This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Support the troops

  • Fake Veterans and fake stories; how to avoid an asswhoopin’

    This is what brought this piece to mind today; an article about a former soldier who posed as a former Marine captain;

    For pretending that he was a decorated U.S. military veteran, 59-year-old Reggie L. Buddle of Puyallup must tend to the graves of those who really were.

    U.S. Magistrate Kelly Arnold in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Monday sentenced the counterfeit Vietnam vet to two years’ probation and 500 hours laboring at Tahoma National Cemetery for posing as a decorated U.S. Marine captain and military chaplain in 2005 and 2006.

    Buddle, who never was in the Marine Corps, pleaded guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations. That followed an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    After the hearing, Buddle, who served two years as an Army enlisted man but never in combat and never earning any of the medals he wore, apologized in court Monday and said he was ashamed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

    Now, that’s just silly – this fellow had apparently served in the Army, yet he wanted to pose as a Marine. Why didn’t he join the Marines, then? The judge probably thinks he dealt out an appropriate punishment, but I disagree – Buddle shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near our honored dead – because he tainted every veteran with his BS stories.

    There was a book by BK Burkett called “Stolen Valor” that was published a few years back that chronicled some of the more heinous veteran impersonators and their eventual “outing”. There are websites that specialize (or at least partly specialize) in busting fake veterans. SOCNET, ArmyRanger, and VeriSEAL are just a few (it seems that no one poses as an Army cook or a Navy postal clerk).

    The gamut of fake stories range from John Kerry’s secret squirrel mission into Cambodia with a CIA spook who had too many hats, apparently, to Jesse MacBeth (fake Ranger) who claims to have committed atrocities because George Bush told him to do it. Most recently, of course, we have Scott Thomas Beauchamps, who appears to have written at least parts of his war stories before he even arrived in theater.

    By the way, if John Kerry is reading this, you still haven’t signed your Form 180.

    Of course the media is willing to believe almost anything they’re told because most journalists haven’t served, many politicians haven’t served, and only a few bloggers have served (outside of the milblog community).

    But, see, what torques my chain is that many of these fake veterans actually did serve in the military – but they’re disappointed that they didn’t do anything they consider worthy of their potential. That’s just horseshit. Anyone who serves in the military is a better person than those chickenshit little turds who call us “chickenhawks”. The military can’t make everyone in uniform a Ranger or a SEAL or a Force Recon Marine – there aren’t enough slots. But all of those guys have to eat, they need new equipment in the field, they need water, they need medical care – that’s what the rest of us are for, ya see.

    Be proud of your military service, even if you did only “shovel shit in Louisiana” (to borrow a Patton quote) – you contributed at a time when the country needed someone to step up. If you feel guilty that you didn’t feel you contributed enough, go volunteer at the local VA facility and associate with and help this country’s heroes – listen to real war stories, and pass them on. Be a hero today to yesterday’s heroes.

    And keep the BS to a minimum – then I won’t have to take a baseball bat to your monkey ass.

  • Pledging our sacred honor

    “I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

    Those are the last words a civilian speaks when he or she leaves the world behind and goes into the military. There is no end date (the first enlistment oath in 1775 was only good for a year), there are no extenuating conditions to avoid executing the oath on every day. It is what it is.

    In a world of empty promises and endless litigation over the meaning of “is”, it’s almost comforting to know that there are people who take this oath seriously – the people who are more committed to the ideals of liberty and freedom than many of the people they defend.

    Every once in a while, a derelict slips through – someone who just mouths the words without taking the time to understand what they’ve promised, or they have no intention of obeying their promise to the American people, or they’ve already made a pledge to serve their own selfish interests.

    That, apparently, was the case with Scott Thomas Beaucamp. He had no intention of serving the American people – instead he was serving himself. His intention was to rocket to journalistic fame clinging to the skirt of his pampered Leftist fiance` by recording “no shit” war stories that privates tell each other to whittle away the mind-numbing seemingly endless hours spent on all-night guard duty.

