IAVA, VoteVets and AFGE “very excited” about Shinseki

I hope they didn’t mess themselves when they heard about Obama’s choice for VA Director, but Todd Bowers, the governmental affairs director of IAVA, the “nonpartisan” organization that tried to turn veterans and troops away from Republicans with their VERY PARTISAN scorecard for the past election, declared that his band of merry fellows are “very excited”;

“We’re very excited that this type of change is going to be effective at the VA, specifically having someone who will do the right things,” said Todd Bowers, director of government affairs at the nonpartisan veterans group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “Someone who won’t put politics ahead of patriotism.”

President-elect Barack Obama made the announcement in Chicago on Sunday, the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Harking back to World War II, Obama said that when “those troops came home to a grateful nation,” they had support in the form of the GI Bill and “a chance to live out in peace the dreams they had fought for, and so many died for, on the battlefield.” He used the same theme of commitment to veterans in introducing Shinseki.

Yeah, Shinseki won’t put politics ahead of patriotism – which is why he said winning the war in Iraq would take “several hundreds of thousands of troops” when all it took was less than half that many. A guy who hung his hat on black berets for the entire Army and fought the opposition to a win at the expense of his credibility.

VoteVets weighs in;

Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org, commends Shinseki for “always think[ing] ahead to what needs may be down the road,” and not being “afraid to strongly speak his mind to the president of the United States.”

And when an organization like IAVA has an opinion that coincides with that of VoteVets, they really should rethink their position. VoteVets is IVAW with marginally nicer clothes. Need proof? Here’s VoteVets’ Jon Soltz meeting on the tarmac with Vets For Peace/Vietnam Vets Against the War swollen resident fat ass, Bill Perry;

(Photo emailed by an interested reader) Remember Bill Perry? Here he is laying a big wet one on Adam Kokesh in Nassau County a few weeks ago;

Here’s a whole big crowd of them IVAW, VoteVets and VFP/VVAW reps headed off to the airport restrooms to practice their widestances;

Good company you’re keeping, there IAVA and VoteVets. Way to stay nonpartisan.

And the union thugs at the American Federation of Government Employees take the opportunity to prove they can lie, too;

One common trend emerging from many pro-Obama veterans groups, such as VoteVets.org and the American Federation of Government Employees, is praise that Obama is taking a step away from the veterans policies the groups reproached during the current administration. In a statement, the AFGE said that this appointment “represents a clear break from the past eight years in which the Bush Administration sought to dismantle the VA through the use of fee-basis contract care and undercut the agency by continually understaffing and underfunding the agency.”

Yeah, Bush doubled funding to the VA from the previous administration and doubled enrollment in the system, but somehow that’s “dismantling” the VA. FactCheck.org confirmed that four years ago. AFGE doesn’t like veterans – they see us a threat because we step into jobs in the federal government and automatically jeopardize the tenure of some their workers. The AFGE is only interested in government workers who aren’t in the military or veterans – union thugs don’t care about the level of care of veterans receive, they’re only interested in their own jobs and the minimum requirements they need to keep those jobs. They see Shinseki as an asset to them because he’ll take the employees’ side over the veterans.

No? Then you explain it.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Liberals suck, Politics