| Back a few weeks ago Talking Points Memo and America Blog pointed out that Rep. Marilyn Musgrave was misusing uniformed military personel at political events, and that according to military rules that is a big no no. Apparently, the effort to use uniformed soldiers was started at the behest of the White House.
A kerfluffle resulted from these accusations of Republicans using military personal for partisan gain, and as a result the Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld, issued renewed orders on March 14th barring active duty soldiers from participating in partisan political events in uniform. Here's part of the rule from TPM:
For instance, one directive states that active duty personnel may "Attend partisan and nonpartisan political meetings, rallies, or conventions as a spectator when not in uniform." They may not "Participate in partisan political management, campaigns, or conventions (unless attending a convention as a spectator when not in uniform)."
The directive is pretty clear, and is intended to ensure that the military in the United States in non-partisan and as free of political pressure as possible.
Well, looking for Junior's phone number earlier today I noticed this picture below from Tom Kean Jr.'s campaign web site:
You can clearly see what appears to be a person in a military uniform speaking at a podium at what is captioned as the Union County Republican Convention where Junior was endorsed by the county GOP, and Junior and Assemblyman Eric Munoz, M.D. looking on. In this angle, you can also see Rep. Mike Feguson.
The date is four days after Rumsfeld re-issued the orders regarding military personnel and partisan political events.
Now, I don't know who that guy in the uniform is. It's possible that he is a hunter or some other non-military person. If so, however, that seems like strange garb to wear to a county political nominating convention. |
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