VoteVets: The Queens of Astroturfing

OK, that was unjust. Or, atleast unfair to astroturf, which as we all know is quite useful in the back of an El Camino.

The other day on Uncle Jimbo and Bells’ radio power hour I talked about the continuum of left wing veterans groups. I stated then that the furthest to the center was IAVA, and the lunatic fringe was IVAW and VetPac. I’ve discussed all of them but hadn’t had good reason to discuss VoteVets until today.

Of all the groups, this one I despise the most. Because they have no integrity or honor whatsoever. This is how they declare themselves:

VoteVets Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization which primarily focuses on nonpartisan education and advocacy on behalf veterans and their families. VoteVets Political Action Committee is a federal political committee which primarily helps elect Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran candidates and educates about veterans and military issues aimed at influencing the outcome of the next election…VoteVets.org PAC has three primary goals: Elect Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans to public office – regardless of party….

First off, let me address their dishonesty. This is an ad that VoteVets is running against Elizabeth Dole in NC.

Now, if you think you’ve seen this ad before, you probably have.  It is the exact same one they ran against several Republican Senators in the last election.  Only, there is one change.  In the original ads, VoteVets made the demonstrably ridiculous statement that the first vest was left over from Vietnam, despite not being made until the 1980’s.  Which, as memory serves, was after the Vietnam War.  Kudos to VoteVets for taking that steaming pile of [IVAW] out of their ad.

But, the votes cited are NOT accurate.  Not even a little.  Don’t believe TSO, look at what Factcheck.org has to say:

However much Soltz [Grand Dragon of the VV] may wish there had been “a very clear vote in Congress” on body armor, there wasn’t.

Nothing in his two-page memo changes the fact that body armor was not mentioned in the amendment in question, or in the debate. If any senator thought this was a vote about body armor, they were strangely silent at the time.

Most importantly, Soltz simply misstates history when says; “Eventually, Congress did appropriate funds in October of 2003, and shortly thereafter, body armor started to make its way to the troops in Iraq.” In fact, as we have shown, body armor was making its way to Iraq months before that, using existing funds.

As the Government Accountability Office reported, when the Landrieu amendment came up in March 2003 the Pentagon had already increased its orders for body armor roughly 10-fold and was buying it as fast as suppliers could produce it. Approving Sen. Landrieu’s amendment could not, therefore, have called forth a single additional vest or ceramic plate.

The anti-Dole ad is the same crap they served out of mermites during the last election.

Now look at their Bi-Partisanship. Here is the list of their candidates, find the Republican. I’ll wait. Go, go find the GOP. No? OK, well it would be easier to find Waldo on that page that a Republican. It would be easier to find the Pope in a Hungarian Brothel than finding a GOP guy on that page.

But, let’s say they found one. How would they raise money for this person? (Mind you, that would be like debating what type of lens to use when filming a hippogryph.) Well, they certainly wouldn’t raise money for this phantasm the same way they do for the rest of their candidates, since they use ActBlue to raise their funds. (Is this not reminiscent of IAVA using DIA?)

ActBlue is the nation’s largest source of funds for Democrats. Launched in 2004, ActBlue created and deployed the next generation of online fundraising tools, enabling individuals and groups to raise money for the Democratic candidates and committees of their choice at www.actblue.com. In four years, ActBlue has sent more than $76 million to some 3200 candidates and committees from more than 420,000 donors, with a median contribution of only fifty dollars, doing as much to ensure a sustainable Democratic future as any other player in the field.

Interesting choice of fund raiser for a group engaging in “nonpartisan education and advocacy on behalf veterans and their families” is it not?

This is only Part I of a many part expose on VoteVets.

Category: Politics