasty name calling in near record time. Just an observation.
Chris Salzmann
May 25th, 2010
6:04 pm
@@ May 25th, 2010 6:00 pm SAYS: There were plenty, jay, but since you’ve determined that this Erickson fella’s was one too many, one SHOULD suffice. But I haven’t decided whether I want to comply or not.
I may. I may not.
CHRIS SAYS: When in a hole………………….STOP DIGGING!!!! LMAO.
“I may, I may not”……………admit it. You just got caught making up stuff like the rest of your ilk and now you’re suddenly coy about coming up with the proof. You people are a gullible lot, aren’t you?
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
6:04 pm
“At this point…I’d say the answer is no.”
Or in other words, @@ just makes up sh*t.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
6:04 pm
I’ll add that the military should never be exempt from criticism anyway, that in fact it needs that criticism just as any other public institution needs it. The military was wrong in the Pat Tillman affair, it is often wrong in its demands for hugely expensive but marginally useful equipment, it can be wrong about a lot of things.
In fact, ask anybody who has ever been in the military whether the military is always right.
md
May 25th, 2010
6:05 pm
“How do you know he was brave?”
He went.
The not so brave left the country for places such as Canada.
Jefferson
May 25th, 2010
6:08 pm
People who hate the president deserve to be unhappy. I have liked some better than others but never understood hate because we have a system and if you don’t belive in the system you may as well be mad. So walk around mad, one day you will die.
I don’t want to die mad no matter who the president is.
josef nix
May 25th, 2010
6:09 pm
AmVet
Not the place to go into it here and now, but responded to you on Ken Burns…
May 24th, 2010
6:22 pm
Chris Salzmann
May 25th, 2010
6:10 pm
Jay May 25th, 2010 6:04 pm SAID:
Jay
May 25th, 2010
6:04 pm
I’ll add that the military should never be exempt from criticism anyway, that in fact it needs that criticism just as any other public institution needs it. The military was wrong in the Pat Tillman affair, it is often wrong in its demands for hugely expensive but marginally useful equipment, it can be wrong about a lot of things.
In fact, ask anybody who has ever been in the military whether the military is always right.
CHRIS SAYS: Jay, you’re right. The military is not ABOVE criticism. But I always remember that cases such as Mai Lai and Abu Gharaib were brought to light by others in the military who were also disgusted by horrible actions..
No one being above criticism is the cornerstone of our democracy.
DoggoneGA
May 25th, 2010
6:11 pm
“He went.”
And some men did not find out how brave they were until they actually got in battle. But it isn’t HIS bravery that put him where he is, he is there because at the time he could not be identified and he is a symbol for the bravery of ALL those who served, and who serve, in the Armed Forces.
And it would appear that I am maybe the only person here who REALLY knows that there are the remains of more than one soldier in that tomb…since no one has corrected my use of the singular “him”, or Joan’s use of the singular “man” for that matter.
FunnyBone
May 25th, 2010
6:11 pm
Republican posts are the bestest posts of all. They makes me laugh.
JohnnyReb
May 25th, 2010
6:12 pm
Perception becomes reality, and the perception is that Obama is not deeply patriotic. The conservatives posting here are not alone in those beliefs. Obama’s speech this past weekend was met with luke warm response by the graduating cadets. The left can deny that, and they do, however, couple the patriotic perception with the “ends justify the means” method of running the country and only the staunch left support Obama. As to why the right so dislikes Obama, look no further than the Health Care Bill, sneaking the student loan dismantlment into the health care bill, and now the end around on DATD. It does not matter that Obama will not honor the unknown soldier with his presence, it would not be perceived as sincere on such hallow ground.