Truthiness Behind GOP’s Kerry Slam

Daily Kos diarist DarkSyde had this to say about the GOP’s attempts Oct. 31 to slam Sen. John Kerry: "The GOP once again went after decorated combat veteran Senator John Kerry yesterday. The 101st Fighting Keyboardists and assorted neocon shills may be conspicuously absent when their country is in need, yet they're always on duty, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to smear any survivors. But this time, the good Senator took the gloves off."

Kerry had mangled a joke about President Bush and Iraq, leading Bush, Rush, and other right-wingers to say Kerry hated our troops. Obviously, if you don’t like Bush’s war in Iraq, you must hate the troops. As always, it comes down to truthiness.

Here’s Kerry’s reply: "I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes. It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did."

DarkSyde then listed all the Republican leaders and wingnut commentators who didn’t serve in the military, whether in war (Vietnam, etc.) or in peace. That includes Dick Cheney; Karl Rove who, oddly enough, shares Denver as a birthplace with John Kerry; Condaleeza Rice; Bill Frist; Dennis Hastert; Tom Delay; Rush Limbaugh; Sean Hannity; Ann Coulter; and (of course) Bill O'Reilly. Sums up DarkSyde: "To note all the GOP politicians and Republican pundits who both did not serve and who now happily smear those who did, would take up several front pages."

I looked up Karl Rove’s bio on wikipedia. He was born in Denver Dec. 25, 1950; I was born in Denver Dec. 18, 1950. He entered the University of Utah in the fall of 1969. I entered the University of South Carolina in the fall of 1969. He was in the College Republicans and had a 2-S (college student) draft deferment. I wasn’t interested in politics and had a 1-D draft deferment because I was a Navy ROTC scholarship student. Rove and I both were in the first draft lottery. He got number 84; I was a 128. All draftable males holding numbers up to 195 were eventually snatched up by the Selective Service unless they could come up with some pretty good reasons, such as insanity, unabashed homosexuality, a bad ticker, or a very strong antiwar bias, which you then had to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt or it was sayonara buddy, next stop is Vietnam.

The similarities end there. As Rove was working with his chums in the College Republicans to keep Nixon in power and the war raging, I was getting a crash course in current events. I’ve talked about this on my web site ("The Conscription Chronicles: I-V"), so you can read the details there. In January 1971, NROTC booted me because of bad grades and weird conduct, and immediately reported my status to the draft board in Daytona Beach, Florida. If I had dropped out then, I would have been 1-A. I found the bucks to stay at USC full-time though May, and then took a couple of summer school courses before leaving for good that August. My 1-A notice came in October, and I hunkered down at the beach and awaited the inevitable.

According to the wikepedia article: "On February 17, 1970, Rove was reclassified as 2-S, a deferment from the draft because of his enrollment at the University of Utah in the fall of 1969. He maintained this deferment until Dec. 14, 1971, despite being only a part-time student in the autumn and spring quarters of 1971 (registered for between six and 12 credit hours) and dropping out of the university in June of 1971. Rove was a student at the University of Maryland in College Park in the fall of 1971; as such, he would have been eligible for 2-S status, but registrar's records show that he withdrew from classes during the first half of the semester. In December 1971 he was reclassified as 1-A. On April 27, 1972, he was reclassified as 1-H, or ‘not currently subject to processing for induction.’ The draft ended on June 30, 1973.

I received my 1-H card in February 1972. So, both Rove and I escaped the draft, free to pursue our various courses. Rove went on to be involved in many Republican campaigns and causes, eventually transforming himself into the evil genius who unleashed Bush on the world.

I went on to a career and family and life as a dedicated citizen and strong antiwar Democrat.

How did our experiences give us such wildly divergent views? I shouldn’t have to ask that question. I’m a writer and depend on the vagaries of human nature for my craft. Still, I couldn't invent a Karl Rove. Would I want to?