LAT: Democrats' "Poster Boy"(Cleland more powerful as symbol than Senator)

[DeepModem Mom]

The Democrats' 'Poster Boy'
Max Cleland, who lost his U.S. Senate seat to a Republican in 2002, says he's ambivalent about personifying his party's anger.

By Mark Z. Barabak, Times Staff Writer


....In November 2002, (Max) Cleland lost his bid for reelection after a bitter, brutal campaign. The race is best remembered for a single advertisement—a 30-second spot that flashed images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and questioned Cleland's leadership and judgment in fighting terrorism. Although the ad's impact was probably overstated, it made Cleland what he is today: a martyr for Democrats across the country.

"There are two great motivators this year," says party strategist Jenny Backus. "Florida 2000 and Georgia 2002."

And so Cleland has campaigned on behalf of Democrats across the country, emerging as a key player in John F. Kerry's presidential bid. No group has been more vital to Kerry's fortunes than his fellow Vietnam veterans, and few vets have done more than Cleland to help the Massachusetts senator.

In some ways, Cleland is more powerful as a symbol than he ever was as a senator....

***

Cleland insists his election crusade is not motivated by hatred or vengeance. It's the best tonic, he says, for the emotional upheaval he still suffers. Clearly, though, Cleland is an angry man. He vilifies President Bush and Karl Rove and the other Republican operatives ("right-wing nutsos") he blames for his defeat. He condemns the war in Iraq, calling his vote in favor the worst mistake he made in the Senate. (Bush is "waging a holy war" based entirely on "b.s. intelligence.") He is blunt in a way that Kerry never would or could be; in that way, defeat has been liberating. "I can go where my heart leads me," he says.

Still, for all his passion, it is striking to hear Cleland speak with such ambivalence about becoming, as he puts it, "the poster boy for what the Republicans did to me."

"I'm a veteran, not a victim," he says. "I've never been comfortable with that role."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-tm-cleland29jul18,1,2761893.story?coll=la-home-politics

[Leilani]

1. What a wonderful article!

I love Max Cleland & detest what they did to him in the Senate race.

[BootinUp]

2. Thanks for posting that

enoyed it very much. :)

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I had the great privilege of meeting Max

and talking to him for 10 or 15 minutes when he was campaigning for Kerry in the WI Primary. Let me say that he may be angry, but he is not "an angry man." There is in my mind a vast difference between the two. Max is a loving and compassionate man who has seen great wrongs done, and who is fighting those wrongs rather than surrendering to bitterness or helplessness.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It would be heaven to put Cleland right back in the Senate.

What are the chances?

He's a terrific person. I hope Georgians will come to their senses.

[wolfgirl]

5. Thanks

for the post - a True American Hero!:kick:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. Great Article! The state of Georgia has a stain on it that.....

will not go away for sometime.

Georgia, the heart of the KKKonfederacy! :puke:

[lolly]

7. Semi-wonderful article?

Makes it sound like the Democrats are "spinning" the whole Cleland=bin Ladin thing.

Leaves out the attacks by Republican poster-girl Coulter et al.

Accepts the conventional wisdom that Kerry will never get much of the veteran's vote because, as we all know, Republicans are stronger on security issues.

[progressivebydesign]

8. I'm thinking Cabinet post for Cleland.. or Veteran's Affairs? N/T

[Zan_of_Texas]

9. He's been there, done that.

Already headed up the VA.

[ronabop]

10. SecDef?

Who better to have as a SecDef than a soldier who feels the real costs of war every morning, noon, and night?

-Bop