Tag: murray

Democrats moving to distance themselves from Obama’s veterans policy.

There’s been quite the flareup over the disastrous Shineski comments on potential changes in veteran policy, and the Democrats in Congress have wasted no time in distancing themselves from the administration on this one. As just one example, we have Senator James Webb*: when contacted regarding the recent CNN article indicating the possibility of a “controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance,” Webb’s office provided this response from the Senator: “Treatment for service-connected injuries is clearly within the responsibility of the U.S. government through the Department of Veterans Affairs—period.” This statement to RedState is a duplicate of the statement also made to the Huffington Post; the story there also mentions a letter being put together by House Democrats opposing any such change. Very, very, loudly, and to anyone who will listen.

It’s become increasingly obvious that the administration’s tin ear when it comes to dealing with groups not inclined to be forgiving about it remains in full force. They haven’t gotten any faster at correcting their mistakes, either: Obama’s profoundly unsuccessful meeting with American Legion President David Rehbein should have been resolved yesterday, not tomorrow. Assuming that it will be: it’s possible that Obama will try an I-won and a flash of the charisma that he does not, in point of fact, actually have.

No, really. Bill Clinton would have had Rehbein walking out of there all smiles in the first place. For that matter, so would have George W Bush; but then, Bush had the advantage of being a Republican.

Moe Lane

*I’ve also contacted Senator Patty Murray’s office, but they haven’t gotten back to me yet.

Crossposted to RedState.

Murray (D) fattener to Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt bill blocked.

The final vote on the amendment – which would give 25 billion for supposed infrastructure renovations, while not defunding, say, a $30 million public parking garage in Auburn WA that’s going to benefit private transport providers – got shot down 58-39-02. This was a party-line vote: we picked up Landrieu, they got Bond and Specter, and Kennedy and Gregg sat it out (Kennedy is of course gravely ill these days, and Gregg’s the logical choice to sit out the vote in response). They needed 60.

Please note that Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) all voted with the rest of the Republican caucus. This is no guarantee that they will continue to do so, of course, although the bill is highly unpopular as-is. But it should be noted that so far they have been voting against spending more of your money.

They also voted to strip out the provision giving Hollywood some of your money, too. Although that one was bipartisan… which is to say, something like 14 Democrats scrambled to vote with us on that one and Vitter unaccountably voted for it. Maybe his finger slipped.

Crossposted at RedState.