The Max Cleland you didn’t know
I’ve begun paging through copy of Max Cleland’s new book, “Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed, and Karl Rove.”
Max Cleland (AJC file photo)
It is, so far, a compelling read, but highly uncomfortable _ perhaps especially if you know him.
Cleland wrote a first biography in 1986, called “Strong at the Broken Places.” That book was, at bottom, inspirational campaign literature. He was already secretary of state, but a U.S. Senate campaign was in the offing.
Cleland rose in Georgia politics in large part because of that irrepressible grin and a persona that beamed indefatigable optimism. No little grenade was going to stop him.
“Heart of a Patriot” (Simon & Schuster, $26) has much of the dark stuff that “Strong at the Broken Places” left out: Cleland’s violent transition from a “tall, tan and tantalizing” paratrooper to a triple amputee, the first visit from his parents at Walter Reed, his bouts with despair and the black dog of clinical depression _ the pain that someone in public life is required to keep from view.
This is revisionist history, but in the way of a man who has no more reason to couch his personal story in Kiwanian platitudes. Not self-pitying, but certainly confessional.
A few sentences:
_ “….When I lost my reelection bid for the U.S. Senate in 2002, my life fell apart. The staff that had helped me politically and physically so I could keep on running with no legs was gone. The please of having a job worth doing and the money to keep me afloat were gone. My relationships began to crumble, especially the one with my fiancee.”
_ “From time to time, I am overwhelmed by the sense of meaninglessness I feel regarding the Vietnam War, in which I was a young participant, and the Iraq War Resolution, which I voted for as a U.S. senator. To keep my sanity, I must not dwell on my part in those disastrous episodes in American history. I try not to blame myself too much.”
_ “Whereas we had been treated with respect at Walter Reed, at the VA we were treated like mental patients who needed to be controlled and supervised. We weren’t even allowed to play ping-pong after 4:15 p.m.”
I’d forgotten small things, like the fact that Cleland lost his limbs in the days after Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968 _ and that he won his first election as a state senator campaigning on a pair of artificial legs, which proved to be pure torture.
The chapter on his 2002 Senate loss reflects Cleland’s lingering anger toward Saxby Chambliss, the Republican who beat him, and the GOP machine _ Ralph Reed is given specific mention _ that helped take him out:
They had trashed John McCain in 2000. They trashed me in 2002. And later, they would “swift-boat” John Kerry. As Kerry told me in 2004, “They took away my service.” That was how I felt.”
Much has already been written about the fact that Cleland raises the possibility that the state’s new touch-screen voting machines might have played a role in his defeat. “I strongly suspect a lot of below-the-radar chicanery” is how he introduces the topic.
But it is only suspicion that Cleland expresses, and that is weakened by the astute analysis that precedes it, in which the former senator links his loss to not just Rovian tactics, but with Gov. Roy Barnes’ decision to drop the 1956 state flag and its Confederate battle emblem:
“I lost by 140,000 votes, roughly the same number of whate male voters who were motivated to turn out in an off-year election to show their displeasure over the flag issue. For the first time in years, the percentage of blacks that turned up at the polls came in at below 20 percent.
To be a genuine conspiracy theorist, one must give up one’s grasp of other, indisputable facts. And Cleland has not done that.
And just as a minor correction, African-American turnout in the 2002 general election was 22.6 percent. Black turnout in 2008, with Barack Obama’s election at stake, was 30 percent.
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32 comments Add your comment
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 16th, 2009
6:29 pm
Thomas Jefferson: “What a conspiracy this, between Church and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all!” To Major John Cartwright – Monticello, June 5, 1824 (Read the rest of the extensive letter’s inarguable analysis to know proven conspiracy.)
There is but one G-d, yet confusion reigns here on “the Devil’s Planet.” Does any think him or herself more wise or blessed than America’s Founder, Author, and Prophet? Perhaps humility should be in order.
Senator Cleland is being statesmanly in his treatment of the confirmed Diebold cheat. His resignation from the 9/11 Commission spoke volumes.
We should insist on his further service as Our Governor in the next election. G-d would smile on us even more than grace we receive each day simply by being living and breathing Georgians.
Jack McMillan
September 16th, 2009
9:49 pm
Poor max and lil ms kerry feel like they have been hurt by the words and actions of others.
What a crock. This makes max look so weak. Tell him to take his pity party to Boston
cause we kicked his liberal ass out of the Senate and we would love for him to leave
the state.
E Coleman
September 16th, 2009
9:56 pm
Make sure that all the story is told CORRECTLY !!!!
