The Swift Boating of Juan Garcia: Give To The Texas Trio Today

Gene Seaman is so desparate not to be the next Craddickat sent packing from Austin that he’s already swift boating Juan Garcia:

During an interview about the race for District 32 State Representative, Republican incumbent Gene Seaman tried to shoot down Democratic opponent Juan Garcia’s Naval flight record.

“He’s not a fighter pilot,” Seaman asserted. “He never flew jets, he flew P-3s. He is not a fighter pilot even though he takes his picture behind a jet.”

Garcia did not fly jets, his campaign staff agreed. But he did fly 30 armed missions in the Persian Gulf and served as a top aide to the deputy Commander in Chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe. He also served in Operation Allied Force in Kosovo and on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in support of the enforcement of the no-fly zone in Iraq.

Gene Seaman is simply begging to be contradicted in starting this debate.

First, although Garcia has never (on his campaign site or in his biographical video) called himself a fighter pilot, the P3 isn’t exactly a Cesna, to wit:

Second, if you take a look at the P-3C Orion at left, it looks very much like an aircraft capable of doing a lot. I think it’s safe to say that those white things on the undersides of the wings are some type of missile.

Third, the only significant reference to Garcia being a fighter pilot comes from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the same paper in which Seaman’s swift-boating comments appear. The article is no longer up on the paper’s website that I could find but it is, along with all other media coverage of the campaign, reprinted on Garcia’s website. Retired General Wesley Clark didn’t call Garcia a fighter pilot when he was in the district or when he appeared in Garcia’s bio video. Garcia doesn’t call himself one, either. Some bloggers have refered to Garcia as a fighter pilot (myself included on at least one occasion), but that was likely done because we were referencing MainStream Media coverage, i.e., the CCCT article, which was widely circulated.
Finally, perhaps Seaman would be more satisfied if we just started calling Juan Garcia a “combat pilot.” After all, he did fly in the Persian Gulf and Kosovo—not exactly serene pastoral skies. Or, since the P3 that Seaman is so intent on talking about is, among other things, able to be used as a bomber, perhaps we should call Juan Garcia a bomber pilot.

Seaman’s semantics are just the sort of thing to signal that he is going to do pull garbage like this during the entire race. After all, he just got more money in from Mr. Swift Boater himself, Houston home builder Bob Perry.

Seaman had this to say about the Perry donation:

“Juan Garcia is saying the pilots are backing him,” Seaman said in response to questions about the contribution from Perry. “If the pilots want to back him fine. Why should you pick on me for getting donations from a fellow homebuilder?”

Of course, Seaman probably should have kept his mouth shut about being a homebuilder (since he calls himself a “financial planner” in most other biographies) as it only warranted a closer look at his biography which also notes this:

Seaman has a Master of Science in Financial Services (1977) and a Master of Science in Management (1987) from the American College. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter (C.L.U.) and a Chartered Financial Consultant (Ch.F.C.).

Impressive, Yes? Maybe not so impressive:

For nearly 80 years, The American College has helped financial advisors accelerate and broaden their careers through our many designation, certificate and degree programs. And while we don’t have dorms or sports teams, the quality of our professional education is second to none. Our resident faculty strives to keep curriculum timely and relevant- an especially important challenge given complex changes to tax laws, as just one example. Our distance education programs offer students the ability to access course content in a manner tailored to their individual learning styles. And our staff cares passionately about the success of every student.

The place even takes out Google Ads. Here’s more from Wikipedia:

The campus…consists of five buildings: MDRT Foundation Hall, the main administrative building; the Gregg Conference Center, which houses guests of the College and other local events, including art shows; Mitchell Hall, where many technical aspects of the campus are contained; Myrick Pavillion; and McCahan Hall, out of which grounds operations are run. Another sixth building on the campus, Huebner Hall, now houses employees of Villanova University.

You can find more about Villanova here, which might give some more perspective about The American University.

In the mean time, watch Juan Garcia’s campaign bio video here, and give to the Texas Trio, which includes Juan, Hank Gilbert and Shane Sklar here.

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