Barbara BoxTox Is Not My Senator

I am doomed to the circle of Hell in which Toxic Barb Boxer ("BoxTox") is my Senator and will be for at least another five years.

Hugh did a good job today of dissecting her interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, which you can catch up on at Radioblogger. One sentence really got in my craw:

And the president failed to mention the 15,000-plus who are so badly scarred and wounded that their lives will really never be the same.

Of course, it's a lie. Her number includes wounds of the sort John Kerry suffered in Vietnam. The battle wounded are about a tenth BoxTox's number, and those who have lost a limb defending freedom number less than 200. These men and women stood very much in harm's way, and deserve honor -- not being dumped into BoxTox's grossly politicized overcounting exercise.

Here are a few similarly injured veterans, who, in my Senator's mind, were never the same.

Bob Dole was wounded when he tried to rescue a wounded fellow soldier. His life was never the same, as his long, proud legislative history make clear. He also picked up a fine wife along the way.


Malcolm Forbes was wounded at the Battle of Aachen and spent ten months in military hospitals. Once discharged, his life was never the same. He made Forbes into one of the most profitable business publications in America and threw himself one heck of a 70th birthday party.


Charles Walgreen served in the Spanish-American war, even though he was one finger shy of a ten-count. He contracted malaria and yellow fever in Cuba -- just as most of the soldiers BoxTox cited were hospitalized for illnesses, not injuries. His life was never the same. By 1927, he had established 110 Wallgreen's drug stores.