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Max Cleland on his 2002 race: Georgia’s new voting machines were ‘ripe for fraud’

1:31 pm June 11, 2009, by jgalloway

Max Cleland, as the new secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, was with President Barack Obama in Normandy last week for ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

But the former Georgia senator has a private venture going as well — a memoir he’s been working on for some time, entitled “Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove.”

According to The Hill, the D.C. newspaper:

In the book, scheduled to be published in October, Cleland berates former President Bush and several members of his administration for their actions during their years in power and hints at a government cover-up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

On the 2002 campaign to unseat him:

As to the infamous TV ad the GOP ran against Cleland, which featured pictures of the senator alongside photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Cleland called it a “new low in national politics” and an “absolute distortion of reality.”

He did note that some Republicans senators came to his defense and that then-Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) offered to do a TV ad for his campaign. He recalls that Saxby Chambliss (R), against whom Cleland was running, called Hagel seven times in one day to ask him not to do it. Hagel asked Chambliss to take the ad down, but Chambliss modified it instead, according to the book.

The following is also likely to raise eyeballs among Georgia Democrats, given that the state’s touch-screen voter system was installed by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat:

Cleland also claims Georgia’s new all-computerized voting machines were “ripe for fraud,” pointing out that he was polling six points ahead of now-Sen. Chambliss before the election, but lost the race by 140,000 votes.

With this, Cleland becomes the highest-ranking Democrat from Georgia to give credence to the possibility that there might have been some monkeying with the Diebold machines.

Much of the book deals with Cleland’s effort to deal with the clinical depression that wracked him after his U.S. Senate loss. Bill and Hillary Clinton helped him get past the black dog. But the Hill adds this:

But he also mentions a name the Clintons likely want to forget: Monica Lewinsky. Cleland writes that one of his staffers was in the same White House intern class as Lewinsky. He claims the staffer told him one night the interns went out drinking and discussed what they wanted to accomplish in Washington. Lewinsky said, “I want to earn my presidential kneepads,” the book states.

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47 comments Add your comment

Turd Ferguson

June 11th, 2009
1:38 pm

Cleland seems to feast again and again upon Sour Grapes.

Will Jones and Copyleft are idiots

June 11th, 2009
1:39 pm

Well I can bet that copyleft and will have already purchased an advance copy of
max’s leftwing revision of history(both max’s personal as well as the countries).
Maybe while in Europe with obama, max warned the czar about the rising interest rates,
gas prices, debt, and inflation that barry’s policies are causing………MMMMMMM
No, maxie doesn’t understand economics any better than obama does.
Well back jimmy carter economics!

Keith

June 11th, 2009
2:15 pm

What a crybaby. Max there’s another grenade out there somewhere with your name on it. You might want to try to not pick it up this time.

Keith is a coward

June 11th, 2009
2:23 pm

Yeah, a guy who picked up a live grenade to save his comrades is a “crybaby.”

Meanwhile, Keith and Sissy Saxby were back home golfing.

Turd Ferguson

June 11th, 2009
2:54 pm

Cleland needs to just wheel off into the political sunset…he’s all rusty now.

Copyleft

June 11th, 2009
3:08 pm

Yeah–why worry about secret computer codes that can be easily rigged in advance, with no independent checks or even a paper trail? It’s only voting, after all.

And we all know that the REAL danger is that brown people might vote without ID! After all, there were TWO cases last year alone….

lukfd

June 11th, 2009
3:37 pm

cleland didn’t pick up anything to save anyone

sane jane

June 11th, 2009
3:46 pm

So this whole “Support Our Troops” and “treat them respectfully” thing only applies when the vets have an (R) after their name and not a (D)? Gotcha.

These comments about Cleland are sickening. I usually like to stay and yell but this is too disgusting, even for me.

chuck allison

June 11th, 2009
3:46 pm

Max Cleland just can’t understand that we did NOT want him to be our senator or we would have elected him. You have to be popular and useful to get elected. And poor old Max was neither. He should have picked another profession. His book is not truthful.