Elizabeth
September 16th, 2009
9:56 pm
Don’t worry, Satan is waiting for Rove, Reed and Chambliss…
E Coleman
September 16th, 2009
9:57 pm
Make sure that all the facts are reported CORRECTLY !!!
TnGelding
September 16th, 2009
10:34 pm
Jack McMillan
September 16th, 2009
9:49 pm
Cleland is entitled to a little self-pity. Granted, he ran a bad campaign, but he shows more courage just getting dressed every morning than most of us do in a lifetime. It must have been especially painful to have lost to someone that avoided service because of a controversial knee injury. Kerry was killing VC while Duhbya was trying to keep from catching (V)(D) from Alabama belles and the SBVFT were, by their own account, trying to avoid the enemy.
Your comment only shows your smallness, but I’m sure you consider yourself a true patriot that supports our veterans. Frankly, you should be ashamed.
Billy Bob from cobb
September 16th, 2009
10:43 pm
didnt he fall on his own gernade
Chuck
September 16th, 2009
11:07 pm
Actually he was in the path of another soldier’s grenade that fell out of the soldier’s flack jacket. But a brave American none the less. It’s a sad day when chickhawks can sucessfully call a veteran a coward.
Old Physics Teacher
September 16th, 2009
11:08 pm
No Billy Bob, he didn’t. One of the newbies on the same helicopter opened up the cotter pin on his grenades on his chest against regulations trying to be a “John Wayne.” When the copter came to an abrupt stop to discharge the soldiers, the live grenade fell off, and the idiot didn’t warn anybody. Cleland THOUGHT he must have made some kind of mistake with his own grenades. He just knew no one was idiotic enough to hang live grenades on his chest in a copter going into a landing zone. He had no idea that a US soldier had just accidently fragged him. They met later and Cleland forgave the idiot. Don’t you go buying any wooden “conservative” propaganda though.
Courtney
September 16th, 2009
11:13 pm
He is still a buffoon. He never held a job before the Senate and cannot get one after. He will live his entire life trying to live off the government gravy train.
Cephus
September 16th, 2009
11:14 pm
I am thankful to have men like Max Cleland serve my country. However, that does not mean I will always vote for such a man. Charlie Rangel is a Korean War vet, but I would never support him politically. Admiration for a veteran does not always equal political support.
jltmilaftw
September 16th, 2009
11:14 pm
Max Cleland is no longer senator because he ran as a moderate in ‘96 and proceeded to go to DC and be a liberal. Zell Miller warned him on his liberalism but he would not listen and he lost in 2002.
jdm
September 17th, 2009
6:37 am
I had the pleasure of meeting Max Cleland almost 20 years ago. After our conversations, I came to work one day to find that he had personally come by to bring me a copy of his first book. The man is heroic and by no means a whiner. I am amazed and disappointed by the small minds of people. It doesn’t matter how he lost his limbs, for most of us that would be devastating to the point of being unable to cope and continue. He has my admiration and deep respect
Billy Bearden
September 17th, 2009
6:47 am
Let us tell the truth!
Blame King Rat barnes and his black caucus buddies for not only Max loss, but the destruction of the Ga democrat party.
Max, while the claim of “Angry White Voters” in the Flag Change has been proven false, it is a fact that had barnes kept his campaign promise not to touch the flag, then the probability of Chambliss not winning, Cleland retaining his seat, barnes moving up to be kerry’s VP choice in the National Election, and Cry Me A River Taylor would be in office now without a repoob interruption.
This is the factual alternate history we all would be living now, but nope, barnes just had to get those 212,200 voters (that voted for his ugly rag in 2004) and his masters in the black caucus appeased.
Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST
September 17th, 2009
10:24 am
Daddy said Max was a coward and the Georgia voters believed him. Max was no liberal, Daddy spends much more money on pork.
Chris
September 17th, 2009
11:49 am
Elizabeth-
Why would Satan be waiting for an Army surgeon who died over 100 years ago?
John
September 17th, 2009
12:11 pm
Had David Poythress taken off the gloves in that first campaign for Secretary of State 27 years ago, Max Cleland’s statewide political career would have been finished a long time ago. We can all admire the man for what he went through but every political journalist with any experience remembers the first line of every Max Cleland press release almost verbatim: “Max Cleland, the triple amputee who was wounded in Vietnam, said today…” He did capitalize on his injury in that first statewide campaign and defeat a far miore qualified candidate for the job in the Democratic primary that year.
