From Allah at Hot Air, who has the Fox News video at his site -- New York Congressman Charlie Rangel spouts off (HT LGF) on why soldiers in our all-volunteer army sign up:

I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.

This follows John Kerry's "botched joke" (horse manure -- we know what he meant, and he hasn't really apologized for anything) and Ohio Governor-elect Ted Strickland's long, painful dissertation on the economic reasons why soldiers enlist and why sons and daughters of official Washington don't (which has the unfortunate characteristic, like so much of what Ted says, of not being true -- also noted as such by fellow blogger NixGuy here).

At what point does one conclude that the demeaning "uneducated soldier with no other choices" myth is a core belief of the party these three men belong to? And when are these people going to be challenged about false statements such as these?

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.