Just in case you ever wonder what they actually do during OCS at Quantico…
Julian Walker with the Virginia Pilot unearths a zombie:
(A) document obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, which Cuccinelli’s Virginia Attorney General’s Office twice declined to release under open records requests, suggests the story may not be that simple.
In an email earlier this year, a Marine official advised a member of Cuccinelli’s staff that a campaign explanation about the premature end of his military career is inconsistent with its version of events, a distinction Cuccinelli dismisses as hair-splitting.
And who is this hair splitter? And what is their rationale?
Major Shawn Haney wrote that in a March 25 email to Cuccinelli spokesman Brian Gottstein, advising him that a reporter had inquired about Cuccinelli’s Marine record and asked if the campaign had since updated its stance on his service. Haney’s message did not spell out the specific inaccuracy and she declined to elaborate, citing legal privacy standards.
So let’s get this one straight: she disputes Ken Cuccinelli’s “version of events” but refuses to specify why she disputes them?
…and what precisely does “technically accurate, but what it communicates is not” mean in English, folks?
Well, Haney tries to put up a defense about as bad as the New Orleans Saints, which when you think about it, is pretty darned poor:
Discord with the Marines, Cuccinelli senior strategist Chris LaCivita suggested, is over how the campaign explained the candidate’s separation from the service by blaming it on over-recruitment.
“Ken was told by his recruiter in 1995 that the Marine Corps over-recruited lawyers … and a Marine Corps public affairs officer’s current opinion doesn’t change that,” said LaCivita, a former Marine.
Haney said her initial message to Cuccinelli was informed by official records, including staffing levels at the time, not a personal opinion.
Somehow, I gotta think that when Chris LaCivita says “this guy is a Marine” then you know… you might want to listen to that guy.
Isn’t this the same trope they threw out against E.W. Jackson? Oh yeah… it is… and considering that Terry McAuliffe has never served, this just seems rather odd for Democrats to bring this one back into the open again.
…because the last time they tried in 2009, it did not work out so well for them, even if they leaked it to the then-Brownlee campaign.
But let’s not talk about that.
Score another point for T-Mac running the sleaziest campaign in Virginia politics. Seriously — can we think of another statewide campaign this slimy?
UDPATE: Oh, this is too good to be true. This fella?
That doesn’t pass muster with David Price, a retired U.S. Navy captain who served in the Judge Advocate General Corps and now practices law for a Virginia Beach firm that specializes in military and security clearance law.
We forgot to mention Veterans for Kerry in his resume, there…
UPDATE x2: As for Major Shawn Haney, let’s talk about some of the things she likes to talk about, like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell:
Major Haney will discuss the implementation of the DADT repeal — how the repeal is going so far, how various elements of the service have responded, and what challenges still remain.
Major Haney is also willing to answer related and unrelated questions — about life in the military as a woman, the military’s approach to transgendered individuals, the combat exclusion of women, and so forth. It should be very interesting.
Sounds more like her personal capacity rather than her official capacity, which is fine — she’s entitled to her opinion.
…but not her own set of facts.
