VFW’s odd scorecard

First off; I’m a life member of the VFW and I have been since I retired, but this has me a bit confused.

I’ve been asked a few times to write a bit about the VFW’s 2008 scorecard for voters interested in veterans’ issues. I’ve found it to be a bit odd. Of course, I’m not the only one. Pete Hegseth writes “Someone tell the VFW PAC what VFW stands for” when he discovers that the VFW PAC endorsed John Murtha, a phony veteran who supports only himself, his cronies and his family, over William Russell, a real veteran who supports veterans.

Now, based on Murtha’s vote on the new GI Bill, that might provide cover for VFW PAC’s choice, since Russell couldn’t vote on that particular issue because he’s not in Congress. However, they support Kiernan Lalor, an Iraq veteran over incumbent John Hall in New York. Hall is a Democrat like Murtha and the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance who voted like Murtha did on the GI Bill. It seems to be a similar race, with similar votes, but the VFW PAC made the opposite choice in that race – which is fine with me since Lalor is an actual veteran and a Republican, but it makes me wonder why the VFW PAC made either choice which seem to conflict.

Our newest friend, Carole Shea-Porter from New Hampshire also got the VFW PAC’s endorsement over Jeb Bradley even though Shea-Porter, as Hegseth points out with Murtha, in direct violation of the VFW’s own Resolution 406, voted against funding the war in Iraq. Here’s the text of that VFW resolution;

In April of this year, the Union Leader, Shea-Porter’s hometown newspaper, reported that Shea-Porter didn’t even wait for General Petraeus to finish his report before she was yapping about withdrawal from Iraq;

Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter should have listened to Gen. David Petraeus when he testified before four congressional committees last week, including the House Armed Services Committee, on which Shea-Porter sits. Alas, they did not.

[…]

Shea-Porter did not even bother issuing a press release. She did tell the Portsmouth Herald, “It sounded like the same tape running again. They try hard, but there’s nothing to report.”

In light of the revelation that Shea-Porter refused to help a Gold Star mother who reached out to her, as we discovered this weekend, how can VFW PAC support her?

I’ve got calls into the VFW PAC, but no answers yet. Apparently the scorecard only appears in the VFW Magazine (I can’t find my copy at the moment in my stack of stuff) but my mole in the VFF writes;

Also, Vets for Freedom PAC is going to be mobilizing in Murtha’s PA-12 and Murphy’s PA-8 this coming weekend, even going door-to-door, to support Bill Russell and Tom Manion.  (And like I said, VFF PAC is already running radio ads for Manion.)

Although it has nothing to do with VFW PAC’s quixotic decision, if you’ve got some time this weekend, go help the VFF out in Pennsylvania. I understand that Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive is leading a black-ops team into the heart of the Murtha insurgency. Apparently, as always with Jimbo, there will be alcohol involved afterwards.

I’ll update this as I get more information.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Bloggers, John Murtha, Liberals suck, Politics, Support the troops