What are the odds that all these liberals 'cheated' the system?

Today, "Wicked Witch of the Right" Ann Coulter in her column attacked John Murtha's military record.

Murtha, a retired U.S. Marine colonel who served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, received the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. Coulter questioned Murtha's medals, writing that he "refuses to release his medical records showing he was entitled to his two Purple Hearts."

Of course he hasn't released his medical records. No one has even asked him to. And why is it that the right (correctly, in fact) defends Rush Limbaugh's medical records as 'confidential' between he and his doctor, even in a case where Limbaugh has been accused of a crime and the records are relevant in determining whether a crime was committed, but somehow for a military veteran to consider that they are confidential (really, would YOU want your medical history published in the newspaper) proves something is wrong with them?

Let's not forget that it was Coulter, who last year wrote that triple amputee and former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, who earned a silver star and a bronze star in Vietnam, lost his limbs while playing with a hand grenade while drinking. Of course, as has been widely reported, Cleland lost his limbs while picking up a hand grenade dropped by a fellow soldier while they were disembarking from a helicopter during a mission. But the truth never matters to smear miesters like Coulter (whose outright lies are listened to by millions several times a week on Fox News).

Of course, this is nothing new for the right. We all remember the Swift Boat ads about John Kerry. The right also went after retired four star general Wes Clark last year when he first entered the Presidential race, (remember the term, coined by Peggy Noonan, 'apple-polishing operator who abused the chain of command,' implying that he didn't deserve his rank).

If nothing else, one would hope that thinking conservatives (and no, that isn't an oxymoron, I know quite a few) would wake up to these kinds of attacks and question whether it even makes sense, just according to the law of averages, that SO MANY liberals who were decorated in the military and therefore spoke with some influence about military matters, in fact didn't deserve the medals, promotions or other honors they were awarded. If that were true, then the system would be rotten to the core (meaning that all medals and promotions would be called into question). The other case is that people like Coulter are flat out liars and not ashamed to say or imply anything about anybody.