Reaping

The Democrats have only begun to pay for Senator Richard Durbin’s slander of the military.

Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week.

Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican. [SNIP]

Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, last month invoked widespread military outrage when he compared Guantanamo to the prison labor systems used by communist tyrant Josef Stalin, Cambodia's Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler.

"They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag."

But, of course, neither of them has anything to say about it in public, not, at least until they’ve had the chance to get the talking points straight with Senators Clinton, Schumer, Reid, etc.

Both senators made no mention of the incident in press statements after the visit. Mr. Kennedy, in his statement, said that he is "impressed with the courtesies and professionalism of the men and women in our armed forces."

I wonder whether Senator Kennedy came away from the visit with a certain brown substance on his perennially red nose.

Blackfive says:

[W]hat [politicians] are going to find, to the Democrats' dismay, is that there will be an awful lot of war heroes coming home...and they just might run for office. Democrat or Republican. Independent or Libertarian.

For example, Illinois has had a lot of Soldiers and Marines deployed in the War on Terror. The Mad Ghosts (2/24 Marines) that I featured here often are from Chicago. I'm sure you'll find some of them interested in the possibilities of removing Durbin from office. [SNIP]

For those of you serving, think about who represents you. Are they doing the job that they were hired to do? If not, you may want to follow Rusten Currie's lead. [Look out, Maxine Waters!]

And Austin Bay says:

The press and bloggers need to either get transcripts of the interviews or — better yet– let’s get some of these soldiers on-line to tell us what they told their senators. Just imagine the headlines and obliterative outrage if Repubs touring Gitmo got an earful from the troops.

I know that there are a few active GIs who read this blog. Spread the word and find out who the participating guys/girls were. I’d be quite happy to give them a forum here.

(Thanks to Instapundit)