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Democrats who opposed Vietnam were draft dodgers, and those who oppose the Iraq War are unpatriotic and are rooting for the terrorists if you listen to the right wing noise machine. Just like Dick Cheney, who had “other priorities” at the time of the Vietnam War, Rudy Giuliani has his own euphemism. The Examiner reports:

“Any suggestion that he was dodging the draft is totally, factually inaccurate,” said a senior Giuliani campaign adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “He opposed the war on tactical and strategic grounds.”

They speculate that this could be a political liability running against John McCain:

Still, Giuliani has always been politically sensitive to the issue. During his 1993 mayoral campaign, he commissioned a “vulnerability study” that listed “draft dodger” as one of the epithets that might be hurled against him.

In blunt language, the consultants who prepared the study articulated how adversaries might frame the issue.

“Giuliani received special treatment from a friendly federal judge to avoid military service during the Vietnam war, when thousands of less fortunate people were dying,” they wrote. “Then, as a member of the Justice Department, he hypocritically prosecuted draft dodgers.”

Apparently it’s ok for Republicans to oppose the war but not for Democrats. They compared the political implications for Giuliani to the attacks Kerry received by the Swift Boat Liars. To the conservative mind it is ok for Bush, Cheney, and Giuliani to avoid military service as they limit their attacks to John Kerry:

Swift Boats co-founder John O’Neill said the only reason Vietnam became a major issue in 2004 was that Kerry kept bringing it up.

“I do think Kerry was a special case,” O’Neill said. “Whatever Rudy Giuliani or the rest of these people did or didn’t do in terms of the Vietnam War, I don’t think that’s a legitimate issue in the presidential campaign of 2008.”

Kerry’s a special case all right. He’s a Democrat, which makes him a target for attacks, even if fictitious, despite the fact that he fought in Vietnam while the Republican heroes did not.