John McCain Rises to Defend Jane Fonda

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Well, hell has frozen over, of that there can be no doubt.

Yesterday while Kentucky’s rifle-toting junior senator, Aqua Buddha Rand Paul, was bloviating on the Senate floor with his attention-seeking 12-hour filibuster, he invoked the name of 60’s anti-war activist Jane Fonda.  Paul was on a rant regarding Attorney General Holder’s written statement that the President could conceivably use lethal force against an American citizen on American soil if that person was deemed to be an “enemy combatant.”   The little senator with the big hair said that by that definition, the President (in another time) could have ordered the killing of Jane Fonda.

John McCain and his BFF Lindsey Graham, who were both out having dinner with President Obama when  Rand Paul managed to grab so much attention doing his Jimmy Stewart thing,  cuddled huddled and decided to be outraged at that remark.  McCain found some available microphones and pitched one of his legendary hissy fits.

How dare that whippersnapper libertarian help himself to so much air time with his sleazy theatrics!  Mr. Sunday-Morning-Talk-Show was enraged!  The senior senator from Arizona spewed the following:

“I must say that the use of Jane Fonda’s name does evoke certain memories with me, and I must say that she is not my favorite American.  But I also believe that, as odious as it was, Ms. Fonda acted within her constitutional rights, and to somehow say that someone who disagrees with American policy – and even may demonstrate against it – is somehow a member of an organization which makes that individual an enemy combatant is simply false.  It is simply false!”

Rand Paul is right.  Clearly this President is smart enough to recognize and respect free speech rights, even those some might regard as “odious,” but we have also suffered Presidents who were not very intelligent (George W. Bush, anyone?), and they should not have options that could terminate the lives of Americans simply because they hold unpopular views.  The best way to protect constitutional rights is to force questions of legality into the courts – where they belong.

And John McCain is also right -and hell may never thaw!   Jane Fonda had a right to question the war and to use her celebrity status to draw attention to what was occurring in Vietnam.  Miss Fonda did not carry a rifle through the rice paddies of Vietnam, but she was certainly courageous.

Now if Mutt and Jeff would only turn their attention-seeking behaviors to getting justice for another person who had the temerity to question a war -  Bradley Manning – a whistleblower who has suffered over a thousand days of imprisonment without a trial.  Young Mr. Manning is also a very courageous person.  He didn’t start a war that cost our nation nearly a trillion dollars and ended with mixed results (at best), he didn’t “out” a CIA operative (something that is clearly illegal and a crime for which no one was charged or jailed), and he didn’t lie to Congress or the United Nations.    Bradley Manning simply gave us an opportunity to know the truth.

Filibuster that, Senator Paul.  Rage on that, Senator McCain.