    The first day on active duty teaches every private that he won’t make it without his comrades. One might teach him how to put a gloss on his brand new boots, another might show him how to fold his ten socks, another might toss him a canteen to prevent dehydration in the scalding heat of the Georgia sun, another might toss him an extra twenty rounds to hold off the last few assaulting maniacs, or bandage his wounds to keep him alive until he gets to the aid station.

    A new private learns that he pledges his honor to his country, his sergeant owns his ass, but he pledges his life to his fellow soldiers. Without them, he doesn’t have a chance, without him, they don’t stand a chance.

    Beaucamps never learned that lesson. He’s spent the last few months disparaging his fellow soldiers. How could a few stories injure his comrades? Well, let’s read a particularly odious comment left on The New Republic’s “The Plank” in response to Beauchamp’s admission to his ID;

    Mosaic (14 of 263)
    posted by jeopel on 2007-07-26 09:00:04 
    Take the word “diarist,” say it to yourself a few times. What, exactly, are the truth claims made by a diarist? Hmmm.

    Now, take the known facts about military recruitment, the lowering of standards, especially the increase in moral waivers. Statistically, are known felons, sociopaths, etc., more likely to commit crimes or exercise bad moral judgment than other citizens? Hmmm.

    Pieces of a mosaic, if you will.

    Or this:

    let me clarify (43 of 263)
    posted by MrCookie1 on 2007-07-26 12:10:59
    I have no idea if Beauchamp is a hero…though the fact that he is fulfilling his military obligation in a combat zone separates him from 99.99% of Talkbackers, (nod to butchie, jackson, and my main man teccy)

    What I do know is this: He exists. He is assigned to a combat unit. His unit – or squad or battalion or whatever it is actually called – was in the area he says it was. His unit found bones of dead Iraqi children. As for the zig zagging doggy killing, that has not been verified.

    So, hero? I don’t know. Honest, it appears that he is honest, or about as honest as most of us are in this world.

    What I do know is that it is rare that posters can somehow find the courage to admit they are wrong. What I think I am seeing, especially in that reptile thomson’s posts, is the beginnings of a Swift Boating of this young man. War supporters lecture us ALL the time about supporting the troops but they have no qualms about disrespecting, accusing, and villifying a soldier who they believe may have a different political agenda.

    No one is saying this guy is a hero. He is what is says he is though. He has declared himself. I rather think I will grow old and long in the tooth before any of the “heroes” attacking him on this board will ever find the courage to do the same.

    So the short version of these two posts is; well, what do you expect from the dredges we recruit? Oh, and why don’t you chickenhawks join, too.

    Well, MrCookie1, combat soldiers are more honest than anyone on the face of the planet – lies get people killed. Propagating lies get even more people killed. Take my word, Beauchamps’ diary is packed with lies – and I know lies about soldiering. And I can back up my experience.

    And then, over at the Weekly Standard, another blog entry from Michael Goldfarb records nonesense from the Columbia Journalism Review from Paul McLeary entitled “Why do conservatives hate the troops?”. McLeary writes;

    How dare a college grad and engaged citizen volunteer to join the Army to fight for his country! (Which is something that most of the brave souls who inhabit the milblog community prefers to leave to others.) While there are some very legitimate questions about what Beauchamp wrote, nothing, it’s worthy of note, has been proved false yet. But that hasn’t stopped the sharp knives of a slew of bloggers from coming out.

    Well, since Beachamps’ First Sergeant (he’s the ranking noncommissioned officer in Beachamps’ company, Mr. McLeary – I figured you needed to be told that by the string of ignorant crap you spewed) tells us it’s all false in his email to GI Jane;

    I can assure you that not a single word of this was true.

    Sounds definite to me.

    And, for your information, the milblog community is made up of former and current members of the military (hence the term) and their spouses – I speak as an attendee of the last Milblog Conference. You’ve never seen so many buzzcuts and heard so many “Yes, sir”s in your life (I’m betting).

