Senator/Captain Commander Mark Kelly.

Ptooey.

I have a long list of differences with Senator Kelly. His entire adult life has been spent telling the world just how different he is from everyone else. He has made himself known as one of the Twins-Who-Became-Navy-Fighter-Pilots-and-Then-NASA-Astronauts. He rarely fails to remind us that he flew 39 combat missions in the Gulf War, and that he commanded a Space Shuttle. Don’t mistake me here….those are accomplishments which he can be proud of….but reminding the world that he has done things that mere mortals could never dream of is not the thing that a modest man would do.

Moreover, his wife was tragically shot and nearly killed. That shouldn’t have happened to anyone’s wife, and certainly not to a politician just doing her job and interacting with her constituents. While I differ with her too, I am thankful that she survived her attack.

However, take a listen at Kelly’s public appearances. Note how many times that he tells you about that combat experience or his time as an astronaut. Pay attention to how often that he mentions his wife and her injuries. [The MSM, always to pull for the Left, will often throw softballs his way here, so that he doesn’t have to do it for himself.]

As a visual example of his constant reminders of his background, take a look at the title image of his Senate webpage. Hmmm. Senator Kelly talking to a couple of A-10 pilots with an A-10 in the background (The A-10 is based at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson.). Do a search for images of Kelly, and note the ones where he is not in a suit, fitting of his position as a Senator. Count how many times that he is wearing a camouflage Navy ball cap. [Here, as an Arizonan with more than a passing experience with skin cancer, I’ll give any bald guy a pass for wearing a hat. My point here is that it is almost always that hat which reminds us that he was in the Navy.]

He uses all this as a shield against criticism. “How dare you question me! I was in combat! I didn’t just fly on a Space Shuttle, I commanded one! My wife was shot!”

FWIW, my complaint here is bi-partisan. I door-knocked for Martha McSally in 2018 when she lost a run for Senate to Krysten Sinema. I did this because I felt that Sinema was hiding her hard-Left roots behind an undeserved reputation as a moderate. But I didn’t care for McSally at all. She too came into public view as the First-Woman-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Then-Became-the-First-Woman-to-Command-a-Fighter-Squadron. She won a suit against the DoD over a policy requiring military women in Saudi Arabia to cover themselves according to Saudi custom when travelling off base. With McSally, it was all Grrrl-Power. But McSally too never ceased to remind you of how she came into your knowledge. [Here, I wave hello to Nancy Mace. She’s cut of the same cloth.]

Make no mistake about Kelly….he is running for President. This whole stunt of, charitably, reminding the troops that they must disobey illegal orders has been designed to put him on the list with Newsome, Harris, Beshear, Shaprio, etc. as a Democratic contender. While he may believe that he was only reminding the troops of their UCMJ responsibilities, I think that he crossed the line and left the implication that they should use their political views to question the direction that President Trump has taken with military and geopolitical matters. He encouraged the breakdown of military good order, and his demotion to Commander and the reduction in his retirement pay is well-deserved. He has brought this on himself.