Pentagon says: "Now read carefully"

Remember the Larimer County Republican dinner where Marilyn Musgrave stood a couple of uniformed Marines behind her while she launched into a round-peg-meets-square-hole defense of President Bush's failure to keep America secure?

According to AMERICAblog, the Pentagon has "clarified" to the Marines what were already pretty clear regulations:

You'll recall I wrote a few weeks back about how the White House sent out a directive urging Republicans to use our troops for partisan political events.

Well, the Pentagon is apparently not happy about what the the White House is doing, and reissued the rules about troops NOT attending partisan political events in uniform.

And:

The lesson here is that we (well, Josh Marshall was the first to jump on this) just took a political tool away from the White House and the Republicans by simply airing it publicly. It's one small step, but these are the kind of steps that are necessary to to win.

The Coloradoan reports on the AMERICAblog post.

The Marine Corps and the Defense Department appear to be at odds about whether uniformed service members can accept honors at partisan political events such as last month's Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in Fort Collins.

A memorandum prepared for the No. 2 official at the Pentagon, reported Monday by the Web site Americablog.com, said such appearances are forbidden by military regulation.

Says the Deputy Secretary of Defense:

"Members of the armed forces may not attend partisan political events in uniform, even if only as 'honorees.' A sharply limited exception is made to provide armed forces color guards for national-level political conventions," said the March 14 memo to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England from David C.S. Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

Why? Because it's not good for democracy, and it demeans the military to be used as political props. Musgrave's people look pretty ridiculous, claiming:

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., didn't know about the agenda of the Lincoln Day dinner held in Fort Collins where she served as emcee, said Guy Short, her chief of staff.

"The congresswoman is not looking to the military for credentialing of the Republican Party," Short said Monday. " ... It would be her hope that it would be clear the Marine Corps is not supporting a political party."

Clear? Nonsense. Just the opposite. You guys were deliberately muddying the waters to steal the tradition of the Marines, symbolized by their uniforms, to justify bankrupt partisan rhetoric.

Says Angie Paccione:

"I want debates, not distractions," Paccione said. "But at the same time, I hope they learned a lesson."

Hat Tip to TakeBackTheHouse and Josh Marshall.

Update: Given Marilyn Musgrave is pleading ignorance - not knowing any better is no excuse - Pager pokes quite a hole here:

According to Guy Short, Musgrave was unaware of the agenda for the evening. That would be plausible if not for the fact that Nancy Hunter, the Chairman of the Larimer County GOP, is ALSO a staffer for Musgrave in her Loveland office. Either Hunter is an incompetent employee and needs to be fired or Marilyn Musgrave is a liar.

Well, and maybe the Coloradoan could report that connection too. Seems sorta relevant.