John McCain: "Get out of here, you low-life scum.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee was preparing to hear testimony from three super-annuated former Secretaries of State when the proceeding was rudely disrupted by Code Pink.  The self proclaimed "peace and social justice" NGO dedicated to protest all US wars through obnoxious grandstanding sought to make a citizens arrest of 91 year old Henry Kissinger.  Kissinger was President Richard Nixon's (and later President Gerald Ford's) National Security Adviser and Secretary of State .

It does not seem like the Capitol Police were prepared for the street theater in Senate hearing rooms, as the pink protesters were at first escorted to the back of the room.  When they continued to agitate, Chairman John McCain decried their lack of decorum and bid a rude adieu to the ideologically addled agitators. The Chairman's ire might have been aided by his memory of spending five and a half years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. 

What was truly outstanding was former Reagan Secretary of State George Schultz's response to the ruckus.  The 94 year old diplomat stood up to confront Code Pink and then declared:  “I salute Henry Kissinger for his many contributions to peace and security.” This led to a standing ovation which drown out the progressive protesters. 

It was curious that Code Pink wanted to refight the Vietnam war nearly 40 years after the fall of Saigon.  If they wanted to confront a Secretary of State present with a more recent war record, they could have gone after Clinton's second Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who was at the helm at Foggy Bottom during the NATO bombings in Serbia during the Spring of 1999.  

Ironically, Code Pink staged this protest the same day the secret tapes of Congressmen and the Pentagon communicating with Libyan officials in order to  sidestep the warmongering strategy  of  Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who led America into what was deemed  an unnecessary war in Libya.  Was that really practicing "Smart Power"? 

But progressives have different rules for Democrats and it is dubious if these anti-war agitators would challenge their comrades.