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Thursday, July 10. 2008
Straight Talk About the Maverick
Finally someone has called out Senator John McCain on his poor, poor record on veteran’s issues.After listening to V.A. health care professionals tell me on three separate and unrelated occasions that I was being denied care because I am “not a priority;” and then another health care worker more recently look me in the eye and made sure I understood what she was saying, tell me: “They are making it easier for you to fall through the cracks,” how the candidates stack up on veteran’s issues is a big deal.
Just because a candidate is a veteran — and even has a heroic war record — doesn’t really mean he or she supports veterans — or even the troops currently in the field. So many talk the talk to win elections, but when we examine their records, the opposite is true.
Here’s what’s really bugged me about John McCain and Duncan Hunter, both veterans and both running for president earlier this year. Both of them claim they have these high ratings and records for supporting the troops and veterans, but when you look at the facts — FACTS — not rhetoric, they’ve done more to harm veterans than almost any politician — other than Bush and Cheney.
So, earlier this week, at one of his little town hall meetings — this one in Colorado Springs, CO — McCain recognized a Vietnam vet in the audience and allowed the vet to ask the first question. And the vet’s question: “We haven’t heard an explanation of why you voted against your colleagues’ proposals to increase V.A. health care funding in 2003, 4, 5, 6 and seven when we have veterans coming back from two wars.”
McCain’s response was a complete non-sequitor. He actually called out Senator Jim Webb for not supporting the G.I. Bill which recently passed through Congress — that Senator Webb proposed and Senator McCain didn’t vote on due to a fundraiser.
Did McCain actually think people wouldn’t know the truth of that, especially since it happened so recently? Talk about chutzpah!
And when the vet pressed Senator McCain, he went on to claim, five times, he has received perfect scores from all the various veterans service organizations, like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion and others. And, just to be the a-hole, McCain told the assembled crowd the vet apparently knew something the service organizations don’t.Well, actually, the service organizations do know. They give all the politicians scores for their support of veteran’s issues, or lack thereof. Disabled American Veterans, for instance, provide scores for a whole list of candidates for office all over the U.S. Click Here to see McCain’s voting record since the beginning of Bush’s war in Iraq. Oops … the D.A.V. gives McCain 27.7 % pro vets voting record, which means McCain voted against veterans almost ¾ of the time. Way to support your fellow vets Senator!
Obama, on the other hand, an “elitist” by McCain’s own words (April 14, 2008), who has never been in the military and is rumored to have a plan to gut the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs, has voted in favor of veteran’s issues … 14 out of 16 times, 87.5 %. Well, that’s really a demonstration of Obama’s “dislike” for the military and our veterans.
The Right Wing hate machine would have you believe McCain is a stalwart of support and Obama an agent of our enemies, yet the records of the two senators tells the complete opposite.
There’s this notion that challenging McCain on his voting record and his support for continuing Bush’s war in Iraq indefinitely is somehow besmirching McCain’s heroic record as a Naval Aviator. It isn’t, as General Wesley Clark has been pointing out for months now. What we’re pointing out for all to see is that since the Bush presidency, McCain has marched in lockstep with Bush on every issue, including those that have hurt veterans and our current members of the service.
As for the war itself, McCain wants us to believe he is such a maverick, that he was/is a critic of the war, and yet when we read his true record, he just echoed the administration’s various talking points — until, of course, the tide of public opinion began to turn against Bush and his war. Vote Vets has catalogued some of McCain’s remarks. Click Here, but one of the chestnuts is from Meet the Press March 30, 2003 (after the war had started): “I believe that this conflict is still going to be relatively short.”Not to mention, when it was learned the rapid redeployments to war zones was causing severe psychological and emotional harm to the troops and the Democrats proposed a mandatory minimum downtime between deployments for the troops, McCain voted against that too because voting for the mandatory minimum downtime would have interfered with McCain’s surge.
And remember that when Bush proposed and then started the escalation, McCain took credit for coming up with the idea.
John McCain is a liar of the worst order. Yeah, his military record is heroic, but his record as a legislator, in regards to the troops and our vets, is horrible. If you know any veterans, pass this on to them and then ask them, is Senator John McCain pro veteran?
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