Tuesday, June 19th, 2007...4:02 pm
Rataczak - Not a Polish Dish Made From Eggplant
Republican Mahout Randy Pullen blogged that Sen. Harry Reid should step down because of his statements about Gen. Peter Pace. For some reason, Reid is not allowed to say anything bad about the guy in time of war without it causing major damage, but the president can actually have the guy sacked in time of war with negligible effect.
But, let’s step back and take Pullen at face value. Lets buy the premise that you can’t criticize our military leadership in time of war, and elected officials must support their decisions. Given this, I’m expecting a blog post from Pullen criticizing Sen. Jack Harper in the next couple of days.
Here’s what’s going on: the current Adjutant General of the Arizona National Guard is Gen. David Rataczak. Rataczak is up for reappointment before the State Senate. Yes, he’s leading “stateside” forces, but he is responsible for the current guard mission on the border and he is also responsible for making sure that Arizona Guard units are ready for deployment for Afghanistan and Iraq. So, given Pullen’s thesis, our elected officials should support him his reappointment should sail through.
Not so fast.
Rataczak has run afoul of many Republican legislators. In January, they raked him over the coals for the rules of engagement guardsmen are operating under, even accusing men under his command of abandoning their posts (no handwringing posts from Pullen on that one, but his blog wasn’t up yet. I’m sure that’s why).
Most importantly, he irritated Sen. Harper. Harper has been holding up Rataczak’s reappointment hearing. One theory making the rounds is that this pique started when Rataczak opposed a Harper proposal mandating where National Guardsmen could train. Whatever the cause, the session is drawing to an end. If no action is taken on this appointment by the end of the session, the Arizona National Guard will be without an Adjutant General.
Harper is willing to let our guardsmen, their operations on the border and their training missions go leaderless because of the pettiest of political reasons. Like Pace, Rataczak is a war hero with an inspiring story (he’s a general that came up the hard way; he came into the Army as an enlisted man), and deserves at least a hearing from Harper and his cronies.
By the way, why the heck is Tim Bee allowing this to go on?
5 Comments
June 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I agree with all that you said Ted. I mean, I hate the argument that you can’t say a word about peoople in uniform or their performance during a time of war unless you “embolden” the enemy or look like some kind of a traitor. It is the typical language used by Republicans to keep us in wars that even they think are bad ideas.
That said, I think Reid is ineffective and should go. His statements aside, I wonder if he is an effective leader and I also think he has his own ethics problems as well. Nothing much is happening under his leadership on the war, on immigration, and frankly I wonder about anything else.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Reid said that Pace had failed in his duty to update Congress on the war. What is so out of line about that, and how is that giving solace to the enemy. Not to say that Senators haven’t given the enemy solace before though:
Just remember that the day after Bill Clinton launched a missile strike at a meeting of bin Laden and his associates– August 18, 1998 to be exact, eleven days after the African embassy bombings (which missile strike was unsuccessful only because he arrived uncharacteristically early and the meeting was shorter than expected) Republicans jumped all over him for stealing a headline from Monica (which would have been the case pretty much any day in mid-1998). Republican Senator Dan Coats even called on Bill Clinton to resign in a speech on the Senate floor.
Think bin Laden (who until that day had not even been a household name in America) took some solace from that reaction?
I love it when Republicans go after Democrats when they have done the same thing, and far worse.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Actually, you are wrong. The State Guard will not be without a leader if he is not reconfirmed this session. He is allowed to finish out his term, which I beleive would end sometime in the winter (I want to say December).
June 20th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Kyle is correct that the TAG will not be let go at the end of this session. ARS 38-211 is bit confusing as it’s unclear whether the TAG’s extension expires April 2008 or December 2007.
SB 1003, which is scheduled for a hearing, COW and 3rd read in the House, today, clarifies that a nominee can serve one year beyond their expiration date, if the Senate does not confirm. So, if this passes, the TAG would be guaranteed to serve until April 2008, if Harper and Bee continue to play games.
One would think that a person, who is considering a run for a Congressional seat along the border, would want to support the military leader working to protect his potential CD-8 constituents along the border.
December 23rd, 2007 at 10:56 am
[…] months is about to come to a boil. You may remember that at the beginning of the summer there was a dispute over the reappointment of Arizona’s National Guard Adjutant General, General David Rataczak. Senator Jack Harper, Chariman of the Goverment Committee, refused to […]
Leave a Reply