Conseravtives And The G.I. Bill

Russian subversive Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (AKA, Ayn Rand) came to America when she was 21 and struggled to make a living as a screenwriter-- and didn't have a single success. She didn't write her profoundly anti-American drivel, The Fountainhead, until after she became a volunteer on behalf of reactionary Wendell Wilkie, running against FDR, and a seriously addicted meth head. She was severely addicted to amphetamines for 3 decades and under their anti-social, psychotic influence, also wrote her second load of garbage, Atlas Shrugged (1957). A third-rate intellect in Wisconsin with the ambition to became a gym bunny, read Atlas Shrugged and has fancied himself a serious economics expert ever since. He was, above all else, always happy to serve the interests of the wealthy donors who put him into Congress. Paul Ryan and Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum came immediately to mind when I tried-- unsuccessfully-- to goad John Boehner into a twitter war yesterday:

Boehner wanted to celebrate the anniversary yesterday of the signing by President Roosevelt (Ayn Rand's bête noire) of the G.I. bill in 1944, the very premise of which horrifies reactionaries like Rand and, of course, Paul Ryan. Conservatives nearly tanked the bill in Congress for two reasons. First and foremost-- and tell me this doesn't sound familiar to you-- the idea of paying unemployed veterans $20 a week freaked them out since they insisted it would diminish their incentive to look for work. That's what Ryan is babbling about in the video above when he's lionizing Rand's explanation of the "moral foundation of capitalism." Other hideous conservatives opposed the G.I. Bill because at the time, college was a privilege reserved for the sons of the rich. They couldn't quite wrap their narrow minds around the concept of sending battle-hardened vets to colleges and universities with elites like their own kids. Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago expressed what many conservative elitists felt about the bill: "Colleges and universities will find themselves converted into educational hobo jungles… [The GI Bill] is a threat to American education [and] education is not a device for coping with mass unemployment."

Ultimately, though, it was conservative opposition to the $20/week "unemployment insurance"-- the disincentive, as Republicans still call it today-- that nearly defeated the bill. Congressman John Gibson (D-GA) dragged himself out of a sick bed and rushed back to Washington to cast the tie-breaking vote-- and the same week the Americans were spreading out across and beyond the beaches of Normandy. They just hated that the bill provided for unemployment compensation of $20/week for up to 52 weeks for veterans who had served 90 days or more. One conservative lobbyist wrote at the time that "The lazy and 'chisely' types of veterans would get the most benefits, whereas the resourceful, industrious and conscientious veterans would get the least benefits, if any." Right-wing Dixiecrat, vicious KKK proponent, virulent racist, anti-Semite and pro-fascist John Rankin of Mississippi-- who was infamous for referring to African-Americans as "niggers" on the House floor and for having publicly vowed to never sit next to African American congressman Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY)-- was the Richard Burr of his day. He headed the Veterans Affairs Committee and opposed any benefits that might help African Americans, claiming they wouldn't rejoin the work force, if they were being paid "generous" unemployment benefits, which would "spoil" them. "If every white serviceman in Mississippi," he said, "could read this so-called GI Bill, I don’t believe there would be one in 20 who would approve of it...  We have 50,000 Negroes in the service from our state and in, in my opinion, if the bill should pass in its present form, a vast majority of them would remain unemployed for at least another year, and a great many white men would do the same."

Conservatives, of course-- and as they always are-- were wrong. Less than 20% of the money appropriated for unemployment insurance was distributed and most returning servicemen quickly found jobs or pursued higher education. By 1956 approximately 8 million veterans received educational benefits. Under the act, approximately 2,300,000 attended colleges and universities, 3,500,000 received school training, and 3,400,000 received on-the-job training. The law helped to produce 450,000 engineers, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists. The percentage of Americans with bachelor degrees, or advanced degrees, rose from 4.6% in 1945 to 25% a half-century later. Also by 1956, the education-and-training portion of the G.I. Bill had disbursed $14.5 billion to veterans-- and the Veterans Administration estimated the increase in Federal income taxes alone would pay for the cost of the bill several times over. By 1955, 4.3 million home loans had been granted, with a total face value of $33 billion. 11 million of 13 million houses built in the 1950s were financed with GI Bill loans. The results rippled through the rest of the economy; there would be no new depression-- just unparalleled prosperity for a generation.

Back then conservatives were preaching austerity, but their lousy ideas were thoroughly rejected by normal people. WIth their iron grip on the mass media, nonsense like Paul Ryan's budget-- which encompasses all the premises of the case against the G.I. Bill and other progressive legislation-- is taken seriously. And Boehner is kidding himself if he thinks he would even bring the G.I. Bill, or anything vaguely like it, up for a vote on the House floor today.

