Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland, is one of the Democrats’ big, rising stars. And yesterday the Times delivered an ominous headline about a Bronze Star “he claimed but never received.” The subhed of the article reads: “For years, the Maryland governor has faced questions about whether he had wrongfully said he had a Bronze Star. He insisted no. But an old document proves otherwise.”
Sounds bad, as they say. The feature photo shows Moore looking toward the sky with a mix of contrition and shame. So the article tells us that Moore has long “faced questions” and now the Times has finally found the document that proves Moore’s wrongdoing. That document turns out to be his application for a White House fellowship in 2006 where he said he had received the Bronze Star and combat action badge. But there’s no record of him ever receiving the Bronze Star. Moore spoke to the Times and said it was an honest mistake which he regretted. According to Moore his superior officer told him to include it because he was already submitting the paperwork for the award. “He thought that I earned it and he was already going through the paperwork to process it.”
You have to get all the way down to paragraph fourteen, as TPM reader AG helpfully pointed out to me, until you get this.
General Fenzel, who in 2006 was a lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan, said that Mr. Moore had at first objected to the idea of mentioning the Bronze Star.
The general said he had told Mr. Moore that he and others had approved the medal, that it was appropriate to include in his application and that it would be processed by the time his fellowship began.
“‘You’ve got to include it,’” General Fenzel recalled advising Mr. Moore. “‘If you are selected as a White House fellow, you’re going to be wearing it whenever you’re wearing your uniform.’”
That June, President George W. Bush’s White House announced that Mr. Moore was among the new fellows. His military awards went unmentioned.
General Fenzel, who was a groomsman in Mr. Moore’s wedding, said on Wednesday that he had not known until Mr. Moore told him this week that the governor never received the Bronze Star. General Fenzel said he would resubmit the paperwork so Mr. Moore could be awarded the medal. The Army spokeswoman, Heather Hagan, did not respond to further inquiries about the award.
In other words, Moore’s superior officer told him to include the award because he had already submitted the paperwork for it to be granted. Moore originally objected but finally did so, presumably assuming that receiving was a formality and that he would have it by the time he served as a fellow, if he was chosen, which he was. The guy who told him to include it verifies this and in fact didn’t realize he never received it. It appears the paperwork was lost in the submission process.
This seems like a pretty important part of the story which should at least be mentioned right at the top of the article. Still deeper down in the article there’s this.
General Fenzel said that it had been his idea for Mr. Moore to apply for the White House fellowship and to include the awards for which he had been recommended but had not yet received.
“That was him following the direction of a lieutenant colonel, and he was at the time a first lieutenant,” General Fenzel said. “He was following the advice of a more senior officer.”
General Fenzel said that by “the letter of the absolute law,” the Bronze Star should not have been included on the application. He said that at the time, he had no doubt the award would be approved. “I had never seen it signed by all of the appropriate individuals and then not be processed,” he said.
Mr. Moore said he had never inquired about why he did not receive the Bronze Star he had expected.
“You don’t do that,” he said. “I’m not going in and asking, ‘Well, what about this award or that award?’ I’m grateful that I’m home.”
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after Mr. Moore’s deployment and did not meet him until years later, said it was not uncommon for military award nominations to get lost in processing.
“I don’t know how many times since I’ve retired that I’ve people come to me trying to get an award that they told me that they had been recommended for that they never got,” General McChrystal said in an interview on Thursday.
This has all the looks of oppo the Governor’s adversaries fed the Times. They reported it out. They also found or were shown by Moore’s staff the relevant details. But by that time they’d already invested a lot of time in the resulting headline and didn’t want to lose it.
It’s not quite as bad as yesterday’s Free Beacon clownshow effort accusing Harris of some kind of Stolen McDonalds Valor because she didn’t include her teen summer stint at McDonalds on her post-college professional resumes. But it’s not a lot better.
