Iraq Vets Infiltrate the Republican National Convention carrying signs that Target Senator John McCain’s voting record against United States Veterans. Has Senator McCain been Derelict in his duties towards the troops, as charged in this bold poster statement?
Well, you might say that if you looked at the written record of his constant votes to reduce the taxes of millionaires and at the same time deny home, health and support benefits for our serving troops and this country’s honorable veterans. He dismisses the additional benefits as being “too generous“. There have been multiple accounts of “Town-Hall” style meetings having sour moments when veterans would question Senator McCain’s loyalty to the troops and he would become visibly angry towards the questioner. There is much evidence to suggest that Senator McCain votes party loyalty over the welfare of the troops, siding with President Bush’s wishes and voting the same.
Is that why they call him Grumpy McSame?
I was actually suprised to see the extent of his dismal voting record for our troops and to detail it here, would take up too much space. However I am interested in opinions and links from anyone who has a stake in our US troops. I’ll finish this up with a link and a snip of Senator McCain’s graded voting record.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the country’s largest Iraq veterans’ group, looked at 155 Senate votes since Sept. 11, 2001, on legislation that “affected troops, veterans or military families.” It then awarded each senator a grade by comparing his or her votes to IAVA’s view of what constitutes effective support for active troops, veterans and their families.
No senator received an “A” grade. Thirteen senators — all Democrats — received an “A-.” The worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade granted to a Republican. Obama, for his part, got a B+.
McCain received a “D.”
In fact, IAVA founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff says that “there has been no bigger obstacle to passage of the GI Bill than Senator McCain. Even though he’d now like to claim credit for it, he didn’t even show up.
In 2007, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), after surveying McCain’s votes on healthcare issues for its 1.3 million members, gave him only 20 percent. By contrast, DAV gave 194 Democrats and 7 Republicans a perfect 100 percent. Even by GOP standards, McCain’s performance suffers.
Often times, his is a faithful vote for party above principle. This party-line voting pattern suggests that McCain is a legislative follower — if he bothers to show up at all.
In a 2006 Washington Post column by David Ignatius, McCain described his loyalty to Bush as being so profound that he said he wouldn’t rule out giving up his Senate seat to become secretary of defense if Donald Rumsfeld were to leave.
“I would have to assess where I can be most effective,” said McCain. “It’s awfully hard to say no to the president of the United States.”
McCain’s record makes that abundantly clear.
Senator McCain has also been accused of prolonging the Iraq Occupation.
Duh! Actually thanks for the info, the record needs to get out there on all these candidates and the legislative records compiled by these advocacy groups is an excellent way to do it. A few well written speeches can’t erase eight years of legislative record.
One paragraph of yours got me though because in my mind it makes the situation we find ourselves in look like something other than what it really is. You wrote above: “Often times, his is a faithful vote for party above principle. This party-line voting pattern suggests that McCain is a legislative follower — if he bothers to show up at all.” The way it looked to me there was absolute iron-fisted party control of all Republican votes since Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’, not “often times” Republican votes. McCain’s record might not be as perfect as Rohrabacher’s but on every issue where they needed his vote I’ll bet McCain voted the way the party wanted.
Lets see both candidate’s record on the legislative issues that contributed to enhanced oil companies profits and rising gas prices, or to rising health care costs and big Insurance Company and Pharmaceutical Company profits. If there are correlations there then its proof they’ve been screwing us. I for one dont want four more years of the same, four more months is bad enough.
I’ll send you one from the California League of Conservation Voters when I get it.
Do you suppose that this is a cynical attempt by dems to buy the veteran/military vote with benefits we cannot afford – similar to the way they buy the minority vote ??
Anonyms #1
In regard to the snip in question, I tried to make it appear that it was part of the original article in “quote” form/tan color box. Maybe the author was using caution and didn’t want to come across as absolute and diminish their credibility in any way. From what I read up on, McCain is a party loyalist and I never saw any indication that he took up any veteran causes in the face of his party’s votes.
I know that there was dissent from troops about McCain, but I never knew the extent of it. What caught my attention was the boldness of veterans who got their signage past security to protest McCain during the convention. I heard the convention being disrupted several times, as well. It didn’t take long to find the convention pictures and the amount of information put out by military support groups is enormous and is very damning of McCain’s actions in the legislature.
NOW I understand his stance on the military and war. It basically HAS BEEN all about him. There is nothing new or generous or fiduciary in his approach to our current troops. That he was one of the most vocal to put our young men and women in the US service into harm’s way, all the while treating them as stingy as possible, is deplorable. He should be ashamed of himself.
Now I understand why security has been so agressive during the convention. He is widely hated. And some of those haters know how to use weapons by trade.
#2 anon,
I don’t know what you are implying. Can you provide a link?
Red,
I am not implying anything. I am stating flat out that dems are initiating legislation which would provide exorbitant benefits – benefits which most vets are not asking for – in a cynical attempt to make McCain appear to not support the military and veterans.
The following Gallup poll information should convince you that our military and vets are not as stupid as the dems think they are – they solidly back McCain.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/109654/Veterans-Solidly-Back-McCain.aspx
#5
Have you been to a VA hospital lately? They are a little underfunded.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2678859&page=1
Okay, make that a lot underfunded.