REPUBLICAN ACTIONS AGAINST MILITARY FAMILIES REPLACING HOLLOW RHETORIC IN THE MINDS OF VOTERS

Republicans have a serious problem with military veterans this year-- very serious. They've been bellowing "Support The Troops" loud and long and for the past half decade their bluster has been enough. It isn't any longer. Pick almost any Republican member of Congress-- either house-- and look at his or her voting record on support for our troops or for support for our vets and you'll probably be astonished. Not every single member rates a zero-- but most do and not a single Republican member of Congress-- not one has been supportive of the troops or of our returning veterans. And this particular fish certainly has rotten from the head. This morning Think Progress released a shocking video of the father of Ross McGinnis, a soldier who sacrificed his own life to save 4 buddies in Iraq and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He called on Bush to match his words with deeds when it comes to our frayed military men and women. Bush and the Republicans have had no problem, as Bush did last week, mouthing phrases like "America will never forget those who came forward to bear the battle," while threatening to veto legislation to give vets a shot at an education back home. "Our troops," said Mr. McGinnis, "when they get home also need our support. … They need to be able to continue their education where they left off. And so I say thank you to the Senate and House who have helped to pass the new GI bill. Now this GI bill only needs the signature of the President of the United States to become law. And I think it’s time that George Bush can sign this bill and make it law to show his appreciation for the support these loyal youth have given him."

After a brutal battle in the Senate-- in which McConnell and McCain tried every trick in the book to derail the GI Bill-- Bush was left with a decision: sign the widely popular bill to help our vets or veto it, even though more Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats than stood with Bush, McCain, McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Cornyn and the other crackpot fanatics. The vote in the House was also a lopsided defeat for Bush and McCain, 256-166-- with only 7 anti-military Democrats (craven Blue Dogs Melissa Bean, Dan Boren, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth, Nick Lampson, Tim Mahoney, and Jim Matheson) joining 159 GOP dead-enders.

Only 32 House Republicans-- mostly ones who are retiring or who are looking like they are likely to lose their seats in November-- voted for the veterans. But among the GOP hard core who shout the loudest about supporting the troops but who always vote against them-- and did again on the GI Bill-- were Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), David Dreier (R-CA), Ric Keller (R-FL), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Mike Pence (R-IN), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-OH), and Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH). These disgraceful characters all have three things in common: each is opposed by a Blue America-endorsed candidate who supports vets, each has a clear and consistent record of opposing legislation designed to help vets, and each has an equally clear and consistent record for voting against giving assistance-- from body armor to health care-- for our active duty servicemen. It is easy for a loud-mouthed Know Nothing like Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH) to accuse a decorated military hero like John Murtha of being a traitor but Mean Jean Schmidt always opposes veterans and always votes against the well-being of our active duty military personnel. Always.

What Republicans like this crew mean when they bellow: "Support the troops," is "support the war profiteers" and "support war." When Bush wants billions for politically connected mercenaries and for corrupt military contractors, John McCain, Mean Jean Schmidt, Scott Garrett, David Dreier and these other creeps always vote "yes." But when it's for the troops and their families or when it's for vets... it's no, no, no. Slowly, military families are starting to wise up to the GOP ruse. By the end of last year the Dallas Morning News reported that the Republican's hold on the military vote was loosening. Since then it's gotten much worse for them and in states with large military presense, like North Carolina, California, Texas, Alaska, and Virginia, voters see Democratic candidates like Larry Kissell (NC), Charlie Brown (CA), Russ Warner (CA), Debbie Cook (CA), Rick Noriega (TX), Mark Begich (AK), Diane Benson (AK), Tom Perriello (VA), Judy Feder (VA), Glenn Nye (VA) and Leslie Byrne (VA) fighting for their interests while Republican incumbents like Robin Hayes, David Dreier, Dana Rohrabacher, John Cornyn, Ted Stevens, Don Young, Virgil Goode, Frank Wolf, and Thelma Drake opposing them every step of the way. There comes a time when actions speak louder than words-- and the time is now. What Ross Perot said about John McCain-- "McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory"-- could be applied to the entire GOP: all empty talk, no action... unless you're willing to pays the immense bribes it takes to get their attention.

