HAS BUCK McKEON GONE INSANE? OR DOES HE JUST HATE OUR ACTIVE DUTY TROOPS?

Although Robert Rodriguez is one of the most spectacular candidates the Democrats are fielding in 2006, his race has gotten little attention. There are a variety of reasons for that and one is that his entrenched, garden variety rubber stamp Republican has managed to stay very much under the radar since first being elected in 1992, despite having caused quite a bit of damage during his incumbency. Suddenly this month McKeon crawled out from under his rock and started spitting venom in every direction before slithering off again. Russ Feingold worked with Senator Jeffords to get a provision accepted into the Defense Authorization bill to help military families. Predictably, it passed unanimously through the Senate but this week, it was stripped out by Buck McKeon for no reason that anyone, on either side of the aisle, seems to understand.

Feingold was perplexed and majorly pissed off. The provision, he explained, was meant "to help families cope with their day-to-day needs while a loved one is deployed to a combat zone. We owe it to the thousands of military families, who sacrifice so much for our country, to do everything we can to support them while a loved one is bravely serving in our Armed Forces."

When Feingold's proposal was passed it amended the federal government's donated leave program and encouraged-- but did not require-- private-sector businesses to also create flexible leave for people who are carrying for the children of deployed troops. It was meant to assist caregivers who were helping single parents or dual-service couples in which both the husband and wife were deployed.

Unfortunately for the Senate-passed bill when it got to the House, it fell under the jurisdiction of the always dictatorial, often irrational and, some say, "mentally unstable," McKeon, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Normally he satisfies himself with making sure that children of working class parents can't go to college, but suddenly, albeit inexplicably, he lashed out violently against our troops, claiming he deemed it "unnecessary" and killed it over the objections of
George Miller (CA), the ranking Democrat on the committee. Imperiously, Congressman McKeon's office has refused comment and refuses to allow me to speak to ole Buck about it.

I was able to reach the far more accessible and communicative Robert Rodriguez for whom support of American young men and women fighting for our country is a major issue that he takes very seriously. "It is easy to say that we all support the military families of those putting their lives on the line for us overseas," Robert explained. "The real question is what we will do to actually help these families who are struggling to get by every day without the presence and support of one, and possibly two parents. We owe it to those children and families whose parents are out there on the front lines for our country every day. If we send these parents out to fight, we need to assume the responsibility of helping the military families here to the best of our ability. And I support every effort to extend that much needed assistance to our military families."