The Arrogance Of Randi Rhodes: McCain Was Well-Treated In Vietnam?

Just when I thought broadcast journalism couldn't sink any lower than the attacks on Sarah Palin's family or that the libs couldn't possibly say anything more stupid than what they've already said, uber-leftist Randi Rhodes had to go and prove me wrong.

While it is typical of the Democrat Party and of the left in general to re-write history, Randi Rhodes does it with an arrogance not seen since ... well ... I don't think arrogance like this has ever been seen before.

Rhodes has made the ultra-idiotic claim that John McCain was "well-treated" while a POW in Vietnam. I don't know what her definition of "well-treated" is, but a rationally thinking person would not characterize the torture and brutality of the North Vietnamese Communists as anything good.

Here is what she claims:

RHODES: Of course he (McCain) became very friendly with the Vietnamese. They called him the Prince. He was well treated actually. And he was well treated because he traded these propaganda interviews for good treatment. So look, it's a horrible story anyway you cut it, anyway you look at it, any way you you you deal with it. But, it's not the story Fred Thompson told. Nor is it the story Rudy Giuliani told. Nor is it the story Sarah Palin told. Nor is it the story anybody. Cindy McCain knew to limit herself to 'I think what my husband did in Vietnam was heroic' because she knows the truth too.

Yes, Cindy McCain and Fred Thompson do know the turth, which is why we know Randi Rhodes is deliberately telling lies. Yes, I am calling Randi Rhodes a liar. Got a problem with that? Well, then pull up your big-girl panties and deal with it.

Here are some accurate accounts of what happened to John McCain in Hanoi. From U.S. News & World Report in 1973:

Some North Vietnamese swam out and pulled me to the side of the lake and immediately started stripping me, which is their standard procedure. Of course, this being in the center of town, a huge crowd of people gathered, and they were all hollering and screaming and cursing and spitting and kicking at me. When they had most of my clothes off, I felt a twinge in my right knee. I sat up and looked at it, and my right foot was resting next to my left knee, just in a 90-degree position. I said, "My God--my leg!" That seemed to enrage them —I don't know why. One of them slammed a rifle butt down on my shoulder, and smashed it pretty badly. Another stuck a bayonet in my foot. The mob was really getting up-tight. ... I think it was on the fourth day that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I remembered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow had ejected from his plane and broken his thigh. He had gone into shock, the blood had pooled in his leg, and he died, which came as quite a surprise to us—a man dying of a broken leg. Then I realized that a very similar thing was happening to me. When I saw it, I said to the guard, "O.K., get the officer." An officer came in after a few minutes. It was the man that we came to know very well as "The Bug." He was a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends that we had to deal with. I said, "O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital." He left and came back with a doctor, a guy that we called "Zorba," who was completely incompetent. He squatted down, took my pulse. He did not speak English, but shook his head and jabbered to "The Bug." I asked, "Are you going to take me to the hospital?" "The Bug" replied, "It's too late." I said, "If you take me to the hospital, I'll get well."

The above accounts are certainly more accurate since John McCain was there to see them and Randi Rhodes was not.

I believe that Randi Rhodes spoke those lies knowing that someone out there was going to be naive and gullible enough to believe them. (It certainly seems that CNN was gullible enough) But, then, I guess the average leftist will believe anything their fellow leftists tell them, even when they are bold-faced lies.

You can access the orignal article on-line here:

Rhodes Claims McCain Was 'Well-Treated' In Vietnam
Brian Maloney
Radio Equalizer
September 8, 2008

And the 1973 U.S. News & World Report article here:

John McCain, Prisoner Of War: A First-Person Account
John S. McCain III, Lt. Cmdr. US Navy
U.S. News & World Report
1973