One of the loud-mouthed Republicans always bellowing "Support the troops," but always voting against them and voting against vets, is Florida extremist Mario Diaz-Balart. This year he's scared silly because he is being challenged by Joe Garcia, a progressive Democrat who stands with military families and with veterans. Take a look at this little clip I put together using a powerful song by Peter Salett:



If you'd like to help elect progressives who support our vets and our military families, every single candidate on this page is worthy of your attention-- and each one of them is opposing a Republican with a proven record of disdain for our military personnel. And, remember, even $5 or $0 helps our candidates get their messages out to voters who don't have a lot of time or energy to pay close attention to "politics."

YESTERDAY WAS MEMORIAL DAY-- THINKING ABOUT OUR SOLDIERS-- ALIVE AND DEAD-- SHOULDN'T BE A ONE DAY OCCURANCE

Yesterday was the commercialized version of Memorial Day. The real Memorial Day is Friday, May 30. But what would you say if I told you that Memorial Day started as a subterfuge for treason? Hard to believe that this most patriotic of American holidays had its roots in a bit of a conspiracy among Confederates to gather and talk crap about the Union after they were defeated in 1865. Afraid that they would be arrested for treason, Confederate officers had their wives and daughters organize activities around honoring fallen rebels and "the men were figuratively hiding behind the skirts of these women." Sometimes as many as 60,000 white southerners would gather at these reveries for their accursed "Lost Cause." After the Spanish-American War and World War I, the Confederate finally started observing Memorial Day with Americans.

Their sick and perverted "Lost Cause" isn't what Tom Allen had in mind when his campaign sent out a tribute from Maine veterans for their fallen comrades. Tom's powerful and aggressive support for veterans and, recently, for the GI Bill, has forced Bush rubber stamp Susan Collins to break with Bush and McCain, something she rarely does, and vote with the majority to the Senate to update the GI Bill and give Iraq and Afghanistan war vets an opportunity to get an education after serving-- even though McCain was hysterical about Republicans not falling into line and following his leadership.

Back to the "Lost Cause" for one moment. Not all Southerners-- and none I know-- are unreconstructed Confederates. One southern lady sent me a heartfelt note this morning about killed and wounded servicemen and women from Georgia. Unlike me, my friend Regina Thomas organizes a good deal of her life around church. She's a devout and dedicated woman whose belief in Jesus' message has led her in a very different direction from the so-called "Religious Right." Hers (and Jesus') religion is about the Gospel of Love and Inclusion, not the ranting of hatred and bigotry. The first e-mail I read this morning was Regina urging me to pray.

Pray especially for our families of all military personnel and by all means our troops. I read a very sad story today in the Savannah paper. A young (22) trooper who had been burned over 97% of his body 3 years ago-- German is the name-- fought for his life as he struggled to overcome the burns, the surgeries and the pain-- the feeling of not ever being loved by a woman and of all things what he saw when he looked in the mirror and the image looking back. The story will bring tears to your eyes.

This story happens far to often-- the world needs to be able to share the pains of all the families of the fallen, the slain and the injured. God Bless them all and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

This Memorial Day weekend is intense for so many-- this war-- this one war has changed America; it has changed and adversely affected so many lives. Our troops are tired, our families are weary, our children are losing parents, parents are losing children, spouses are losing spouses and the list goes on and on.

Just think... when it is time for a soldier to be relieved of his duty because the time has come for either getting out or staying in, this president issued a "Stop Loss Order" - holding our very own American citizens against their will. And what can be done about it? Congress must act to change this; legislation can change this. If soldiers (no matter the branch) want to get out, then they should be able to do just that. I cannot imagine what they are going through. What are our congressman/women thinking. If they would only put themselves in the shoes of our troops. Maybe those that support the war need to go over to Iraq, sleep where the troops sleep for one night, I can assure you that they will not get any sleep. May God have Mercy on us all!

Regina is a state Senator from Savannah challenging a Blue Dog, John Barrow, who has supported Bush every step of the way-- who brags about supporting Bush every step of the way. Listen to him bragging on the floor of Congress halfway through this song we turned into a viral video for Regina's campaign:



Yesterday, Ken posted a very powerful Memorial Day message from U.S. veteran Bob Geiger, Dead Troops Remembered By President Who Had Them Killed. If you missed it yesterday, I assure you it's relevance hasn't diminished at all since then and I urge you to go back and read it.

