Kerry staffer to deploy to Iraq. Will Rush call him a "phony soldier" too?

Many of us have been lamenting the fact that when Republicans are caught dissing the troops (Boehner's "Small price" and Rush's "Phony soldiers"), the MSM explain these outrageous comments away (see CNN and the AP, respectively).  Meanwhile, the Democrats get skewered for weeks for something as simple and explainable as botching a joke.  The acceptance by many journalists and pundits of the Right's narrative that Democrats are anti-military is a media reality; that doesn't make it the reality.  The truth is Democrats oftentimes are the troops, and critics of the war are vets.  We all know that Senator Webb's son Jimmy went and fought in Ramadi as a Marine, and I am sure many of you know that Joe Biden's son will be deployed to Iraq this spring.  We can now add to that list Setti Warren, John Kerry's Massachusetts deputy director as well as Kerry's trip director in the 2004 presidential campaign, who will deploy to Iraq at the end of the month as a Navy Intelligence Officer.
The Boston Herald, well known as a right leaning newspaper in Massachusetts, reported the news of Warren's impending deployment to Iraq today:

At the dawn of this endless presidential campaign, Sen. John Kerry announced he would not join the scrum of candidates - primarily because he wanted to focus his energy on forging some rational conclusion to the bloodshed in Iraq.

Not incidentally, in a couple of weeks, Kerry will bid farewell to Setti Warren, the deputy director of his Massachusetts office, who is leaving to spend the next year in Iraq as a Navy intelligence officer.

If you go to the link, many of you will recognize Setti from Alexandra Pelosi's film "Diary of a Political Tourist" when he served as the Trip Director for then presidential candidate John Kerry. He wrote this fun, light piece for the Washington Post , explaining his job during the campaign and the difficulties of keeping a candidate on schedule:

The candidate always wants to go off the schedule. Just the other day, we were driving from one event to the next, and the candidate says, "I want to stop and get ice cream." Now it's not like the senator can just make a quick run for a cone. I mean, all of us would have to pull in, and then there's the chance that someone would see him and want to talk, and so there we'd be stuck at a roadside ice cream shop. But we had a little bit of time in the schedule, so I said, "Sure." He got two scoops. See what I mean about being the bad guy? Do you want to tell your boss that he can't stop and get some ice cream?

Setti Warren is more than just a staffer for Senator Kerry.  They are good friends and have a history that goes back a long time:

I met Senator Kerry when I was 14, in Massachusetts. At Boston College, I ran Students for Kerry in 1990 and one time spent at least four days working on a speech before he came to campus. Big moment came, and I introduced him as John F. Kennedy. Everyone fell silent. But Kerry came up and gave me an enormous hug. I think I've been committed to him ever since.

Another story I enjoyed about Setti Warren was a romance that developed during the presidential campaign which blossomed into true love and marriage in 2006:

Elizabeth Tasker Plummer, a daughter of Janet M. Plummer of Andover, N.H., and C. Randall Plummer of Washington, was married yesterday to Setti David Warren, the son of Elpedia Lopez and Joseph D. Warren, both of Falmouth, Mass. The Rev. Nancy S. Donnelly, a Presbyterian minister, officiated at Saltwater Farm in Tenants Harbor, Me.

...

The couple met during Mr. Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, when she was working on the senator's advance team and Mr. Warren was his trip director. Mr. Kerry was a groomsman at the wedding.

What struck me about this Herald article is how Setti joins a "long line" of Kerry staffers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This completely defies everything the Right has been saying.  In fact, I think they would just sit in disbelief to know how much more Kerry's own people have contributed to the actual fighting in the Iraq War than the 101st keyboarding division, who think it's World War Three, ever will.

Warren, 37, is just the latest in a long line of Kerry staffers who are presently stationed, or have served, in Iraq. Kerry's scheduler, Jackie Kohn, is on the front lines for the second time, serving in a combat support hospital unit.

Brady Van Engelen, Kerry's adviser on veterans affairs, was a platoon leader with the "Tombraiders" of the 1st Armored Division. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart and spent the better part of a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center coming back from a head wound.

At a time when we tend to reach for the nearest stereotype and hide behind red or blue banners, Setti Warren goes off to war calling his boss, an impassioned critic of the current strategy in Iraq, "a true patriot."

"He's let me know how proud he is of what I'm doing," said Warren, who joined the Naval Reserve back in 2003, about the same time he signed on as a trip director with the Kerry for President campaign.

It is always a time for grave concern when you know of someone who is about to ship off to war. I had my own first hand experience with that, when confronted with the fact that I was on the same flight as Iraq bound reservists from Washington state.  As usual, I am humbled by those who choose to serve our country in the military, and want to thank Setti Warren for being one of them.  He ships off to Iraq at the end of the month.  May he return home safely.

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