The AP Chooses To Help GOP ‘Swift Boat’ Tim Walz

When it comes to shameless Chicken Hawk stuff conservatives have a long and sordid history, including what they did to then Presidential nominee John Kerry. “Swift Boating” became a term in the lexicon and now the GOP has been hard at work doing it to Tim Walz. It hasn’t resonated as well so far as it did with John Kerry, so some ‘journalists’ from The Associated Press have decided to go after Walz with barrels blazing.

Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz overnight became America’s favorite neighbor, coach, small-town “Apple Pie” family man guy.  A dagger to the heart of conservative’s and especially MAGA’s ‘WE are the real Mur-i-can folks that embody flyover America.’  If the GOP was in a kitchen or lab mixing ingredients to come up with a perfect candidate for a national ticket Tim Walz is what they’d be thrilled to come up with. Except their version would be a Republican instead of a Democrat of course.

It stood to reason the GOP would want to dirty him up, just as they will with Kamala Harris.  Of course with Harris they’ve got a playbook of racism, misogyny and LIBERAL tropes they’ve practiced so much it’s second nature to them. Walz however has hit them where it REALLY hurts, claiming the mantle of everyday WHITE guy everyone would love to have as a neighbor. A guy to go hunting with or knock back some brews at a bbq.  Who would if their car broke down or was stuck in the middle of nowhere would hop in his truck and come help them out.  Plus, he’s not only a white guy but somehow pulls off seeming every one of his 60 years but has the energy and personality to only seem 40 at the same time!  AND he’s got real policy chops in both federal and state government.  No wonder they are desperate to take him down!  Hence the hatching of ‘Operation Swift Boat 2.0 – Tim Walz version.’

Swift Boating Walz is a trickier proposition than with Kerry. If one is a senior citizen they know that during Vietnam people fought like hell for a slot in the Guard or Reserves precisely because it was Westmoreland’s strategy NOT to call up Guard or Reserve units for that war. Still, Baby Bush could (even though he went AWOL) claim to have served. Trump famously got five deferments, the last one famously declaring him 4-F (unfit medically) due to bone spurs. When Trump says no one has ever seen bone spurs like the ones he had it’s the rare instance of him not lying. The Podiatrist who wrote the letter as a favor to Trump’s father probably never even met Donald. But it’s safe to say no one ever saw Trump’s bone spurs because they never existed.

However as I said the gene for shamelessness is missing in most conservatives so they’re giving Swift Boating Walz the old college try. So far no TV spot has been created. Probably because they are afraid of a counter ad, say with Senator and former National Guard helicopter pilot AND double amputee Tammy Duckworth talking about “Cadet Bone Spurs” and cracking jokes about magic bone spurs and the like. But you never know. And make no mistake, while Kerry and his campaign discount the effects of the original Swift Boat ad it hurt his campaign. Worse, the group that created it only had to pay to air it for on go-round. The news media aired it over, and over, and over again every freaking day for weeks. For free (to the GOP/Bush campaign) in one of the biggest ‘in kind” campaign contributions ever given to any candidate.

Walz’s military service has been well documented.  He’d always intended to retire from the National Guard after twenty years of service – once his retirement benefits were secured. Because of 9/11 he extended although at that point he could have gone ahead and retired anytime he wanted.  Much has been made on the timeline of just when he filed his paperwork to retire, and also to run for Congress. Let’s take a look at that.

Rumors, or what we called scuttlebutt back when I was on active duty in the Marines was a just part of the air we breathed. Same with every unit in every branch. That includes about deployments, even when there’s no war going on. Domestically for a month or more to engage in large scale maneuvers at Ft. Ord or Twentynine Palms. Or to Alaska for cold weather training. Or overseas. To Okinaw, to Germany, Italy or South Korea.  Or somewhere else. Officers and NCOs try to tamp that stuff down and get the troops to concentrate on training but with limited success. It’s only when the Officers and Senior Staff NCOs get wind of “Stand by to stand by” for possible deployment they take notice. Even then they take it with a grain of salt because often some other unit is chosen. Things only get serious and troops only get brought into the loop when actual Stand by for deployment to (name the place) are issued.

