Q: Donald Trump’s latest outburst, denouncing Sen. John McCain for war heroics, brings to mind one of Georgia’s Republican senators who ostracized Max Cleland. Did any Republicans come to Cleland’s support?
—Eldridge Holland, Atlanta
A: McCain and Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel were among the Republicans who came to Cleland's defense in the 2002 U.S. Senate election, when the Vietnam War veteran was accused of not being "committed to national security," the New York Times wrote.
McCain and Hagel, who went on to become the secretary of defense for two years, also are Vietnam vets.
Cleland, who lost part of his right arm and both legs in a grenade explosion in 1968, was the Democratic incumbent running for re-election to the Senate against Saxby Chambliss, a Republican congressman at the time.
A Chambliss TV ad showing photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein stated that Cleland had voted against President George W. Bush on matters of domestic security.
“I’d never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield — it’s worse than disgraceful. It’s reprehensible,” McCain later said.
Chambliss won the election 52.8 percent to Cleland’s 45.9 percent and served in the Senate until January 2015.
“If Cleland had won, you’d never have heard a thing about it,” Chambliss told Politico in 2008. “That ad is so mild compared to the ads I’ve seen in campaign after campaign since 2002. Plus, the ad was truthful.”
McCain campaigned for Chambliss in Georgia in 2008.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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