In the background of Max Cleland’s return
If you’re going to make a comeback, even a quiet one, some backgrounds are more gratifying to the heart than others.
Max Cleland ended seven years of exile from public life this month in a D-Day ceremony on the cliffs of Normandy.
President Barack Obama greets former Georgia senator Max Cleland in Normandy/White House photo
Rolling past an honor guard and a row of wind-whipped flags, the former senator from Georgia served as the official escort of a lanky president and his First Lady during the solemnities at Colleville-sur-Mer.
American news outlets barely took note of Cleland’s presence, but Europe was more intrigued. L’ancien senatuer democrate made the centerfold of Paris Match magazine, beside a sun-splashed Barack and Michelle Obama.
Only 48 hours before, Cleland had received final White House approval as secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, placing him in formal charge of this last June 6th observance — and the ones to follow.
“I was there to greet the president, but it was real close,” Cleland said.
The event brought out the historian in the 66-year-old Cleland (masters degree from Emory), who described his new boss’ overseas trip — including that speech to the Islamic world in Cairo — as a “modern turning point” with roots in the sacred ground of Normandy.
“In a strange way, it was all of a piece,” he said.
An Army veteran and triple amputee, Cleland once had the state’s political world by the string. With his optimism and resilience, he became the figure through which many Georgians reconciled themselves to the costs of the Vietnam War.
A position in President Jimmy Carter’s cabinet was followed by 14 years a secretary of state in Georgia, and election to the U.S. Senate in 1996, replacing the legendary Sam Nunn. Cleland’s first day at the U.S. Capitol was a national media event.
But since his defeat by Republican Saxby Chambliss in 2002, Cleland has been relatively silent. There have been exceptions — including his 2004 work for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and his appearance in a TV ad for Democrat Jim Martin, who last year challenged Chambliss for re-election.
But otherwise, Cleland hasn’t been part of the national dialogue. That may be about to change, and it has nothing to do with Cleland’s new job.
The Hill, a D.C. newspaper, last week reported that Cleland will publish a new memoir this fall, entitled “Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove.”
Cleland confirmed that the book will come out in October, but declined to discuss any details. (One suspects that contractual requirements with a publisher are at play here.)
According to The Hill, the Cleland book will criticize the Bush administration and “hints at a government cover-up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.”
The book title itself implies a revisiting of the Cleland-Chambliss campaign of 2002. That includes the controversial Republican TV spot that incorporated images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, followed by one of Cleland.
(“Reprehensible,” John McCain said at the time. “Truthful in every way,” Chambliss said during his re-election campaign last year.)
But the newspaper also said the Cleland book will add a new twist, with an avowal that “Georgia’s new all-computerized voting machines were ‘ripe for fraud.’” If so, Cleland would become the first Georgia Democrat of rank to embrace that possibility.
There are many reasons for Democrats to mourn Cleland’s 2002 defeat. Aside from the personable figure that Cleland still cuts, he was the last Democratic link to the power and influence wielded by the likes of Nunn and Richard Russell.
But Gov. Roy Barnes, who was defeated the same night that Cleland lost his Senate seat, quickly dismissed the idea that a corruptible touch-screen voting system might have been at work.
And one Cleland supporter served up a well-timed reminder last week, one that most of us forget:
Cleland was so popular with Georgia Democrats, that he won the 1996 primary to replace Nunn without opposition. But Cleland won the general election that year with only 48.9 percent of the vote.
Even before he became a symbol of harsh, Rovian campaign tactics, Max Cleland was already the personification of Georgia’s new era of divided politics.
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34 comments Add your comment
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 14th, 2009
5:20 pm
Barnes has no issue with known Diebold corruption because he is the Roman Fed’s candidate for the bi-partisan false elite, fully co-opted by his corrupt enrichment while serving in the Georgia Legislature.
Cleland is a true man and true Georgian. While Barnes dodged Vietnam by slipping into law school, Cleland through his lot in with the other 9.2 million Americans willing to place their young able-bodied souls at sacrifice for the Constitution and the American People.
It isn’t a close call: coward..or patriot.
Cleland has also had the integrity and strength as a true American to shine a light for others to use on Bush’s 9/11 treason. He was issued the book all can now download for free, “The New Pearl Harbor.”
