I had known Max Cleland for three seconds, and he already wanted a hug.

Now, this is not to imply there is something so wonderful about me that I frequently get this treatment, nor was there any special bond between the former Senator who introduced himself as Max. He wanted a hug from everyone.

Being short three of your limbs probably makes one value one's fellow human beings ever so slightly more.

I have to tell you, it was pretty cool to have Max Cleland speaking in my county. I tell people that Max Cleland is one reason I will never, ever become a Republican. (There are a hundred others that have to do with the dangerous policies that party embraces, of course.)

Cleland served in Vietnam, and while in battle, was injured so grievously that he lost his right arm and both legs. Coming home to Georgia, after recovering, he says he decided, "I had no girlfriend, no car, no apartment, no job, no prospects. What a great time to run for the state senate!" Meeting a gubenatorial candidate named Jimmy Carter, Cleland rose to become the Administrator of the Veterans' Administration.

In 1996, Cleland ran for the Senate from Georgia and won. In 2001, following the terrorist attacks, he sponsored the bill creating the Homeland Security administration (for which he apologized last night.) In 2002, he voted to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq.

But in the course of that, he did something that he wasn't supposed to do.

He had the temerity to question the Administration.

And this, they could not put up with.

So, the campaign of Republican Saxby Chambliss ran an ad which opened with showing Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein, and the attacked Cleland for voting against President Bush's Homeland Security bill. It didn't mention that Cleland had sponsored another bill that, as the Washington Post said, "wasn't radically different."

What a class act that Republican party is, eh? You leave three limbs on the battlefield for your country and come back and get to share ad space with Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein.

The ad was so bad Republican Senator Chuck Hagel told the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that if they didn't pull it, he was going to run his own ads denouncing it. The ad was pulled, but Cleland still lost.

So, last night, he was in Ottawa County to talk about citizenship and the war in Iraq. He was as friendly and as folksy as could be, and displayed obvious brilliance and a pretty good eye for the General State of Things Around Here.

On the war in Iraq: "I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends."

On former FEMA head Michael Brown: "Why did we have someone running FEMA who ran a horseman's association? I think we had the wrong end of the horse."

On priorities: "We can't even rebuild New Orleans. So what are we doing in Iraq?"

I get to meet a lot of politicians, all of whom are noteworthy for one reason or another. Cleland was noteworthy because, at the end of the evening, I wanted to be more involved rather than less.