by David Safier
Frank Antenori has been known to make callous, violence-laden references to women, and he's famous for his lack of compassion, but Frank's latest gambit in his exploratory campaign for a run against Giffords puts earlier remarks to shame.
The thing is, though, Antenori is a man who knows no shame. He's the kind of guy who brags about lying and cheating while he was in the armed forces, and about his reckless leadership which nearly got his men killed when he was in Iraq.
Here's what Antenori said recently about his possible run for Giffords' seat. He claimed Democrats are exploiting Giffords' recovery to hurt the GOP:
"You are not going to use this strategy for a political purpose and try to keep Republicans out of the race until May. Ain't gonna happen," Antenori said.
How much are Democrats exploiting her injury? Why, they refuse to let the media have access to her while she's recovering from a near-fatal head wound.
"She is cognizant enough to read and comprehend the debt bill and cast a vote but her handlers don’t feel the media should be given access to her, and I don’t know why that is," Antenori said in an interview with The Hill Wednesday night. "It’s creating the legitimate question: Is she able to vigorously represent the district, or was this a one-time deal? Can she do this next term to the same degree of every member of Congress, is she able to continue that level of energy?"
[snip]
"The voters need to make a decision, and how do they do that without information? They can't make an assessment of her ability because her staff have denied access to the media. If she's back, as they claim, why are they still blocking media access to her?" He said. "She is held to a different standard and that's understandable, but it's strange they're going to continue to [shield her from the media]."
The media would be wise to read Antenori's act of self-glorification book, “Roughneck Nine-One: The extraordinary Story of a Special Forces A-Team at War," or at least skim over the less interesting details (most of it) to find places where Antenori reveals himself as a reckless scoundrel.
My favorite part is where Antenori admits to lying and cheating to win a competition during a war game when he was stationed at Fort Bragg. You can read the details in an earlier post. Basically, Frank's crew couldn't get photos of a heavily guarded building when the games were going on, so they sneaked out and took them when the exercise was suspended for a briefing about severe PTSD problems soldiers were experiencing when they returned form Afghanistan.
When his group was praised for their photos,
It was hard to keep a straight face during all this, but we did. We tried to sound humble.
Did he experience even a twinge of remorse for his lying and cheating? Hardly. "When we train with conventional units, they sometimes think we break the rules and cheat," but he liked to think of it as being "tactically creative."
While in Iraq, Antenori's decision not to pull back in the face of enemy fire would have resulted in the annihilation of his men if, by pure chance, an ordinance fired at him hadn't been a dud. Again, instead of showing any remorse, this was just another war story to show what a balls-out guy he is.
There's no telling what the next step in his campaign against Giffords will be.
UPDATE: The Meanie scooped me with his post below. Ron Barber says Gabby will be returning to Congress. Your turn, Frank.