Face Of The Republican Party: Booing The American Soldier

I've only seen Steve Benen pick up on this so far.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Gen. Kerr, who was in the audience for the event, whether he was satisfied with the responses. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t.

“With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates,” Kerr said, adding, “We’re talking about doctors, nurses, pilots, and the surgeon who sews somebody up when they’re taken from the battlefield.”

Wmtriallawyer has an excellent post about CNN's apology for allowing Ret. Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr to ask candidates in the Republican YouTube debate about the don't ask don't tell policy toward gays in the military. Wingnuts are screaming and shrieking that Kerr was a Hillary plant and that this proves that CNN is in the tank for her. But I don't think they want to harp on this too long, because maybe then the Democrats will wise up and start playing the tape. And the whole country can see, over and over again, Republicans booing a career military officer for the "crime" of being gay.

At which point, the Republican audience began booing the 43-year military veteran. It was an interesting contrast — at Democratic debates, veterans get standing ovations. At Republican debates, veterans get booed if they’re gay.

The nutjobs can keep yelling "Hillary plant! Hillary plant!" (as if Grover Norquist was just an average American getting his question answered), but do they really need this replayed over and over:



Check it out around 4:00 in.

This is a question that has been asked of both Democrats and Republicans in previous debates. You don't need a plant to get this question across. However, when the questioner is retired military, THEN some in the audience saw fit to boo him. Someone who served this country for 43 years. Simply because they disagree with him on a policy.

THAT was the most revealing moment from the debate. The party that "supports the troops" takes every opportunity to smear, marginalize, and even outright attack troops that disagree with them on policy.