Will Jones and Copyleft are idiots

June 11th, 2009
3:50 pm

Schumer, a Democrat, ran up the second-highest bill by routinely flying private charters to cities in New York served by commercial airlines. nts here
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23615.html
Max should worry about his fellow socialist wasting taxpayer money over and over again.
The leftist are killing us with all this carbon dioxide they are producing.

herbK

June 11th, 2009
3:57 pm

Turd the word, wow, what prolific comments. Cleland, while I disagree with his politics, is still ok.
Stumps knows his territory, but he won’t win anything.

“Meanwhile, Keith and Sissy Saxby were back home golfing”

Along with Isakson, bush, cheney, limbaugh, hannity, frankin and many more gop/demos.

CJKatl

June 11th, 2009
4:08 pm

Will Cleland include the names of the people who committed the fraud with the Diebold machines? What these people did? Which machines were monkeyed with?

Or is Cleland claiming that since the polls showed him ahead and he lost, there must have been fraud? Please! What a sore loser.

The Oddball

June 11th, 2009
4:21 pm

lukfd:

You have clearly never worn the uniform. One takes a huge risk to life and limb just being around military weapons in peacetime, much less jumping off a helicopter in a hot LZ (which is what Max was doing when the grenade fell.) If you really think that “cleland didn’t pick up anything to save anyone” is an appropriate or relevant comment, then you’ve never been in a combat zone. If you don’t like Max or his politics, fine. But that doesn’t give you the right to offer opinions about what it means to lose three limbs to a fragmentation grenade. Show some class, man.

Or better yet, spend a few hours this Saturday with the boys down at the VA hospital on Clairmont. I guarantee that you would never make an ignorant comment like that again.

BC

June 11th, 2009
4:33 pm

Whether you like Cleland or not, you should be respectful of him. Hello? He lost 3 limbs fighting for our nation!!! I’ll say it again – he lost 3 limbs fighting for our nation! How can some people say such disgusting things? If you don’t like him, at least have enough decentcy to keep your sickening remarks to yourself.

durden

June 11th, 2009
4:36 pm

Whoa whoa whoa… Clinton went to Canada to run from the draft but thats ok. Cleland is running a campaign/life based on one act in a war and that grants him a break from being full of BS. Explain?

Brad

June 11th, 2009
4:40 pm

Some of the comments by supposed right-wingers here make me wonder if it’s really a dumbocrat pretending to be a conservative. I don’t know any conservatives that would make such disrespectful comments about soldiers. I only know dumbocrats who say those types of things. My guess is the poster is really a dumbocrat trying to get everyone all worked up at the audacity of a supposed conservative.

Brad

June 11th, 2009
4:44 pm

Oh, and my two-cents… if someone goes into a severe depression because they lost an election, that person was too wrapped up in power anyway. Depression over losing an election is such a dumbocrat thing… remember how Algore went all lumberjack on us after he lost? He gained a ton of weight and grew a beard. Y’all are some weird people, dumbocrats.

Will Jones - Atlanta

June 11th, 2009
4:46 pm

Georgia needs to make Max Cleland our governor. He is on the right side of history and of G-d.

Those who denigrate his service are beneath contempt. Any who thinks Diebold voting is clean are willfully ignoring myriad reports of “anomalies” which are only explainable by computer fraud.

Bush and Cheney committed 9/11. “Big Money,” the fascist plutocracy which assassinated Kennedy and King – the two martyrs lying unburied in the street – put the welfare fascism, Wall Street “bailout,” which is really just shoring up the unconstitutional Federal Reserve JFK removed from control of our money supply, to McCain and Obama as a test. Had one of them balked he’d be pushing up daisies like John and Martin, and the other would be president.

The Roman Anti-Christ’s “Fifth Column” must be removed from our shores and their traitorous leaders brought to justice.

Max Cleland has taken the steps necessary to signal his awareness of the truth in resigning from the 9/11 Commission.

Now Georgia must follow his lead and remove from power any on the side of Bush’s and Cheney’s treason.