Barnes won’t read it to know Bush did 9/11 because he is no-man: his wife’s the “man,” whose grandfather lynched innocent Leo Frank, in his family.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 14th, 2009
5:20 pm
through = threw
Pope Juan Busho Clintano XXVII, Rome, Italy
June 14th, 2009
6:50 pm
“Exile from public life, my eye!!” He was rollin’ around everywhere during this past election cycle. Jumbo your obsession with Cleland rival yours with Palin. The man has been rejected by the people of GA. He is about as relevent as Jimmy Al-Carter. As far as this voter fraud nonsense is concerned, why is it that you never hear a peep out of the democrat party or their wh@res in the media, like Big Jim, about any kind of fraud when they or their pimps win an election? Are we to assume that no fraud takes place when democrats win? No, the answer is pure denial. You see when libs fail to muster enough votes, their must be fraud. It cannot possibly be that the voters rejected their message. On the other hand, when Republicans fail at the ballot box it is because the voters have rejected them. Pure, unmitigated horse sh!t.
Will Jones, you are still nuts. I heard the Pope and Bush and Rome and Clinton’s Rockefeller nose are looking into to your ties to other left-wing conspiracy theorists. We have been waching you Willy. Been watching a while….
herbK
June 14th, 2009
7:06 pm
will, you’ve got to tell us where you are buying your shrooms!!!
Stumping for max again, I see……….
Copyleft
June 14th, 2009
7:10 pm
Will Jones is always rollin along on the Max bandwagon, herbK.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 14th, 2009
7:27 pm
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/hankramey/The%20New%20Pearl%20Harbor.pdf
Choose which your parents spawned: Moron, Traitor, or Patriot.
Tom Petty is my God
June 14th, 2009
7:49 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMBj_km6ekU
Pope Juan Busho Clintano XXVII, Rome, Italy
June 14th, 2009
7:57 pm
No one is buying what you are selling Willy Jones. We are still watching. We are alerted everytime you go on the interwebs.
Tom Petty is my God
June 14th, 2009
8:52 pm
Pope Juan Busho Clintano XXVII, Rome, Italy
Don’t need no steeeken papist here. Don’t come around here no more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5H0wUo37RY&feature=related
Bat boy
June 14th, 2009
9:46 pm
“Harsh Rovian politics” as opposed to pure, sweet kind and honest politics from the liberal dems? What a can of unadulterated crap! There goes the last filthy shred of Galloway’s credibility.
John
June 14th, 2009
9:55 pm
Most all politicians have periods in their lives they would like to have a chance to re-play. John Kerry probably wouldn’t throw the reproduction medals over the White House fence. Bill Clinton would have gone on to serve in the military (and be much more respected- had he kept his pants zipped and not tarnished the Oval Office). And Max Cleland wouldn’t have gone on the beer-drinking binge before accidentally dropping the grenade. Cleland is to be commended for his accomplishments despite the resulting handicap, but at the same time he has milked that result by the buckets.
John
June 14th, 2009
9:55 pm
Had David Poythress run the campaign he should have run almost three decades ago for Secretary of State, Max Cleland would have been defeated then and Georgia would never have had to hear from him again. We can admire him for his service to our country. However, anybody who has ever followed his campaigns closely knows that he is one of the most shallow politicians ever elected to office. His latest comments show that he is a has been who never should have won election to statewide office–and I am a lifelong Georgia Democrat.
Carter is a Fool
June 14th, 2009
10:08 pm
Washed up has been who again is living off the public teet again. Battlefield Commission Director — a sure make work job if there ever was one. At least six figures for salary, I am sure and many people working for him doing “meaningful” make work.
Well all he had to do was to wait until another Democrat came into office to secure another one of these “jobs.”
I applaud his service in Viet Nam for his country, but not his politics. He was fine as Secretary of State and in charge of the VA. Once elected as Senator, he our trust. He campaigned one way, but voted against his constituents. This got him Fired.
Tom Petty is my God
June 14th, 2009
10:16 pm
I applaud his service in Viet Nam for his country, but not his politics. He was fine as Secretary of State and in charge of the VA. Once elected as Senator, he our trust. He campaigned one way, but voted against his constituents
Well said. It IS as simple as that.
Let us hope that the Kennedy bootlick Isackson learns the same lesson.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 14th, 2009
10:19 pm
The core issue is Bush’s having committed 9/11. Cleland quit the 9/11 Commission cover-up. Any who don’t see his righteousness is a moron or a traitor.
Cleland for Governor!
Willie Brown
June 14th, 2009
10:23 pm
Ask Max, if he can count. He got his limbs blown off, playing with a grenade. You know, pull the pin,
throw it around the circle of guys, keep count, and just before it blows, throw it away from you.
