Barbara Boxer: “This is one where General Zinni, who criticized the war in Iraq, said, ``I have been called a traitor and a turncoat for…”

“This is one where General Zinni, who criticized the war in Iraq, said, ``I have been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things.'' Outrageous--because he spoke out against the war in Iraq. Then you have retired General Batiste, who lashed out on the war and says he gets e-mails with the heading, ``Traitor.'' My friend from Texas is taking one example, attacking an organization that he doesn't agree with--I am sure of that--and we are going to be pretty busy in the Senate if we turn into the ad police. When Senator Cleland was attacked we didn't have a resolution on the floor of the Senate. When Senator Kerry was attacked we didn't do it. When General Batiste was attacked we didn't do it. For General Zinni we didn't do it. We did speak out, and we did speak out about the ad, all of us on both sides of the aisle, that attacked General Petraeus. But we didn't have a resolution all these times. Suddenly, now, a political organization is attacked by name in a resolution in something that reminds me of the old, bad days in America when organizations were attacked by the Government. So what we have done is we have written this. I thank Senators Levin and Reid and Durbin and other Senators who believe what we see is a trend to attack heroes. We say it is wrong. We don't go after one organization. We say it is wrong. Let me show you the Max Cleland ad. We have the picture of Max Cleland in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.”