McCAIN, REJECTED BY HIS SENATE COLLEAGUES, VICIOUSLY LASHES OUT AT SENATOR OBAMA

The overwhelming veto-proof approval of the bipartisan GI Bill is being looked at by the media as a slap in the face for Bush. And it was. But a far worse message was delivered-- by his Republican colleagues-- to John McCain. He was close to psychotic today when he found that the final tally, 75-22, had more Republicans voting with Obama and Clinton than with him. He had personally appealed to the Senate caucus to hold together on this and not let the Democrats make him look like an idiot. With the exception of a bunch of Bush Regime dead-enders and his own yippy-yappy gay South Carolina lapdog, the Republicans in the Senate caucus abandoned him in droves-- especially the ones who are up for re-election in November. They have all seen the value of his coattails writ large after the special elections in Illinois-- where he staked all his prestige on Oberweis-- and in Mississippi, where every single Republican household got an automated phone message from McCain. When Obama gently criticized McCain for trying to force fellow Republicans into filibustering a popular measure to give veterans a fair shake, McCain exploded in paroxysms of venomous psychosis. Before we go over his mental breakdown, here's what he was reacting to:

"I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country. He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI bill. I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue. There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing, but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them."

McCain treated that like a declaration of war, which is exactly how he treats anyone disagreeing with him about anything. On a day when all the newspapers were talking about how his campaign is overrun with crooked lobbyists whose sleazy clients are paying them to get his favors, and on a day when McCain denounced the religious right again and severed his relationships with Reverend Hagee and Reverend Parsley, two avatars of modern day Republicanism, and on a day when the Senate voted overwhelmingly against him on an issue he (quite disingenuously) claims to be an expert on, McCain just lost it, lashing out at Obama and showing the two-bit thug side of his personality he is always trying to keep under wraps.

"It is typical, but no less offensive that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of... Both Senator Webb and I are united in our deep appreciation for the men and women who risk their lives so that the rest of us may be secure in our freedom. And I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did. Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."

UGLY! I wonder how many Republicans who have to run with him on top of the ticket are starting to feel some buyer's remorse about now. Many senators were embarrassed and one GOP solon said it was the most vicious personal public attack he had every heard in his 18 years in the U.S. Senate. McCain seems to be coming apart-- the campaign hasn't really even begun and he's already unhinged. But everyone knows, especially his wife (who he publicly called "a cunt") that he's on a hair-trigger.

As usual Obama was cool, calm and collected in his response to McCain's personal nastiness.

"I am proud to stand with Senator Webb and a bipartisan coalition to give our veterans the support and opportunity they deserve. It's disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign used this issue to launch yet another lengthy personal, political attack instead of debating an honest policy difference. He should know that this is not about John McCain or Barack Obama-- it's about giving our veterans a real chance to afford four years of college without harming retention. Senator Webb's bipartisan bill will do this, and the bill that John McCain supports would not. These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people."

HUGE SENATE DEFEAT FOR McCAIN AND BUSH-- BIPARTISAN GI BILL PASSES

Looks like someone gave McCain some really bad advise again

We've been writing about the bipartisan efforts, led by Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), to modernize the GI Bill, a bill that helped make the American middle class into the most powerful economic engine in the history of the entire world. A small bunch of reactionary Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Cornyn, have fought it every step of the way. McCain threatened his colleagues and begged them not to vote for the bill, which he says will offer incentives to young men and women who have served their terms to not re-enlist. And since McCain's entire run for the presidency is based on endless wars, he doesn't want to incentivize anyone to not re-enlist. It came as something of a shock this morning when most Republicans joined all Democrats to support the bill.

It was a solid taste of the failure of the McCain leadership as he failed to rally those who know him best, Republicans in the Senate. The bill passed 75-22 and, of course. Bush vows to support McCain's war plans by vetoing it. McCain is so furious-- in California kissing up to big donors today, so not even bothering to vote-- that all the lobbyists on the bus are hiding from him and his uncontrollable temper tantrums. Today's Time Magazine has a powerful article on why more and more military vets want to see McCain lose the election.

Many Republicans, once they saw that cloture would win against McConnell's filibuster, abandoned McCain and Bush and joined with the Democrats to pass the bill. Under intense pressure from Andrew Rice, for example, serial flip-flopper, Jim Inhofe (R-OK), once a sponsor, then an opponent, actually flip-flopped again today and voted with the Democrats. Same happened with Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Mark Begich had just put too much pressure on him and he buckled and voted with the Democrats. Among the die-hard worst rubber stamp anti-veterans Republicans sticking with Bush and McCain to the bitter end were:

John Cornyn (R-TX)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
the 2 corporate whores from Wyoming, Enzi and Barrasso
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Miss McConnell, of course, who has his own special reason for hating the military .

Every other Republican up for re-election in November abandoned Bush and McCain and voted for the vets.