He forgot the count. Please note, He did not get a purple heart, and he would have, had it been a
war wound. 1 and 2 and 3 and so on.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 14th, 2009
11:05 pm
The Marine who dropped the grenade has identified himself. G-d hates a liar and you “Willie Brown” are accursed, accordingly.
Pope Juan Busho Clintano XXVII, Rome, Italy
June 14th, 2009
11:46 pm
Will Jones has a problem with the truth. His mind rejects truth and insinctively searches for conspiracy. He is nuts. We have been watching him for years.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
6:23 am
Why should any think false-war-making, assassinating pedophiles, treasonously in service to the Anti-Christ and fascist plutocracy, would say otherwise?
Jack M Ravin
June 15th, 2009
8:53 am
Max and I served together in the same company in Viet Nam. Although I didn’t know him personally, I did respect him for his enthusiasm and his patriotism. I would have never gone into the Army except I was one of the millions drafted. Max joined without hesitation. As fate would have it, I unknowning married the girl he left behind 33 years prior. Since then Max and I have been like brothers. He is the most caring and couragious person I have ever known. We love you Brother Max and congradulations on your re-entry into government. You are badly needed by all.
Will Jones
June 15th, 2009
9:14 am
Max is neither needed or wanted. Retire already. The good people of the state of GA have already sent you that message.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
9:32 am
Use your own name, Moron. No true “Will Jones” in Georgia, or in America, would ever think what your lie says. dd
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
10:40 am
Agreed 100%…The time for Max has come and gone. He should go quietly into the dustbin of history where be belongs.
Producer
June 15th, 2009
10:42 am
Max needs to stop the whining and so do his supporters. He’s not a war hero, he mishandled a grenade and blew his own limbs off. Unfortunate as hell to be sure, but he’s not Patton. He was also putting the support of union goon ahead of Bush’s setting up Homeland Security. He paid the political price for that misplaced loyalty. Tough. That’s politics. I’m sure he’s a nice man, but get over it.
RetLTC
June 15th, 2009
11:47 am
At least he was there Producer. Where were you? Too busy doing other things?
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
12:09 pm
Rat-Roy needs a new shade of lipstick.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
1:06 pm
It wasn’t his grenade RetLTC. These are treasonous lying scum posting, who’ll be squealing and lying louder and louder as the momentum picks up with good and decent Georgians, Vets, Patriots, Tradesman, the Independent, and Righteous realizing Max Cleland as Our Governor can set us apart and above others in America willing to submit to traitors and vermin.
The “Producer” moron talking about Bush’s setting up Homeland Security fails to include in his formulation that Bush committed 9/11.
With Cleland as Governor and Obama as president these lying perverts and traitors are looking at their “heroes’” being “guests of honor” at “necktie parties”at Fort Leavenworth and the Navy Yard.
They have good reason to lie and despair.
Death for Treason
May G-d bless America again.
Turd Ferguson
June 15th, 2009
1:58 pm
“Cleland as govenor…?” LMAO…not gonna happen. Keep dreaming Peequad.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 15th, 2009
2:21 pm
Max blew himself up, why would we let him blow up that State?
Producer
June 15th, 2009
2:30 pm
I was about 7 years old RetLtC! LOL! Loved your response, though. Still doesn’t change the fact that Max was the victim of an accident. I can’t tell you how many stories have been printed stating that Cleland was injured on the battlefield. It’s a good story. If only it were true. Oh, and I have served our country. Thanks for asking.
herbK
June 15th, 2009
4:03 pm
herb Kornfeld here – Stumping for stumps, can’t beat it. Truth is, all those ‘applauding’ cleland’s service in vietnam are the weasels who would never fight in a real war, which ‘nam wasn’t. Still, to rip on someone who did & lost some limbs is pathetic. The vast majority of atlantans are cowardly weasels who wouldn’t fight at all, after all, wife/kids/mortgage/etc. Cleland doesn’t have what it takes to lead this state, nor does barnes or any of the other trash running. The exception is the other trash haven’t served their country YET.
Will Jones - Atlanta
June 17th, 2009
6:55 am
Cleland for Governor!
Zachary Johnson
October 6th, 2009
4:24 pm
Obama extends his right hand to greet him. He should have known better that the Senator doesn’t have a right hand… Nevertheless I don’t like either of them. But then again I guess I would use my handicap and race as a campaign tool.
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