McCain Campaign Conference Call On Gen. Wesley Clark's Attacks

"And I was utterly shocked when I saw this yesterday, knowing Clark as I have, that he would in a disrespectful way attack one of his fellow career military officers. I also have served in the Senate with Barack Obama, we have a good friendly relationship, and to the extent that he had knowledge of this, I find it an exercise of poor judgment to allow individual like Clark with the least experience in politics of all of them, trying to come in and do this attack." -- Senator John Warner

U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign held a press conference call launching the McCain Truth Squad to set the record straight about John McCain's military service in the face of recent attacks on his record:

Senator John Warner (R-VA):

Senator John Warner: "Let me start back in 1973, I was Secretary of the Navy under Nixon and then Ford and worked with John McCain when he was released from the prison camps and returned to resume his career in the United States Navy actively. I've also spent the last 17 years as either Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and during that period of time I got to know General Clark quite well, worked with him professionally and actually travelled with him to the Balkans and Kosovo and frankly had a regard for his military capabilities. And I was utterly shocked when I saw this yesterday, knowing Clark as I have, that he would in a disrespectful way attack one of his fellow career military officers. I also have served in the Senate with Barack Obama, we have a good friendly relationship, and to the extent that he had knowledge of this I find it an exercise of poor judgment to allow individual like Clark with t he least experience in politics of all of them, trying to come in and do this attack."
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"As I have said, I have been on this Committee now 30 years and John has been on roughly 20 or a few more. We have been working side by side. I have been in the Oval Office with I think, I just ran a calculation, five presidents when matters of national security were discussed and the president sought the advice of Members of Congress. And I know on one or two of those occasions John McCain was with me. And as I draw on my own experience dealing with the White House many years and been on the Committee, John has gotten experience that Obama simply doesn't have."

Admiral Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, Jr., USN (Ret.):

Admiral Smith: "I have had the honor of knowing Senator McCain for quite some number of years. I think that we met down at Cecil Field when he was beginning his tour in VA 174. I was on my way to a squadron at the time. I can tell you that the squadron he was given, he was assigned to was a very large squadron, a very difficult squadron to command because it had enormous responsibilities with respect to maintenance schedules and training of pilots and enlisted personnel for all of the fleet squadron. I would judge his capabilities based on the product that I got from the replacement training squadron that Senator McCain commanded, he did a spectacular job there. His military experience, rather his leadership experience at that squadron in it of itself is noteworthy. But also in Washington later in Senator McCain's career when he was in the office of Senate Legislative Affairs and I worked with him because I had a job over on the personn el side. I've also watched him on the Senate Armed Services Committee. It is inconceivable to me that anyone would take a shot at Senator McCain's military service or say he lacks any experience because he didn't command troops in wartime. Senator McCain has shown capabilities, a command style that most people envy and General Clark is way off base on this one."

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"What General Clark said was that Senator McCain was untested and untried. Please explain to me what qualifies a person to be untested -- to be tested and tried in General Clark's opinion. Given Senator McCain's experiences all across the board -- as his years of service in the Navy, his years of service in the Congress, on the Senate Armed Services committee. How much more experience do you need to be tested and tried?

The Honorable Robert "Bud" McFarlane:

Bud McFarlane: "It was truly surprising to me. Senator Obama someday may have the good fortune to be able to engage with foreign leaders or to have become as well read as John McCain in history and in national security affairs, but it doesn't exist right now and for General Clark to portray John McCain as somehow unqualified is truly an unworthy comment that is astonishing to me. We couldn't find truly today in contemporary political leadership of our country a better qualified person to lead us in international affairs in solving the rather daunting agenda problems we have to face in the years ahead."

Col. Bud Day, USAF (Ret.), Medal of Honor:

Bud Day: "Going downtown to Hanoi was absolutely the most dangerous enterprise anyone could be involved in, in 1967. It was the most heavily defended city in the world and no one who had been downtown, no one who had been in a Vietnamese prison, no one who fought combat in Vietnam will ever question John McCain's warrior credentials. This backhanded slap against John of not being a worthy warrior because he just got shot down is one of the more surprising insults in my military history."

Lt. Commander Carl Smith, USNR (Ret.)

Carl Smith: "I've known John McCain since 1975. I had the privilege of serving with him in VA 174. I was there the entire time when he was the XO and CO, and I too am shocked and disappointed to see someone of General Clark's stature demean John McCain's service and his performance at that squadron. The truth is his performance was nothing less than extraordinary. He took a squadron that was just pretty much flat lining and mediocre and turned it into an extraordinary success. And he did it through his leadership and it's as simple as that."
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"I find General Clark's comments to be unworthy, unseemly, for someone of his stature. And for a campaign that prides itself on the good judgment of its candidate, I think this reflects extremely bad judgment on the entire organization."

The Honorable Orson Swindle, Lt. Col. USMC (Ret.):

Orson Swindle: "Senator Obama is a good person. No doubt about that. He's inexperienced. Lacks good judgment, in my opinion. But, you know, he's the one that said he was setting high standards. He was running a civil campaign. I would assume that that means those under him would do similarly. You know, what do we want him to do? Number one, he could probably apologize to John McCain for the unsavory and inaccurate and terrible words of General McPeak and General Wes Clark. Those of us on the phone here with you today have God only knows how many decades of experience serving this country. And our service has been characterized by courage, by character, by integrity, by a sense of honor and duty and honesty. We live by that creed, those codes, those characteristics. John McCain is of that mindset. That's what we have done in our careers. What do we expect? We expect courage, character, integrity, honor, loyalty. And we're not seeing it f rom this civil campaign. As several others have said, and I think I said earlier, the comments by General Clark, and for that matter General McPeak, are very unworthy of anyone representing their services, by virtue of their rank. They're playing politics. It's not good. Senator Obama apparently is permitting it. And that's very disappointing."

McCain Spokesman Brian Rogers:

Brian Rogers: "This is not an isolated incident. Anybody who reads Ben Smith's story in the Politico this morning will see that MoveOn.org apparently is involved in this. Many elements on the left are circulating in this stuff. And it is written to the level of acceptability. Tom Harkin's comments a couple of weeks ago, Jay Rockefeller made some comments, as we said McPeak, Ed Shultz calling Senator McCain a 'warmonger.' We need to set the record straight because we understand the impact. And who better to do that than these gentlemen who served with Senator McCain and understand what the truth is and it's really important. It is clear that it is a pattern and if Barack Obama wants to make that part of his campaign that is his right but let's also dispense with the notion that Senator Obama stands for a new kind of politics. It is clear that his words in many cases do not mean very much to him so these pledges about a new kind of politics, changing the discourse, you know let's just dispense with that notion."

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