Max Cleland for Governor! Let’s stick our collective middle-finger into Satan’s eye.

lukfd is wrong

June 11th, 2009
4:47 pm

Here is Cleland’s telling of the story … it later came out that another soldier had dropped the grenade, not him.

“On April 8, 1968, I volunteered for one last mission. The helicopter moved in low. The troops jumped out with M16 rifles in hand as we crouched low to the ground to avoid the helicopter blades. Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off. It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before. Shifting the M16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, I bent down to pick up the grenade. A blinding explosion threw me backwards. “

Bill Jones (or Smith or whatever)

June 11th, 2009
4:49 pm

Democrats make good livings off of their perpetual victimhood. Mad Max is just the latest example. Bless his heart.

Big Jim Galloway Lib Media Wh@re

June 11th, 2009
4:53 pm

Everyone knows that when lib democrat hack politcians win there is no voter fraud. But if they don’t, well, then the election was ripe with fraud. Shut up, Max. I wish he had blown his lips off and not his arm and leg in that druken accident with the grenade in Vietnam. Go away Max, no one cares.

Bill Jones (or Smith or whatever)

June 11th, 2009
4:59 pm

This was the alternate title of the book: “Max Cleland: How I Replaced Honor with Hubris, Valor with Victimhood, and Myself with Saxby Chambliss.”

Bill

June 11th, 2009
5:05 pm

Max lost the election because he had forgotten the people of this state and was all over the national democratic party and what he could get out of it. He was a water boy for them and strayed to far from who got him there. Plain and simple.

Chuck Eaton

June 11th, 2009
5:24 pm

Trying to figure out how voting machines bought by Democrats, installed by Democrats and controlled by Democrats somehow were part of the “voter fraud” conspiracy to unseat the Democrat Max Cleland.

r

June 11th, 2009
5:32 pm

Bill is right on the money about Max. Also, His use of 1-900 numbers as the GA Secretary of State was a disgrace.

Frank

June 11th, 2009
5:44 pm

YEA Clinton ran to Canada and Bush ran to his daddy to buy him a commission and then defend the bars and drug pushers in La.

ProudRepublican!

June 11th, 2009
5:51 pm

SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!!

Unless they’re DUMBOCRAPS!! Then they should be mocked and ridiculed.

ProudDemocrat!

June 11th, 2009
5:56 pm

I remember hoping that The Obama, peace be upon him, would pick Cleland for his running mate. I was already for the bumper stickers: BARACK AND ROLL!!!

Doom Day Dude

June 11th, 2009
6:02 pm

With this, Cleland becomes the highest-ranking Democrat from Georgia to give credence to the possibility that there might have been some monkeying with the Diebold machines.* Jim

Say what you may about Max and this conspiracy theory. But he is dead right on this one…..The Repubs have screw with two or possible three nasty important political state wide judical elections in other southern states for the past 4 years…….

Vincent

June 11th, 2009
6:05 pm

I wish Max would put the 2002 Senate race behind him. He lost, and he needs to come to grips with it. One of the things that hurt him is when the office of Homeland Security was created and he lined up behind Dashle in insisting employees of Homeland Security be unionized federal employees. That was no time to be playing politics. Max is a good guy, but he needs to put the past in the past.

Shameless A. Hypocrite

June 11th, 2009
6:06 pm

Shameless, a fine Christian man, lifting up humanity in every way he can.

Winning Post

June 11th, 2009
6:11 pm

Big Jim Galloway Lib Media Wh@re

June 11th, 2009
4:53 pm
Everyone knows that when lib democrat hack politcians win there is no voter fraud. But if they don’t, well, then the election was ripe with fraud. Shut up, Max. I wish he had blown his lips off and not his arm and leg in that druken accident with the grenade in Vietnam. Go away Max, no one cares.

republi-what?

June 11th, 2009
6:21 pm

Well, the republicans here have shown their true colors once more– insulting a man who sacrificed both legs for his country– are you guys ashamed yet?… You former patriots really should all move to Texas and secede…

sluggo

June 11th, 2009
6:34 pm

Ask him to see his purple heart

Chris Salzmann

June 11th, 2009
6:45 pm

Bill June 11th, 2009 5:05 pm SAID: Max lost the election because he had forgotten the people of this state and was all over the national democratic party and what he could get out of it. He was a water boy for them and strayed to far from who got him there. Plain and simple.