It’s been proven was thinking about, and more importantly talking to some fellow senior NCOs the highest in his command about retiring long before, as much as a year before even “Stand by to stand by” stuff came up. More bluntly, what I’ve just said seldom gets mentioned.  Same with the fact it was Walz’s students that got him seriously thinking about running for Congress!.  There’s another factor that’s not getting mentioned. The Walz’s wanted to have children but struggled for years and needed to resort to a long, agonizing process of infertility treatments. Eventually they welcomed their first child. With his family finally starting to include children it was natural for Walz, already secure in his retirement benefits from the Army National Guard to really start thinking about retirement. Again, their daughter Hope was conceived and born well before any talk of deployment to Afghanistan was under consideration by the powers-that-be.

None of that counts as far as conservatives are concerned. (Having family values you see only counts if you’re a Republican)  Nor many who purport to be journalists. But let’s move on to another accusation.  That Walz misrepresented his rank. Again I call bullshit.

Walz was thinking seriously about retirement well before rumors about his unit possibly being deployed to Afghanistan really got going. This is all documented. And yet those determined to Swift Boat him aren’t letting go.  Then there’s the ONE instance we know of (and if there were more we’d have heard about them weeks ago – anything now is going to be made up sh*t) where he misspoke, conflating training to use weapons of war and being in a war zone. There are plenty of instances of Walz on camera making the point he never deployed to a combat zone.  One badly worded comment vs. lots of campaigning where his military service was cited and him not only NOT saying or even implying he’d seen combat, but sometimes clearly noting he’d never deployed to a war zone.  If one wants to keep score on the old coach he’s way the hell out in front.

Finally, we come to the issue of Walz’s rank. He was promoted to and served for a time to Command Sgt. Major. When his retirement became official that was the rank cited on his paperwork. He DID retire holding that E-9 rank. It was on his uniform sleeve when his retirement became official.  The issue became Walz not deciding to, after retirement go on and complete the full 750 hour course Sgt. Majors have to go through which includes some time (about two weeks) down in Texas. Given he was running for Congress in a district that had seen exactly one Democrat elected in the past 100 years it makes sense that between teaching and coaching completing the Sgt. Major’s course would go by the wayside.

Because of that, Walz’s rank for retirement benefits purposes was revised back to E-8. However, he DID serve as Command Sgt. Major of his unit for the better part of a year and recognized as such when he turned over his duties to his successor. There’s a HUGE difference between him being reclassified as E-8 for retirement because he didn’t complete the full Sgt. Major coursework, and Ronny Jackson who was DEMOTED from Rear Admiral to Captain for his not meeting performance standards. Yet Jackson and many GOPers continue to use the term Admiral Ronny Jackson!  Again, one standard for Republicans and one far harsher one for Democrats.

Now we get to J.D. Vance and his “Stolen Valor” crap. Even the day he first leveled the accusation, including hyping his own time in the Marines Vance seemed to realize he might have taken it a bit too far. I watched it that day almost in real time. I still feel Vance tried to portray himself favorably to Walz by claiming the mantle of being  a combat Marine. Many a person who saw his remarks about answering the call when deployed to a ‘war zone’ could reasonably come away with that impression. Vance however seemed to realize someone might do a little checking. That’s why at the airport later he shouted over his shoulder he never claimed to have been in combat.

Walz and others (including Harris) have taken the high road. Thanking Vance for his service and saying no one should for any reason denigrate anyone’s service. Normally I’d agree but since Vance and his Party aren’t letting go to this to my fellow jarhead Vance I say F**K YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!.  When Tim Walz joined the Guard it was with the knowledge he’d belong to a combat arms unit. That meant worse might someday come to worse and he’d find himself exchanging hostile fire. Close to the action. When J.D. Vance volunteered what did he choose?  To be the Marine Corps equivalent of a journalist. The title for his M.O.S. is Combat Correspondent but few of them actually get embedded in combat units. During Vance’s six months in a ‘combat zone’ he was mostly in an air conditioned office in the middle of an air base. Writing press releases so Marine’s newspapers back home could see what their local jarheads were up to.

When Vance did venture out, to give tours to civilian journalists or to whatever guests the Corps wanted to make an impression with it was to secured areas. Not entirely danger free but pretty goddamned secure nonetheless or the Corps wouldn’t have Vance escorting them to those places.  Yet we are headed to the point of the GOP (and journalists too I fear) painting Vance as the hard charging grunt. Out there where the fighting/danger was the worst, kicking down doors with his K-Bar (the Marine’s iconic fighting knife) between his teeth, assault weapon in one hand firing on full auto and like the movies never running out of bullets and throwing grenades yanked from his web gear with the other!