    But as to your “How dare he…” question. How dare he indeed. How dare he break his oath to his country, how dare he break that unspoken oath to his comrades. I’ll let Shakespeare’s Henry V explain it to you so you might understand;

    That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
    Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
    And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
    We would not die in that man’s company
    That fears his fellowship to die with us.
    This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
    And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
    He that shall live this day, and see old age,
    Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
    And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
    And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
    Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
    But he’ll remember, with advantages,
    What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
    Familiar in his mouth as household words-
    Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
    Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
    This story shall the good man teach his son;
    And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remembered-
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

  • Scott Thomas Beauchamps; shithouse scribe (Updated)

    I’ve been reading the stories from Michael Goldfarb and National Review that The New Republic published from some formerly unidentified soldier named Scott Thomas who turns out to be named Scott Thomas Beauchamps. Since these stories been published and republished across the ‘net, I won’t bother to repeat the stories this youngster wrote. I kinda figured they were bullshit stories from the get-go, but I wanted to wait and see how this played out before I said anything. Well, it’s not played out yet, but I do have a few thoughts, especially since the young man supposedly happens to be in an infantry company in which I served during  the days of yore.

    The stories I read that he claims to have penned all seem false to me – some have defended the tales with their own brand of forensic psychiatry saying that young men pumped up with testosterone and ranging about a wild country with loaded fully automatic weapons have a tendancy to do things others might not think possible. Well, that’s just horseshit, too.

    These men we send to fight our wars come from our hometowns, they’re raised in our neighborhoods, they sit next to us in our church pews, they date our daughters. They know how to act – and none that I know would intentionally run over a dog.

    In fact, after Desert Storm, when we were still trying to bring some level of civilization to the areas behind the retreatng Iraqis, my battalion commander instructed the company commanders to send their snipers out to dispatch the roving bands of stray dogs. My troops were in an absolute rage about this – one of my squad leaders got relieved when our company’s sniper couldn’t seem to kill the dogs with one shot and the squad leader confronted him, fairly agressively – too agressively for the commander’s tastes. I can prove my story, by the way, Crotchety Old Bastard was a Platoon leader in the same company and I’m sure he remembers the incident. (Update note: He does remember it.)

    And any Bradley driver who can see up over the right side and drive that 26-ton monster with enough precision to catch a dog unawares – well, the Army better not ever let him out. 1600 horses are not quiet, and 26 tons are not maneuverable.

    As far as making fun of an injured woman because of a disfigurement beyond her control, resulting from an enemy action – bullshit. If she’d been a fat cow from the ambulance platoon whose rolls of lard were hanging out the bottom of her BDU blouse, I might make a different call – but not in this case. if there’s one thing warriors respect it’s those who’ve looked the dragon in the eye and lived.

    I had a friend, Tim Martin, whose memorial you can see on my website, who was disfigured since I knew him – 1974 until his death in 1993. The whole right side of his face was melted – you can see in some of the photos. I never knew why because I never asked him. No one I know ever asked him why – because it didn’t matter. He was a rockhard soldier with a heart of gold and it didn’t matter to anyone why he was disfigured. And although Uncle Jimbo is a bit confused about when Tim was injured, he can certainly attest to Tim’s injury and the way he was treated by the people with whom he served.

    And putting a child’s skull on your head – sorry, but infantrymen never know when their next shower will be – putting an exhumed skull anywhere on your body is just unsanitary and his squad leader would’ve knocked the troop into his next rotation. I know it seems trivial to most people, but anyone who has really been an infantryman, not the kind in the movies, knows the importance of personal hygiene – and the dangers of ignoring personal hygiene.

    From reading Beauchamp’s blogs, I get the impression that the little weasel heard some stories in the latrine while he was pounding his pathetic little pecker, blew them out of proportion and then marketed them to The New Republic – which swallowed them hook, line and sinker. I guess it’s not really their fault since they wouldn’t know a track pad from shit-on-a-shingle, what with them being a bunch of chickenshit civilian pussies and all.

