Apparently, this rule applies to all candidates for political office whose last name is not Bush. Here's an interesting little snapshot taken in October, 2004 in the midst of Bush's re-election campaign. (The link to this photo can be found here.)
While it can easily be argued that Bush was there strictly in his role as Commander-in-Chief. But who's kidding who? This was not the only time that Bush used our military men and women as stage props in his political campaigns.
As far as I'm concerned, what I said yesterday still stands. The DoD's inserting itself into a presidential campaign on one side is, at the least, selective enforcement of their rules, and, at worst, collusion with White House political operatives.
Update: Thanks to Joe Sudbay at Americablog.com for this...
Fast forward to July of 2008: Which Pentagon political hack is right smack in the middle of the latest manufactured controversy about Obama's visit to the troops in Germany -- a political controversy being pushed by "The Pentagon"? That's right. Bryan Whitman. Yes, apparently when the press talks about "The Pentagon" they mean Bryan Whitman -- and Whitman was quite happy to stir the pot on this one:
The Pentagon said on Friday that it did not prevent an Obama visit.
"Nobody denied Senator Obama the opportunity to visit our wounded being cared for at Landstuhl. Obviously, as a sitting senator, he has an interest in that and can certainly visit in an official capacity," said Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, who added that there are "restrictions on what you can do as a candidate for political office, that stems from trying to maintain political neutrality and not have the military involved in politics."
"The senator's staff was informed of the limits on what the military can do with respect to a political campaign and how we could support a senator's visit to Landstuhl and, quite frankly, I expected them to have the visit," Whitman said.
Quite frankly, no one should believe anything Bryan Whitman says on behalf of "The Pentagon." He's a GOP political operative who has done a lot of Bush, Cheney and Rummy's dirty work from his press perch at the Pentagon for years. The guy has no compunction about engaging in politics. And, he's the one pushing this latest fake controversy. In February, Obama was right. Whitman was wrong. Same now.
I rest my case.
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