I’m not classy like Tim Walz or Kamala Harris. Vance COULD have chosen a combat arms M.O.S. but didn’t. He wanted to be a writer so he signed up to be a journalist instead. No different than an admin person. Just another support specialty that worked out of an office in a fairly safe and secure place. One can serve honorably and usefully in countless non-combat oriented roles and by all accounts Vance did his four years well. I’d be fine with that, EXCEPT for Vance attacking Walz and accusing him of stolen valor and/or running out on his troops to avoid a combat deployment.

Vance reminds me of a guy well known at Henderson Hall (in Arlington, Virginia) back when I was stationed there. HQMC was across the street at the Navy Annex back in the 1980s and this guy was an “01” as in admin type. But he wanted everyone to think he was an “O3” as infantry/grunt. We called him “Ricky Recon” or “the 01/03” not just because of his super high high and tight haircut. THIS guy would dress to go for a run through Ft. Meyer and out in town wearing combat boots, with his face painted with camo!  Well, at least unlike Vance he didn’t wear eyeliner.  Funny thing, I don’t know for sure if it’s true but a friend who was in admin and worked in the same office said Ricky Recon had signed up for another “tour.” (enlistment) But he didn’t switch to infantry! Hmmmmm.  My point is that J.D. Vance is hardly the person to go accusing someone else who served far longer and had many more deployments of being a slacker. Or of Stolen Valor. Not when he’s saying ‘I WAS A MARINE!’ Just who the hell is he trying to kid pretending he’s not a billy-bad-ass hard-charging grunt who fearlessly waded into battle?  He was a Remington Raider (a term from the days before computers when people used typewriters), on to use an even older term folks of my dad’s generation (WWII) and Office Pogue.  Again, because Reagan was gutless and worried about “another Vietnam” I wound up not seeing combat. But unlike Vance I signed up not just willing but expecting to do so. So if he wants to be how he’s being I WILL take shots at him!

Yes, Walz misspoke ONE time in making a statement that suggested he’d been in combat. He was talking to a larger point about assault weapons having no business in civilian hands because assault weapons are designed specifically for killing PEOPLE. He left out a clarification this ONE TIME – something like instead of ‘the weapons I trained with and carried into war’ saying what I’m quite certain he meant to say which is “the weapons I trained with and would have carried in war had I been sent into combat.”  The thing is, there are countless campaign events, many of which are recorded where Walz made it clear while talking about his service in the National Guard that while he’d been deployed his unit hadn’t been sent into a combat zone. ONE misstatement vs. lots of others where there not only was no hint he’d seen combat, but actually making it clear he and his unit hadn’t done so.

You know what? Let’s look at not just this but ALL the nitpicking going on with Tim Walz. It’s fair to say that I hold some bias because I’m a Democrat but when you look at each accusation, considering the way I just put it I think Walz deserves the benefit of the doubt. And then some. He served honorably and it should be left at that. He sure as hell shouldn’t be facing the accusations he’s facing.  I’ll have more to say on that later when I tackle the subject of my fellow Marine J.D. Vance.

So what has me so incensed that I’m calling out The Associated Press?  This morning I saw not one, but TWO articles that were 2024 versions of the media helping the GOP do to Walz what they did to Kerry in 2004. Stir up the ‘controversy.’  Accuse Walz. TWO articles, both with multiple authors in the bylines. Where they gave their ugly game away was listing two authors, Jonathan Mattise and Richard Lardner on BOTH. Again, two articles published in the same morning!  You think maybe they are on a mission?  That THEIR journalistic integrity should be under question instead of Walz’s National Guard service? I sure as hell do!

The first article was titled Walz’s exit from Minnesota National Guard left openings for critics to pounce on his militay record.  It starts citing a Col. John Kolb, a Col. in the Minnesota Guard who ‘knew Walz by reputation’ which he admitted was a good one. However he goes on to criticize Walz for retiring ahead of a possible deployment and for ‘overstating his rank’ saying “That is not the behavior I would expect out of a senior noncommissioned officer.”  Again, this is an officer who didn’t actually serve with Walz or was part of his chain of command.  However, with this kind of opening the tone of what the authors (four for this article) intended to convey was set.  Now, angry as I am I have to admit there was at least some attempt at balance in this first article. I urge to to open up the link to it, as well as a second article who’s link I’ll provide in a minute and go back and forth.