Grumpy
September 17th, 2009
12:26 pm
It’s unfortunate that a man like Max Cleland gets second-guessed by the likes of a Jack McMillan who, like so many of his heroes, (i.e., Rush Limbaugh, Saxby Chambliss, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, Dick Chaney and that thief who pimps religion and politics, Ralph Reed) probably never put on a military uniform so the rest of us could get shot at. It’s easy to crticize someone who has given 3 of his 4 limbs to fight a war when you’re sitting in the cheap seats.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 17th, 2009
1:23 pm
Max is here only by G-d’s grace, knows it, and is a real person. We need to make him governor for Georgia’s sake.
Tifton Tom
September 17th, 2009
2:29 pm
Max is a hero, a humble public servant and great human.
His service to our country can never be repaid.
Thank you, Max.
Bill White
September 17th, 2009
4:14 pm
I was disappointed with Max because he voted against the Patriot Act. Before all of that, I loved him, but it was hard for me to tell my aunt to vote against him. We had to do the right thing because the Patriot Act protects us from jihadists and it seemed to me that Max didn’t care about the foreign threat that we started facing. I know he served his country, but I just couldn’t let my aunt vote for him. She agrees to this day that we made the right decision.
Daniel Edd Bland III
September 17th, 2009
5:43 pm
Max Cleland believes the government is actively hiding the truth regarding what really happened on 9/11 and so do I. This is what the evidence shows if you’ll do a little research. The idea that we were attacked by Muslims who planned the attacks while living in caves is the craziest conspiracy theory I have ever heard. The truth will set you free!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
rightofcenter
September 17th, 2009
6:23 pm
Please provide the evidence of a Republican elected official or candidate calling Cleland a coward. I’m waiting.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 17th, 2009
7:16 pm
Daniel Edd Bland III is Daniel Edd Bland, Jr’s son: an American Army Veteran and patriot from a known, respected family…a true Georgian, like Max Cleland. Let’s not let the papist carpetbaggers and pederast draft-dodgers like Rush Limbaugh turn us around. Pay attention, Georgia.
Let’s get Max to be our governor and start “chopping” Tory “weeds” again. That’s how we built America to begin.
Death for Treason
GainesvilleDawg
September 18th, 2009
8:23 am
Lee Hawkins was a big time Max Cleland supporter, now he wants to go to Congress as a Republican from the 9th District. No way, not ever!
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 18th, 2009
9:15 am
The Devil’s willing to pay for the souls of those willing to sell.
Grumpy
September 18th, 2009
1:31 pm
Hey, Bill White. Do you know who else was totally against the Patriot Act? Bob Barr, not exactly your run-of-the-mill liberal. Now ask yourself why Bob Barr would oppose it (like Max Cleland did)? Simple: the Patriot Act was a not-so veiled attempt on the part of Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft to begin tearing down those pesky little old Bill of Rights which have protected Americans from unwarranted and illegal searches and seizures by governmnet agencts who are always convinced that a light imposition on our rights is a small price to pay when we’re going after international and domestic terrorists. Isn’t that the rationale?
Grumpy
September 18th, 2009
1:48 pm
rightofcenter –You probably don’t remember the campaign ads that Karl Rove(Draft Dodger) designed for Saxby Chambliss (Draft Dodger)when Saxby ran against Max Disabled Vietnam War Veteran). I don’t think he called Max a coward in those ads, but he offered the idea to the suckers who voted for Saxby by juxtaposing Max’s photo next to Osama Bin Laden’s that Max was a traitor. Yeah, I don’t think Saxby or Karl called him a coward, because that reference is reservewd for Karl, Saxby, Rush, Cheney, Sean Vanity and that ilk. They were the cowards. It seems that there was some kind of communicable knee injury disease going around during the Vietnam War and afterward, where these conservatives who want someone else’s son or daughter to get killed have the cajones to call someone else a coward. Isn’t that remarkable? Actually, I the disease that was most likely infecting the aforementuioned group, was “yellow streak,” most prominently noticed on the spinal columns of some human beings.
M.E. Johnson
September 18th, 2009
1:54 pm
“Dear Lord, send us an unbeliever who will deliver us from the madness of the morally certain.”
– John Gorka
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 18th, 2009
4:01 pm
The moral certainty of America’s utopian whig founders was “madness?” Or you simply reject The Creator and The American Creed’s acknowledgment thereof? Or perhaps “M.E. Johnson” simply isn’t an American.
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
September 19th, 2009
4:56 am
If you think the Patriot Act was the right idea, please post your name, address, phone number and social security number for all of us to see. Because clearly you trust the government to know anything it wants about you without a warrant.
Lyn Greene
November 12th, 2009
8:28 am
I want to contact Max Cleland to ask a few questions about ADA. How do I get in touch with him?