By any other name would smell as sweet

Two Navy ships are coming off the ways with names that are "politically correct" but not culturally correct. In fact, there is quite the outcry. From The Mellow Jihadi:

The USS John Murtha and the USS Cesar Chavez
I try to address all things Navy without stepping over that imaginary line that active-duty should not cross. This is a delicate topic, but we have two ships slated to hit the fleet with controversy over their names. CenTexTim, a Texas blogger and military vet, sent me this email:

Hey NavyOne -
I�d be interested in your thoughts regarding the recent brouhaha about the naming of Navy ships.

What initially brought this to my attention was the naming of a San Antonio-class ship after an individual (John Murtha).

I live near San Antonio, and there was a fair amount of local publicity about the USS San Antonio.

I always thought the theme of ship names was consistent within a given class, so the discrepancy caught my eye.

The Chavez thing seems to be another break with tradition. (Lewis and Clark class ships being named for explorers.)

It�s not so much the controversy about Chavez and Murtha (although I fail to see what either of them have done to deserve the honor of having an United States warship named after them) as it is the break with long-standing naval tradition.

Comments?

The positives of naming the vessels after Chavez and Murtha is that both served in the military. Yet despite this fact, each has glaring downsides.

I would really like to know who -- at heart -- was responsible for these names. The Lewis and Clark class ships are named after explorers and not someone who:

Cesar Chavez recounted his time in the Navy as the worst two years of my life, which is nothing to speak of his probable Communist ties.

Lots of great choices for Hispanic names at the site. As for John-spit-Murtha -- the San Antonio ships are named after American cities and not in-duh-viduals. This has Ray Mabus' taint all over it...