    Even if it did happen, and I have absolutely no reason to think that any of these shithouse rumors did happen, it shouldn’t reflect on the outstanding work that all of the other guys who have the misfortune to serve with a lying sack of dung. Heck, I served in the same division as Timothy McVeigh in Desert Storm – doesn’t mean that I’m probably going to blow up a federal building, does it?

    This mealy-mouthed little pussy will get reamed by his First Sergeant and Platoon Sergeant real well – reamed so well that you could drive an Abrams up his ass before they’re through and the truth will then come out. But the damage to our troops’ reputations has already been done – which all The New Republic wanted to do anyway – all we can do is work to repair that damage.

    Hey Alpha Company 1-18th Infantry – the beer’s on me when ya’all get to DC. Count on it.

    UPDATED: Little Green Footballs and Ace of Spades have circumstantial evidence that Beauchamps is connected to The New Republic by marriage.

    UPDATED again: GI Jane at The Foxhole has an email exchange from Beuchamps’ First Sergeant who assures us these stories are false and that Scott Thomas has “other underlying issues”. I get the impression that the boy will end up pushing Schweinfurt to Paris from the front-leaning postion. 

    (Note: GI Jane graciously offered to reproduce the email here, but I’d prefer ya’all give her your traffic – she has a great blog and ya’all deserve to read her stuff in her own house. Thanks.)

  • Sheehan and her tens of tens in DC

    The media has pretty much tossed Cindy Sheehan aside as their “ultimate moral authority” figure on the war against terror. She’s been on a whirlwind tour of the South spreading her ultimate moral authority over everyone who’ll listen. She finally made it to DC yesterday with her tens of tens supporters (about 300, actually) and the best coverage I’ve seen is from the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank;

    As a retiree, Cindy Sheehan was the Michael Jordan of the peace movement.

    “I am going to take whatever I have left and go home,” she announced in her May 29 “resignation letter” as antiwar activist. “Good-bye America.”

    The retirement — and Sheehan’s attempt to “be normal,” as she put it — lasted exactly 34 days. On July 2, she un-retired after hearing that President Bush had commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence. And yesterday, bullhorn in hand, she led a march of demonstrators from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol, where she ended the day by getting arrested.

    Yeah, that’s what did it, Scooter Libby’s pardon. She probably heard in the local Starbucks (where she was panhandling) someone said “Bush can’t do that” and she accepted it as legal advice. Or she just got tired of not being on the nightly news.

    Sheehan then waded into constitutional law, and the little- known mandatory impeachment clause. “Impeachment is not a fringe movement — it is mandated in our Constitution,” she asserted. “Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table. If she takes impeachment off the table, what else will she take off the table — the First Amendment?”

    It’s funny how the Left always finds things that aren’t in the Constitution. There must be a broom closet somewhere of all of the rules the founders didn’t want to clutter up the one-page document and then gave the keys to the industrial-age equivalence of a moonbat who drags out the dusty unknown rules on cue.

    Milbank claims that the Sheehanistas were a bit paranoid;

    …by yesterday Sheehan even thought the planes departing from National Airport were conspiring against her. “They stepped up the air traffic,” she complained as a jet interrupted her speech.

    The paranoid also may have been suspicious about the low-flying military helicopter as the marchers crossed Arlington Memorial Bridge, or the man in the car with U.S. government plates who took pictures of the demonstrators as they reached the Tidal Basin — “for personal use,” he claimed.

    Yup, all of the airlines got together and decided to make their flights all leave while Cindy was speaking to the tens of tens gathered to hear her screech. Be sure to read the whole Milbank article – finally a fair treatment of Sheehan, replete with accounts of counter protesters from Free Republic and Gathering of Eagles.

    Aside from Milbank’s video, I haven’t found any pictures yet.

    But actually, Sheehan’s experience with the Democrats should serve as a warning to all single-issue voters, especially the Republicans (who tend to throw the party under the bus whenever a candidate doesn’t support our particular cause – resulting in eight years of Clinton). Sheehan was an icon of the anti-war Left, and now in the words of Bob Parks of Black and Right, she’s the Paris Hilton of the anti war Left – in just 34 days.

