Virginia Congressman says veterans’ service isn’t service at all

“What they do is find candidates … that haven’t been in office, haven’t served or performed in any kind of public service. My opponent is typical, frankly.”

Congressman Jim Moran, D-8th, Virginia

When you read the above quote, it’s not possible to understand the level of absurdity just from the words spoken. You might think that Rep. Moran is referring to a johnny-come-lately opponent with no experience in public life or service to his community or country. However, the individual Rep. Moran refers to is his Republican challenger, Col. Patrick Murray (US Army-Ret.) – are you starting to wonder about the statement above? Colonel Murray’s service in the military was quite distinguished, covering 24 years and deployment to four different combat zones.

FYI, the “they” referenced above is “Republicans”. Bashing Republicans is standard fare for Rep. Moran, but how in the world can anyone, even someone as reality-challenged as him, claim Col. Murray doesn’t have “any kind of public service.” Well, just a short time after this head-scratcher, Mr. Moran sneers, “Of course, for 24 years he’s taken a government check …” Ah-hah, so Col. Murray has served our country in uniform (for 24 years), protected our freedoms (for 24 years), got shot at by foreign combatants (more than once) and for all of that time he has “taken a government check”. We’ll leave it to you to determine the Congressman’s motives and/or prejudices, but suffice it to say that he doesn’t believe risking one’s life for one’s country is as important as determining to “earmark the shit out of it”, a Moran quote from a few years ago, describing what he would do if given a chairmanship of an appropriations subcommittee. Profligate spending of our tax dollars, hyper-partisanship, bashing veterans and years of questionable activities are what this member of Congress describes as appropriate “public service”. We’d suggest that the service Colonel Murray has performed for his country makes what Jim Moran does look like a common shell game con.

So, for bashing a distinguished veteran as a campaign tactic and questioning all veterans’ service to their country, we say to Rep. James Moran, with disgust and disbelief,

“Oh no you didn’t say that!”