Edward Hum – 7/25/08

This page was last updated on July 26, 2008.

Draft dodgers like Bush still help us; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; July 25, 2008.

Mr. Hum was a regular contributor (at least 28 letters) from mid-2004 through September 2007. I believe this is Mr. Hum’s first letter since September 2007. It will be no surprise most of Mr. Hum’s letters are no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.

Mr. Hum is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Fellow Republicans, would it be strange if Barack Obama won the presidential election over Vietnam War hero John McCain after we won with George Bush and Dick Cheney, the Vietnam War draft dodgers?”

[RWC] I wonder what Mr. Hum’s position was in 1992 and 1996 when a true draft dodger – Bill Clinton – beat true World War II heroes George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole?

Mr. Clinton evaded (an illegal act) the Vietnam draft by deceiving an Army colonel into admitting him to the ROTC program. Mr. Clinton then ran back to school in England and actively protested the U.S. government. To make it even better – and after he was 100% sure he couldn’t be drafted, Mr. Clinton wrote a letter to the aforementioned colonel describing how Mr. Clinton duped him.¹

“Not that we don’t honor them. Protesters got us out of Vietnam. Kids went to Canada to avoid the draft.”

[RWC] Draft dodgers went to Canada to evade the draft.

“Kids like Rudy Giuliani and Cheney got educational deferments to avoid the draft. Kids like Bush joined the peacetime National Guard to avoid the draft.”

[RWC] OK, how can we be at war in Vietnam, yet have it still be “peacetime?” For details about President Bush’s service, please read “Bush National Guard Service.” Is there something wrong with using deferments? As a reminder, John Kerry also used a deferment. Using Mr. Hum’s language, Mr. Kerry avoided the draft by enlisting in the Naval Reserve after his deferment extension was denied. I guess that makes Mr. Kerry a draft dodger, right Mr. Hum?

I’ve asked this question before. In their zeal to bash President Bush, don’t folks like Mr. Hum realize how much they piss off past/present members of the National Guard by demeaning NG service?

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Giuliani, Cheney, Bush, Jane Fonda and all the other protestors and draft dodgers who helped get us out of Vietnam.”

[RWC] I have to admit it takes “creativity” to group Jane Fonda with Messrs. Bush, Cheney, and Giuliani.

“Bush is still helping us today by fighting a needless war in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan without raising taxes to pay for them. Let our grandchildren worry about the cost.”

[RWC] Would someone explain the obsession some folks have about a need to increase taxes during a war? One of the most important things to have during a war is a strong economy, and raising taxes hurts that cause.

We also have the lefty mantra that it’s OK to fight in Afghanistan but not in Iraq. Of course, this ignores the fact that all serious Democrat candidates for President since 2002 who were in Congress at the time voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Though Mr. Obama claims today he would have opposed the Iraq War Resolution, we’ll never know. After all, it’s fair to assume a U.S. senator with a middle name of “Hussein” would have been under great pressure to vote for the resolution, and even another local Obama supporter (Carl Davidson) wrote that Mr. Obama is “a triangulator par excellence” and “a lot of the local [Chicago] antiwar activists started calling him ‘Barack ‘Obomb ‘em’. He wasn’t listening much to us anymore, but to folks much higher up in the DLC [Democrat Leadership Council] orbit. He had bigger plans.”

“Thank you, George W. Bush. What a guy!”

[RWC] Does Mr. Hum know President Bush isn’t a candidate this year?

1. Clinton Letter to Colonel Holmes; Bill Clinton; December 3, 1969.