This has already gotten longer than I’d like it to be but I’d urge you to scroll down this linked article and read about the soldier who took over Walz’s position. The short version is they were political opposites and Sgt. Major Tom Behrends flat out didn’t like Walz. But he turned out to like Trump and MAGA. A donation, to Trump and during Walz’s campaign for Governor hanging a ‘Walz is a Traitor’ sign on his barn makes his animosity, even after two decades clear. The article note how he hated Walz’s talking about his views on abortion even. Yet he claims he’d also be critical of anyone who made what he considers inflated claims about their service. Remember what I said about Ronny Jackson? Has anyone asked him about that?

Or what about back when he and Walz were serving together (unless I’m mistaken Walz got the nod for Command Sgt. Major over him) and Baby Bush held up a carrier that had already had it’s deployment to the gulf extended. For two days. So he could land in the back seat of a Navy jet for his “Flight Suit” photo op on the deck prior to his WAY premature Mission Accomplished speech. That whole stunt was an expensive (to the taxpayers) to paint Baby Bush as a “real fighter pilot” – to make him into something he most definitely was NOT.  But let’s move on.

As I said there were TWO articles. I guess the two authors I cited didn’t like that some people might read the first effort they were part of and think something like ‘Well, some of that raises questions but some of it explains things and too much is being made of all this’ and decided “screw that!” So the two of them turned right around (I’m not kidding, article two went up maybe an hour after the first one) and wrote another missive. This one was titled ‘Takeaways from the AP’s review of Tim Walz’s descriptions of his military record.’ It’s a much shorter article but it’s basically a rehash of the same criticisms. With not much more than lip service of response/rebuttal to them. One might reasonably think they were the driving force behind the first article and didn’t like it one bit that some balance was added in. So they went an wrote their own harder hitting hit piece. Worse, the AP published it.

These two are f**king hacks as far as I’m concerned. Auditioning for gigs with Fox News.  The AP should fire them, or at least suspend them.  If you’ve done me the courtesy of reading all I’ve written you know why I feel that way. I don’t claim to be a journalist. I’m just a guy who sees stuff in the news and offers my opinion on it. Sometimes I have positive things to say and sometimes negative. However, I believe we all have a right to expect those who purport to be actual professional journalists AND working for one of our oldest and long respected outlets to be better than what these two asshats (wanna bet they both own MAGA hats?) put out this morning.

If the GOP wants to turn this into a bar fight and keep up with this Swift Boating crap then not the campaign but prominent Democrats need to punch back and punch back hard. Not just at Trump and other GOP Chicken Hawks either. If J.D. Vance won’t STFU then screw being polite and respecting his service. If he wants to tone it down and say he’s proud of his service in the Marines I might be willing to let things go. Since that doesn’t seem likely then F**K honoring his service. He volunteered to be a f**king desk jockey and that’s all he was.

Countless Marines and people from other branches including me didn’t see combat even though we signed up and trained for combat jobs. When I was turned down (because I was 26 I’d learn) for Officer Candidate School in the Marines I was crushed as my dreams of becoming a Naval Aviator were done. But right then was when the Barracks bombing happened in Beirut and less than a week later I enlisted. With a perfect score on the ASVAB (really, that’s not all that impressive) I could have chosen any M.O.S. I wanted but to my recruiter’s dismay I insisted on Infantry, fully expecting to wind up in Lebanon well before the end of 1984 (something the recruiters kept pointing out). In the end I never saw combat. My own service was nothing special other than I volunteered when I had other options. Most people who serve don’t see combat.

However, most who don’t see combat don’t run around making a BFD about spending six months in a f**king office on a big air base writing press releases, even if it is in a country where there ARE combat units engaging the enemy.  AND accusing someone who served twenty years more than I did and rose far higher in rank of being a shirker. And as for Trump, it’s time to REALLY go to town on his magic bone spurs if the GOP doesn’t back off this Swift Boating of Walz bullshit!

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