by James Glaser
March 4, 2004

I went to my local Republican Caucus last night. I have never been to one before and as I expected it was attended by some real nice sincere people. People that worry about our country and its future every bit as much as Democrats, Greens, or Independent Party people do.

As I said, the people attending were very nice people, but I can not say the same for the Republican Party official that ran the Caucus. Here is what we were told by this Party Officer. John Kerry did not deserve the medals he won in Vietnam and that he was performing illegal acts when he won them. Now tell me is this a rotten, scummy thing to say about an American War Hero?

It does not matter if you like John Kerry's politics or not, the fact is that John Kerry risked his life by exposing himself to heavy enemy fire to rescue a Green Beret and as he was pulling him into the boat he commanded, Kerry was wounded. While in Vietnam John Kerry was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for Valor. He was wounded three times and was awarded three Purple Hearts. Very few American veterans can match up their combat service record with Kerry.

It is so wrong for a Republican Party Official to cast aspersions on Kerry's war record. This can only come back on George Bush, who these people are trying to get reelected. I could have over looked this as one nut case with a real hard on for Bush's opponent, but as I said, this man ran the meeting and was the official representing the Minnesota Republican Party.

Now this wasn't a private conversation, this guy was telling everyone there these things. This guy said that when Saddam Hussein was captured in that hole, he had papers with him and he was shown a transcript which said that Saddam and the terrorists were working together in the 9/11 attack.

I have never been what you would call a strong backer of any party, but this part of the Republican Party was just horrible. I wish I could have gone to the Democratic Caucus to see how they acted this year. Just hearing what one side had to say was enough to tell me that even eight months out, at least this one side is scraping the bottom of the barrel already.

I have listened to Kerry and then I read about his voting record. I have watched what George Bush has done to this country in the last three years and I have to tell you neither one of them seems very good to me.

I have never had a candidate that made me want to really go out and work for them. I have felt good about some of my votes and felt I was voting for the best candidate, but I never had that excitement that so many people appear to have when they talk about their party's choice.

I take that back, after years of working with Paul Wellstone on Veterans issues, I felt proud to vote for him. Other than Sonny Montgomery, who gave us the G I Bill, Wellstone, was the best person ever elected for American Veterans.

Now this year I am afraid we are looking at, as Ralph Nader said, Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee. Both major party candidates wanted the war with Iraq. Both are free traders that like NAFTA and GATT. Both are taking money from special interests and both have so much money of their own, they have absolutely no idea of what it is like to be an average working American.

I know another term for George will be hard on the Bill of Rights and our Constitution and he will also make the air we breathe worse. I don't think Kerry will do the same in those two areas. So once again I am left with thinking about which candidate will hurt our country less.