  • Gathering of Eagles in September

    The Gathering of Eagles, whose exploits I’ve photo’d and written about several times, are planning more counter-demonstrations in DC in September. The details aren’t ironed out yet according to their website, but apparently they plan to demonstrate against Congress on September 10th and counter-demonstrate against the ANSWER Coalition of kooks on the 15th.

    You might notice that one of the officers of GOE posted on my latest Sheehan story below and announced the counter-demonstration planned September. I’ve seen the ANSWER posters around town and wondered if the GOE was going to be there, too. Happily, they will.

    In my opinion, these counter-demonstrations are having a real effect on these protesters. If Cindy Sheehan can’t find the intestinal fortitude to drag her body from a car and face the consequences for her traitorous yammering, we’re winning.

    These kooks have continued unanswered for too long, because they appeared to be harmless. But, because no one had the guts to face them (until this year – aside from Free Republic, I mean), we’ve tacitly approved of the rise of idiot punks like the basement-dwelling Black Bloc members.

    I remember in the early seventies when construction workers in New York City climbed down off of the high steel to confront anti-war protesters of the time. That pretty much ended protests of the Viet Nam era. Maybe we can do it again.

    We owe it to the troops in the Middle East.

  • First Army Nurse since Vietnam War killed

    Captain Maria Ines Ortiz was killed in Iraq on the 10th of July according to a Defense Department press release. She was my wife’s close friend and I thought she deserved notice by my readers. She’s the first Army nurse to be killed in action since the Vietnam War. According to the Washington Post, she was killed by cowards firing mortars at the hospital in the Green Zone while she was finishing up her PT session. Also according to the Post;

    At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Ortiz served from 2001 to 2003 as a dialysis nurse, Medical Command officials are considering whether to honor her by naming a building or clinic in her memory.

  • Sheehan begs facists to protect her from Nazis

    COBDanny at Crotchety Old Bastard sent me this story of Mutha Sheehan’s latest attempt at throwing the spotlight on herself;

    At the School of the Assassins in Columbus, GA and in Charlotte, NC, we ran into similar problems: police presence that seemed to be there to foster violence. At both places the neo-Nazi, pro-war fascist group “Gathering of Eagles” came out to mostly try to intimidate us from our mission. At Ft. Benning, after we complained, the police kept them separate from us, but in Charlotte, the police refused saying that the Eagles had their rights to “freedom of speech.” But the Eagles’ freedom of speech has included physical threats against me and actual physical force against kids and women. When the Charlotte police were told this, they said that they couldn’t keep them apart from our group until the Eagles actually did something. So I chose to stay away from the rally rather than going and perhaps cause them to hurt someone else because of my presence. Freedom of speech is one thing, but I don’t believe the First Amendment protects violent speech, especially if it is one of the neocons or their media supporters calling for increased violence in the Middle East.

    I guess we should forgive her for emboldening the Islamofacists who continue to kill our troops – all for the sake of her free speech. And I’m sure calling the Gathering of Eagles Nazis and neocons will certainly make them much less violent, you pustule on the backside of humanity. Oh, did you know your heartthrob, Hugo Chavez, was a graduate of the School of the Americas – dumbass.

    The Gathering of Eagles’ blog tells a different story in Charlotte;

    Sheehan, one of the best-known opponents of the war in Iraq, stayed in her car during the antiwar rally at Bryant Park that drew about 125 people.

    Instead of addressing the crowd — some of her supporters said there was concern about her safety — Sheehan moved to Talley’s Green Grocery in Dilworth.

    In a police memo dated July 19, Capt. Doug Gallant, who reviewed and evaluated the event in Bryant Park, said he was “quite frankly, surprised there have been complaints….”

    The police memo says the 14 officers on hand noticed no displays that violated North Carolina law. One protester began using profanity, the memo says, and an officer asked the person to stop cursing.

