Cleland was a war hero during the Vietnam War. But in the wake of 9/11, Cleland's vote against creating the Department of Homeland Security came back to haunt him. He specifically objected to measures that would give the secretary greater flexibility to hire and fire workers than existing civil service principles allowed.
Chambliss's campaign, then, used this as evidence that Cleland was unpatriotic, and way too soft on national defense. In a campaign commercial, Osama bin Laden's photo was shown followed by a portrait of Cleland--implying that the two were somehow in cahoots, or at least of like minds. Cleland went down to defeat.
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The above quotations are from The Test of our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again, by Gov. Tom Ridge. Click here for other excerpts from The Test of our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again, by Gov. Tom Ridge. Click here for other excerpts by Max Cleland. Click here for a profile of Max Cleland.
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