Rockefeller Apologizes for Saying McCain Doesn’t Care About Lives of War Bystanders

FOX News

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/08/rockefeller-apologizes-for-saying-mccain-doesnt-care-about-lives-of-war-bystanders/

Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Barack Obama supporter, apologized to John McCain Tuesday for suggesting to a West Virginia newspaper that the Arizona senator does not care about “the lives of people” caught in the wars he champions, dating back to his Navy service in Vietnam.

The apology came after Barack Obama’s campaign swiftly criticized the West Virginia senator for the remarks quoted Monday in his hometown newspaper. Rockefeller told The Charleston Gazette that McCain is too far removed from the repercussions of war to deal with them.

“McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit,” Rockefeller told the newspaper, which published the article on the interview Tuesday. “What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues,” he is quoted saying.

On Tuesday, Rockefeller issued a statement, saying, “I have deep respect for John McCain’s honorable and noble service to our country. I made an inaccurate and wrong analogy and I have extended my sincere apology to him.

“While we differ a great deal on policy issues, I profoundly respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words,” he said.

McCain spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and last week highlighted his military service to the country in a cross-country biographical campaign tour.

Rockefeller’s apology came on the same day Obama, McCain and Hillary Clinton were grilling Gen. David Petraeus on Capitol Hill over military and political progress in Iraq. An advocate of the Iraq war and proponent of last year’s troop surge, McCain has fought any efforts to characterize him as a candidate obsessed with the glory of war.

The apology follows another jab at McCain by liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz, who called the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a “warmonger” while introducing the Illinois senator at a North Dakota campaign stop on Friday.

The Obama campaign distanced itself from the remark, as it did Tuesday with Rockefeller’s comments.

“Senator Obama has a deep respect for Senator McCain’s service to this country and doesn’t agree with what Senator Rockefeller said,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a prominent McCain supporter, told FOX News shortly after the Rockefeller apology that McCain actually dropped bombs very close to the enemy before he was shot down and taken as a prisoner.

“John didn’t drop bombs at 35,000 feet in Vietnam. The bombs were not laser-guided,” he said. “I’m glad Senator Rockefeller apologized, but at the end of the day behavior like this basically comes from wanting to win too badly. We don’t need to manufacture issues in this race.”

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“Surely McCain Critics Can Do Better”

Kathryn Lopez, NRO

TOWNHALL’S MATT LEWIS: This is the second incident in less than a week where we have seen an Obama surrogate -- not just questioning Sen. McCain's ideas -- but directly attacking his character, integrity, and war experience.  Is this a pattern we should get used to? http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/633dccfe-ce4a-4f3a-ae53-d2585b07a8b6

WEEKLY STANDARD’S MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Rockefeller, who is one year younger than McCain, probably wouldn't know this since he was enjoying the privileges of his station when McCain was bombing Vietnamese with abandon, but the laser-guided munition did not come into service until after McCain became a prisoner of war.  … And of course, McCain was engaged in low-level attack on a heavily defended power plant in Hanoi when he was shot down. Rather than dropping bombs from the relative safety of 35,000 feet, McCain and his comrades were willing to put their lives at great risk in order to hit specific, high-value targets without the assistance of guided munitions. Though I'm sure Rockefeller, with his billion dollar trust fund, is infinitely more sensitive to the "human issues" of the average American than John McCain. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp#6326

HOT AIR’S ED MORRISSEY: If this sounds familiar to you, it should; it’s basically what the North Vietnamese said about McCain while they tortured him in the POW camps. It indicts everyone in the Air Force whose job it is to drop laser-guided missiles now in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Rockefeller also sounds an awful lot like Barack Obama, who claimed that the entire strategy in Afghanistan consisted of “just air raiding villages and killing civilians”. http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/08/rockefeller-air-force-doesnt-care-about-humanity/ 

NRO’S THE CORNER: “Wow. We have military pilots flying overseas right now protecting troops—and civilians—on the ground. Do these dem Senators really believe that what they’re doing is inhumane? This is really outrageous. Makes my heart hurt. Makes this out-of-shape veteran want to suit up.”  http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmY5YjhiM2ZlOGI3Njc2YmYzZjYyOWM1YzdhMTNkNzE=

REDSTATE.COM: Paveways weren't used in Vietnam until 1968. At which point Senator McCain had already been a POW for a year - and might I add, Senator Rockefeller, that it is the action of a partisan buffoon to call someone who has been tortured for half a decade for putting on America's uniform ignorant of the consequences of his actions. Believe me, vile men with clubs made sure that McCain knew - and while I don't expect better from your chosen candidate, Senator (he's obviously made his choice), I did expect better from you. http://www.redstate.com/stories/archived/i_swear_its_like_senator_obama_puts_out_a_natsec_ignorance_field