    The memo also says that police didn’t have to bring in physical barriers, like bike racks, to keep the groups away from each other. At one point, Sheehan’s security advisor said she had concerns about the Gathering of Eagles, and officers asked the group to move back, creating a buffer of at least 25 feet.

    Imagine that, Sheehan was scared of people who disagree with her. The truth can be frightening, can’t it? It must’ve broken her shriveled little heart to ask the facist police to protect her from the Nazis. It’s been my experience that the Gathering of Eagles guys are law abiding citizens who wouldn’t harm a fly – unless manhandled by the wrong people – true Americans in every sense of the word.

    SWAC Girl has photos and independent reporting on the Charlotte event as does Daily Progress, and the Journal of Civilized Man.

  • Senate Democrats: Victory is not an option

    Yesterday, the Senate Democrats surrendered to the will of the American people, temporarily – pledging to be a yammering pack of goofballs in the Fall, after they’ve rested up from accomplishing nothing this year. From the Wall Street Journal’s David Rogers;

    Senate Democrats abruptly postponed further debate on the Iraq war, betting that time and grass-roots pressure over the August recess will bring them the Republican votes they now lack to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

    I guess hatin’ is hard work for the players. Since they ca’t do the business of the American people, the Democrats are going to let idiots like MoveOn and Code Pink do their job for them according to the Washington Post;

    But Reid’s decision pleased antiwar groups, which have pressed Democrats to bring the war to a close. “I think Senator Reid took an important step toward confronting Republican obstructionism and ending the war,” said Tom Matzzie, a strategist for MoveOn.org.

    Matzzie said his group’s efforts are concentrated on “forcing the entire Republican Party to look over the side of the cliff” at the political consequences of continuing to stand by Bush. Antiwar groups are focused in particular on Senate Republicans up for reelection next year.

    “Ultimately, we end the war by creating a toxic political environment for war supporters like the Republicans in the Senate,” Matzzie said.

    I wonder if Matzzie and the mindless minions of the Left have given a thought to the fact that Congressional Democrats are nearing single-digits in approval rating polls because most Americans don’t like the surrender chatter coming from the Democrats? 

    The Senate [sleepover in-] action took place as a Zogby poll released yesterday showed that 14 percent of likely voters rated Congress’ performance as excellent or good — 20 points below Mr. Bush’s 34 percent and the lowest ever recorded by the pollster.

    Of course not. It’s the Democrats who aren’t listening to the American people inside their echo-chamber. From the Washington Times’ Sean Lengell and Christopher Dolan;

    But Democrats, responding to their anti-war base, vowed to keep applying pressure.

    “We believe that with time, when we come back to this bill as soon as we possibly can, that we’re going to pick up even more support when the American people see who has voted to change course and who did not,” said Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat who authored the measure.

    Added Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat: “We’re not going to stop until we get to 60.”

    See? “Responding to their base” – not “responding to the American people” or “responding to the terrorist threat” – responding to their base. There’s nothing in this that bolsters our national security or makes our soldiers safer – it’s all pure politics. Politics of the anti-American Left.

    And they can stop calling MoveOn.dorks an anti-war group, by the way. they’re an anti-Bush group that grew out of a Clinton defense group. They’re anti-Republican – it’s just that shallow and pointless.

    So all of that bluster the other night got the Senate Democrats one more surrender vote;

    “At the end of this debate, we’re all a little bit weary, but we’re one vote closer to ending this war,” said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat. “Many senators who’ve gone home and said they’re opposed to the war voted to continue the war today. They’ll have to answer to the voters.”
     

    Three other Republicans — Sens. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, critics of the war, and Susan Collins of Maine — voted with 47 Democrats. Miss Collins said she supported providing an up-or-down vote on the measure but did not support the legislation.

    One vote. All of that taxpayer money for 1 stupid vote. From a RINO, no less. If the Democrats are in such a hurry to surrender, they should surrender to common sense for a change.