Cartoon Ridicules Combat-Wounded Veteran Congressional Candidate

Originally published, July 17th, at the DC Independent Examiner site.

A few months back I wrote a story about Veterans for Congress, focusing in particular on Marine Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch, who is running for Congress in San Diego’s 51^st district. “Gunny Pop” as he was affectionately known in the Corps, was grievously wounded in the first battle for Fallujah, Iraq, when he was hit in the head by an enemy RPG. Medically retired, he lost one eye and retains 8 percent use in his second eye, only because of the medical staff’s heroic efforts and Nick’s indomitable spirit.

Nick earned the Silver Star for his battlefield bravery and innovation. Nick is also widely recognized as the Cigar Marine, who sat atop his M-1 Abrahams tank triumphantly smoking a cigar while members of his unit helped topple Saddam’s statute when the Marines liberated Baghdad in 2003. He wrote a book about his experiences, Once A Marine, which made the Commandant of the Marine Corps recommended professional reading list for all ranks, won The Military-Writers Book of the Year for 2009, and was a national book club selection.

Contrast this with his Democrat opponent, Bob Filner. One of the most radical leftists in the House of Representatives, Filner is spawn of Joe Filner, one time head of the Pittsburg, PA, Communist Party. (NOTE: thanks go to Trevor Loudon for the Filner profiles, among thousands of entries Loudon has put together for his seminal encyclopedia of the Left,
KeyWiki. Check it out!)

The nuts don’t fall far from the tree. A longtime member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Filner has close ties the Democratic Socialists of America. He has been staining the halls of Congress since 1992, and has been foursquare behind the Obama deliberate trainwreck agenda since his fellow socialist was elected President.

So of course the Democrat majority saw fit to appoint Filner head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Watch this astonishing exchange between Filner and Veterans Affairs Committee Minority Leader, Steve Buyer (R-IN), who has tried repeatedly to get a New Mexico VA medical facility renamed for Medal of Honor winner Jerry Murphy. The uncontroversial bill passed the Senate, but Filner simply refuses to hear it. The reason? A Republican proposed the idea.

Anyway, Nick has made traction against Filner in this approximately 2-1 majority Democrat district.

As someone close to the Popaditch campaign relates:

Imperial Valley (highest unemployment in the nation, large Hispanic population, agricultural, and suffering) has always been a strong spot for Nick’s opponent, incumbent democrat Bob Filner. Nick, however, is Filner’s first real challenger–ever. And he is an everyday Joe who served 16 years in the Marine Corps, earned a Silver Star, commanded a tank, and was critically wounded for his country. And people love him. He walks the agricultural fields, sits in the cafes, and goes door-to-door–waging the kind of aggressive “boots on the ground” campaign a Marine would undertake that Filner never has and never could. And Filner is now losing Imperial Valley.

Can only suspect their editorial slant, but one publication recently made the mistake of ridiculing Nick’s war wounds. The Imperial Valley Press put out a cartoon comparing Nick to, among other things, “Uncle Fester with an eye-patch.”

Big mistake.