Racists and rednecks re-elect Murtha! If we can’t kick him out of Congress, can we at least kick him out of the fraternity of Marines?

Long after I left the Corps, I met a young Marine who, upon learning of my service, reminded me that there’s no such thing as a former Marine and then said that there was one widely recognized exception to this maxim: Dan Rather. (That exception probably isn’t valid because it seems Rather never became a Marine.)

So now, let me propose an exception for someone who was actually a Marine: Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), newly re-elected by his constituents even after labeling them racists, then rednecks.

Maybe I don’t have standing to issue this call. Hey, I’ll admit, I wasn’t that good of a Marine, and I never attained the rank that Murtha did. And Murtha’s seen combat, and I never did, so he certainly knows it better than I do.

But Murtha is beyond the pale. I’m not for disowning him because he opposes the war. I’m for disowning him because to further his anti-war cause, he irresponsibly accused Marines of cold-blooded murder so he could use their supposed combat stress as another reason to “redeploy” from Iraq (merrily helped along by MSNBC, of course). Not only has he never apologized, he says he doesn’t regret making the statements, notwithstanding that all but one of the Marines (so far) have been exonerated. (Too bad the Marines weren’t from his district – he apologized for insulting his constituents.)

You want o oppose the war, oppose the war. But don’t do it by defaming Marines.

Am I being unfair? Or does this deplorable conduct pale in comparison to his combined 37 years of active and reserve duty and his visits to wounded servicemen?