After the colossal embarrassment the Bush Administration suffered last week, when 3 former generals all turned down the position fo war Czar, The Washington Times step in to try and swiftboat the most outspoken of the three.
The Times’ military reporter Bill Gertz — who frequently propagates information that comes from Cheney’s office — wrote that Sheehan is a “liberal military officer” and a “defeatist” opposing the Iraq war.
Gertz went on to slime Sheehan… as only a vitriolic right wing sycophant can.
Officials pointed out one of Gen. Sheehan’s shortcomings during his active-duty career: a past association with Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belen Montes, who in 2002 was convicted as one of the most notorious U.S. traitors and a damaging spy for the communist regime in Cuba.
Sheehan didn’t take this attack lying down and… obliterated the hatchet job by Gertz… with a very simple argument.… Why did the White House consider him if his reputation were so tarnished?
Gen. Sheehan, in an e-mail, dismissed both claims about his candidacy for the czar post and past ties to Montes as “incorrect.”
Before being asked by the White House, “I am sure they checked my credentials and the record indicated I was an American who had served both Republicans and Democrats,” Gen. Sheehan said. “Deal with the issue at hand on an objective basis, not character defamation.”
Needless to say, The Washington Times’ selection smear job against Sheehan conveniently omitted the fact that two other former generals, and supporters of the Iraq war, also turned down the job.
No doubt another example of the left wing media in action.