“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.” – Plato
Our last article was about a politician who used the occasion of a tragic event to attack a political opponent and then indulge in over-heated rhetoric and self-adulation to increase her own exposure in the headlines. Providing aid and comfort to her constituents affected by the tragedy came second. This is ugly behavior by any standard, and especially so for a government official. Not only did it just happen again with a new tragedy, this time it reached a new low. The somber event was the recent combat death of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. The despicable behavior that followed came from Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
Congressman Wilson was riding with the widow of Sgt. Johnson to receive his body when a sympathy phone call came from the President. At least part of the conversation was apparently put on speakerphone, a bit odd given that the essence of the topic is naturally intimate and private. The Congresswoman claimed the President was insensitive and inappropriate with his words, and recounted for the media what she recalled being said. The President immediately responded that the Congresswoman’s retelling was a fabrication, and the situation quickly devolved into a “he said” “she said” frenzy in the headlines.
We aren’t going wade into the debate about what words were actually spoken or how their meaning was interpreted (to our knowledge there is no recording of the conversation). What is not debatable, and is in our minds detestable, is that Congresswoman Wilson chose to speak publicly about this phone call in the immediate context of what was transpiring with Sgt. Johnson’s widow and children. The body had just been brought home and the funeral had not even occurred yet. It is a time of unspeakable grief for the family. Almost instantly, media attention focused squarely on Congresswoman Wilson, which she appeared to revel in, exposing her actions as even more unseemly and obviously calculated. She made no effort at all to return appropriate consideration to the deep loss of a stricken family and instead gleefully inflated her newfound instant of fame to capture even more headlines. While it is true that the President himself and members of his administration were also making headlines by publicly responding to Ms. Wilson, she and she alone started the public fracas and fuels its continuation.
We read up on this Congresswoman, who fiercely opposes the President and is no stranger to theatrics, and asked ourselves one question – were there any words at all the President could have said to the widow which the Congresswoman would have praised or even just deemed good enough to avoid publicly disparaging? It is reasonable to assume that possibility existed at the time of her first public statement. Now however, with the benefit of hindsight, the answer is very clearly no. The evidence came directly from the Congresswoman’s mouth only a few days after the sympathy call when she made the all-too-familiar tired stretch to an accusation of racism and then referred to the White House as “…full of white supremacists…”. It is now obvious that Congresswoman Wilson simply wanted to create an excuse to loudly repeat these over-used terms. Her true intent is exposed. This was a setup from the start. The unfortunate widow and family were used by this Congresswoman willy nilly.
In the midst of Congresswoman Wilson’s accusations came a statement from the Presidents’ Chief of Staff, General Kelly. General Kelly’s son was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan. In a statement, General Kelly expressed his disgust and disbelief that Congresswoman Wilson would take advantage of such a solemn time for the widow and family simply to score political points. That elicited the response from Congresswoman Wilson, in what we suppose is her best grammar, that General Kelly was “…lying on her…”. General Kelly referred to her as an “empty barrel”, and the Congresswoman averred this was a racist slur. “Empty barrel” is a term we hadn’t heard before, but at face value seems to hit the mark precisely, and on investigation, has no ties to racism.
Upon receiving a spot in the news headlines each day, Congresswoman Wilson proclaimed herself a “rockstar”. Her brazen self-aggrandizement renders the whole scenario ever more transparent and disgusting. There is no sacred ground surrounding this circumstance as far as the Congresswoman is concerned. This was a made-to-order crisis that she engineered, exploited and enjoyed. She abused her position as an elected representative and “friend” of Sgt. Johnson’s widow, and milked the circumstances with amoral fervor. Worse, she used her moment of attention to falsely accuse another Gold Star parent (General Kelly), who was rightly appalled at her behavior, of racism and then white supremacy. That this tired and fallacious leftist technique was applied by the Congresswoman in the most sensitive of situations is a vile, robotic and unsophisticated application of the worst her Party has to offer.
Shame on the Congresswoman. She is repulsive and sets the absolute worst kind of example for aspiring young leaders. There are plenty of ways to successfully combat a political opponent, but doing so by exploiting the grief of an innocent family is sickening. There is no place in government for Congresswoman Wilson and the people who voted for her to represent them should think again next year.