Senator Lautenberg Is old Enough To Know Better

Today in the U.S. Senate, New Jersy's eighty-year-old Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg called Vice President Dick Cheney a "chicken hawk" for receiving four student deferments that kept him from being drafted into the military. Bloomberg reports that Lautenberg continued:

"Chicken hawks -- they shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of a chicken," Lautenberg, 80, said. "When it was their turn to serve, where were they? A-W-O-L, that's where."

[. . .]

"The reality is that the chicken hawks in this administration are doing a lousy job of bolstering our nation's defense and supporting the troops," he said.

Please! An eighty-year-old U.S. senator acting like a young elementary school child, reduced to calling the Vice-President of the United States names. At his age and with his experience, Lautenberg should be able to argue, debate, or campaign by engaging opponents in a meaningful discussion on important issues, instead of resorting to name calling about events which occurred more than thirty years ago.

At eighty, Lautenberg is certainly old enough to better.

I am sick and tired of having to listen to name calling about events from the sixties which have no relevance to the important issues which should be considered in this presidential campaign. I long for a meaningful debate on issues such as how best to defend the country, how to win the war against terror, education policy, and immigration reform.

UPDATE: James Joyce at Outside The Beltway addresses Lautenberg's name calling by posting:

Now, if anyone were questioning Kerry’s service in Vietnam, I suppose that would be a fair response, even though it’s still an ad hominem.

As always it is worth reading James' entire post .

Comments

[Clifford Kinney]

I disagree as a vet myself I think that the Senators comments were perfectly in line with the fact that the VP was AWOL from the military. Look at his history. First he got deferments from the military using school then when those were running out he got married then when they took married men his wife got pregnant. Well my Grandfather (a Canadian by birth an American citizen by choice) fought in the second world war with 3 children at home. I for one am sick and tired with the conservatives who are Chicken Hawks and they are the biggest cheerleaders for war. But they do not have the guts to join.

[Cranial]

You may have a looong wait.
I suggest we pack the next elevator to hell with dry ice to help it freeze over.