CHRIS SAID: What do you expect from a Party that, according to recent polls, considers the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Reilly as their leaders. Yeah, and that’s why the Republican Party is now completely out of wack with the rest of this country. And they’re on a mission to piss off every minority including women. Yeah, they’re heading towards the thrash heap of history.

Boots

June 11th, 2009
6:57 pm

I don’t care what you ideological dummies think: the Karl Rove inspired Chambliss Saxby ad was freakin’ unconscionable for a man who had made the sacrifice Max had made.

And, that while his critics were a bunch of draft-dodging cowards!

Un-freakin’-believeable and unexcusable for a political party.

herbK

June 11th, 2009
7:10 pm

I would love to engage in this more, but I’m off to join Hermy Cain’s intelligent stinkers movement.
It’ll be a gas!

Jones, Will

June 11th, 2009
7:12 pm

BARACK AND ROLL!!!!!!!! YES!!!! THAT IS AWESOME

Democrat Dork

June 11th, 2009
7:38 pm

It is time for Max Cleland to make like an Autobot (of the Transormers) and “Roll Out.”

herbK

June 11th, 2009
8:30 pm

Who gives a rat’s a$$ about this, what about saxby chambliss & the tobacco money? Much more fun to debate. Plus saxby is another draft evader. Gotta luv it!

Joe Public

June 11th, 2009
10:03 pm

Well duh, stumpy. How do you think the marxist thug from kenya took over? Hellooo…

oldandntheway

June 12th, 2009
1:02 am

Met Max many times, he’s no saint, he’s a politician and he lost, thank goodness. He just didn’t have much to fall back on, because his raeson d’etre was a “war hero”. The powers that be are trying to take care of him. Strange, he fought for freedom but votes for socialism.

RTW

June 12th, 2009
2:36 am

Max put his life on the line for this country. Crass commenters have no right to degrade and belittle him. That being said, over the years i’ve grown tired of his far leftist tirades. Max, I respect you for your service, but not your opinions. Proof reasonates more than conjecture. You had your run and should be commended for it. History will remember you. Let it not be for this crap!

dmac

June 12th, 2009
6:57 am

There’s no way to independently verify that our touch screen voting system is accurate. Without a paper trail, anything can happen. There’s no way to validate the results.

Algonquin Lumpus

June 12th, 2009
10:18 am

How classic, yet again a Dumocrat complaining about the voting machines. “I was ahead and lost by 140,000.” Never is personal responsibility for being a worse candidate than the victor accepted by the Dems… the people would vote the right way if they only knew…

Would you like some cheese with that whine Max??

herbK

June 12th, 2009
6:58 pm

STUMPS! Stumps, where are ya!!!! All politicians are garbage & crap. For the idiots who haven’t figured that out yet, please go to hades! Morons.

Will Jones - Atlanta

June 13th, 2009
12:25 am

The key issue to any man or American paying attention is the provable fact that Bush and Cheney committed 9/11 (Viz. “The New Pearl Harbor,” Griffin, PhD – http://www.angelfire.com/biz/hankramey/The%20New%20Pearl%20Harbor.pdf ) and that Max Cleland quit the 9/11 Commission cover-up after his being issued the book.

Rome’s “Fifth Column” needs to be brought to justice. Ignoring its crimes is not going to make America the Land of the Free, again. Max has demonstrated his willingness to serve Our Country where others shirked the duty of all able-bodied, and now we must follow the lead he’s demonstrated to get us turned around.

Obama is but a good start. Bush and Cheney must hang and those unwilling or unable to recognize high crimes and treason are not fit to become elect.

Cleland is worthy. His sacrifice and willingness to sound an alarm about 9/11 is all Georgians need to know he’s head and shoulders above the others grasping for high office to convince themselves they aren’t the real losers real people know they are.

Let’s make Max elect as Governor and help President Obama seek anew the utopian whig vision that is America!