#5
Per your link,
McCain clearly holds an advantage over Obama among veterans, but that is probably due more to the fact that veterans tend to be Republicans than to the fact that McCain himself served in the military and is regarded by some as a war hero. Veterans showed similarly strong support for Bush in the 2004 presidential election. The data suggest there still is an effect of military service on candidate preference, but it is rather small and is overwhelmed by the effects of party affiliation.
We’ll see if any of them change their minds in the next couple of months. the poll you posted was last month. Thanks for the link.
no_vaseline,
I have read the stories about the wounded returning troops having to pay for their room/board in the VA and being charged for “lost” equipment like their shredded helmets and their flak jakets left in the field.
Obama penned legislation to give “Homes for Heroes” – affordable housing for returning troops. McCain voted against that.
I recall there was published an accounting of active duty military contributions for the Presidential race… gads, is that possible?
http://thespinfactor.com/thetruth/2007/07/17/ron-paul-leads-all-08-candidates-with-one-third-of-military-contributions-for-q2/
from the primary (July):
Ron Paul currently has more cash-on-hand than John McCain this quarter, and this new information is indicative of Ron Paul’s success. It appears that our soldiers and war veterans have an affinity to, or inclination for Ron Paul’s non-intervention principle – defending our homeland and pursuing terrorists, but no nation-building.
Military contributions for Q2
Ron Paul 26.23%
Barack Obama 24.02%
John McCain 18.31%
Hillary Clinton 11.08%
From September:
http://www.opensecrets.org/capital_eye/inside.php?ID=300
A sharp increase in contributions from the military to Democrats suggests the Republican commander-in-chief and his party are losing the troops’ support.
Assessed favorably this week by the war’s lead general, the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq appears to be causing a surge of another sort—and one that’s not positive for President Bush or the Republican Party. Since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, members of the U.S. military have dramatically increased their political contributions to Democrats, marching sharply away from the party they’ve long supported. In the 2002 election cycle, the last full cycle before the war began, Democrats received a mere 23 percent of military members’ contributions.* So far this year, 40 percent of military money has gone to Democrats for Congress and president, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Anti-war presidential candidates Barack Obama and Ron Paul are the top recipients of military money.
“People are saying now enough is enough,” said Lt. Col. Joyce Griggs, an intelligence officer who said she spent two months in Baghdad earlier this year, speaking for herself and not the Army. “If you’re a soldier, you’re going to do your job, do what you’re commanded to do. But that sentiment is wide and deep…”
ALSO http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3601542
Obama, Paul net most military workers’ campaign donations…
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Ron Paul have little in common politically, except their opposition to the Iraq war.
Both top a new list of presidential candidates receiving campaign contributions from people who work for the four branches of the military and National Guard, according to a study released Thursday by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Obama, an Illinois senator, brought in more donations from this group than any White House contender from either party. The Democrat announced Wednesday his plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2008.
Paul, a Texas congressman and the only GOP presidential hopeful who supports an immediate troop withdrawal, comes in second.
“Paul and Obama are talking straight to soldiers, and what they are saying is resonating,” said Larnell Exum, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, who gave $500 to Obama. Exum, who works for the Army as a congressional liaison, is a Democrat but voted for George Bush in 1992.
The center tallied money from donors who list the Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy and National Guard as an employer. Overall, these donations are miniscule: Obama got 44 contributions worth about $27,000 and Paul 23 for about $19,300. Republican John McCain, an Iraq war supporter and Vietnam prisoner of war, was third with about $18,500 from 32 donors…
I don’t find anything more recent. The fact that it was Paul along with Obama means the deciding factor was not so much the veterans’ benefits we’re discussing here as the wanting-to-end-this-stoopid war.
I have seen a documentary about how this BUSH/McCain VA handles some of the SEVERELY injured Vets—two of whom had LOST half of their brain!!!! who were discharged back to their PARENTS from Walter Reed.
No way to treat our Vets!!!
McCain is swift to send troops to wherever HE wants to fight and wage war and MIGHTY SLOW on providing for the ongoing treatment which they so richly deserve. Indeed McCain was quick to express wishes to expand our military in order to invade Georgia, in the former USSR!
Some continually throw up, to those who will listen, McCain’s history as a POW. As we have witnessed on TV, McCain himself will continually remind anyone within earshot that he was a “POW” despite the fact that when he was in prison he earned a new nickname…”PW Songbird”…for going against all that he was taught to do if captured.
He spent soooo long in captivity, and requested that the Vietnam Government SEAL his records while imprisoned (on a visit to Vietnam in 1993), that it really makes on wonder if our candidate is not Manchurian!!
What a LAME excuse that he can’t use a keyboard!!! This is how Americans want their Chief of the Armed Forces, etc., to quickly respond to ongoing situations??? To have Mrs McCain do his keyboarding for him??? What an excuse for a world leader!
Again he only pays attention to matters that suit him—-apparently his attendance record in the Senate is 40-45%. Perhaps he should be paid and credited on the basis of his attendance. That would mean that he has only EXPERIENCED tenure in the Senate for LESS THAN 13 years, right?
I imagine that the times he does show up that a big picture of Jack Nicholson appears in the Senate and says…”here’s Johnny!” A real event!