UPDATE: RICK NORIEGA STANDS UP FOR VETERANS WHILE CORNYN STANDS UP FOR BUSH

Rick Noriega, the Blue America-endorsed candidate for the Texas seat help by John Cornyn, reacted angrily to Cornyn's failed attempt to filibuster the GI Bill today. "Senator Cornyn's vote is an insult to our troops who have sacrificed so much to serve our country. Texas families deserve better. Supporting our troops is about more than photo opportunities and speeches. Our brave men and women give their all on the battlefield and they deserve our full support when they return home. But today John Cornyn voted against a GI bill that would ensure our veterans receive the same sort of education benefit that their grandparents received after World War II. Worse yet, Cornyn urged President Bush to veto the benefits, which would rob a large and deserving group of veterans of the tools they need to succeed in civilian life after serving our nation. In my ten years serving in the Texas State House I fought for our veterans and I would continue to fight to ensure our troops and veterans get the support they deserve in the U.S. Senate."

SENATE SHOWDOWN THIS MORNING ON THE GI BILL-- IT ALL COMES DOWN TO TED STEVENS

Giving the finger to U.S. vets

The Senate votes on the modernization of the GI Bill-- passed overwhelmingly in the House last week-- this morning at 11:30 am (EST). Mitch McConnell and John McCain, each of whom has a reprehensible record on veterans' issues, have vowed to block the bill from passing. It's a bipartisan solution, backed by every Democrat and plenty of Republicans, to the escalating costs of college education. McCain opposes it because he claims that if young men and women who complete their military service have a viable option-- like a college education-- they won't re-enlist... to fight in the endless wars he has planned.

The bill needs 60 votes to overcome the McConnell-McCain filibuster. Many Republicans want to do the right thing for veterans and support the bill but they have been bullied by McCain into backing his own watered-down and ineffective substitute bill. Characteristically, the first rubber stamp to back down-- and remove his name as a co-sponsor of the bill and vow to help the filibuster against it-- was right wing zombie Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who, apparently, doesn't want to mar his 100% anti-veterans voting record.

A lot of focus has turned to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens who used the original GI Bill to get through college and law school and lift himself into a position of great wealth. Many in Alaska are asking why their senator is pulling up the ladder after he's risen to the top. Stevens has been fighting against fellow vets Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel as they try to get this bill enacted into law. Roger Martinez, an Afghanistan and Iraq vet and current university student, has made this video calling on Stevens to support the new GI bill.



Mark Begich, who is challenging Stevens' re-election attempt is a vocal advocate for veterans and a big supporter of this bill. He's been putting tremendous pressure of Stevens to vote for it and their are rumors that Stevens may actually tell McCain to take his fake bill and shove it. We'll let you know-- right here-- after the vote today. Another big veterans advocate is Andrew Rice, the populist Democratic state senator running against flip-flopper Inhofe. Andrew has been turning up the heat on Inhofe and thinks he could flip back again. "We will see what Jim Inhofe's values really are today when he votes on the GI Bill. Maybe he'll change course from his anti-troop record, and and actually get in line with Oklahoma values. We'll see."

IS McCAIN REALLY AN UNREPENTANT WARMONGER?

Will anyone dare to bring up the sanity question?

Ask anyone in Washington who the biggest publicity whore is in Congress and you always get the same answer: John McCain. He has cultivated the press like no other member of either house. And today one of his more pathetic sycophants, Matt Bai, authored a mega-puff piece that McCain must have been drooling over-- until the throw away line at the end of the third paragraph:

More recently, McCain has found himself on the opposite side of Webb and Hagel again, this time over their “G.I. bill” that would offer education money to every returning veteran. McCain and others want a more limited bill that would encourage rank-and-file soldiers to re-enlist rather than return to civilian life.

McCain has been shrewd, and largely successful in portraying himself as a friend of the military. A careful examination of his voting record shows that he is a friend to the Pentagon, a friend to the military contractors, mercenary companies, and to the war profiteers but never a friend-- not when moves beyond running his fat mouth-- to the regular fighting men or to the military vets. Currently McCain's credibility with military families has strained to the breaking point because of his vow to sabotage the bipartisan GI Bill introduced by fighting (rather than imprisoned) war heroes Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and passed overwhelmingly in the House last week.

Back to Bai. He misses the entire point of why McCain is the Senate's most unhinged and dangerous war-monger. He almost gets it; I mean he has the facts. He just doesn't have what it takes to put them together.
When it comes to McCain and all the other Vietnam War vets in the Senate, only McCain is an unabashed cheerleader for Bush's disastrous war, one he is eager to make his own... and expand exponentially. "I know war," he blusters to Bai, as he blusters to everyone who has ever interviewed him, "and I know the tragedy of war. And no one hates war more than veterans.”

Among his fellow combat veterans in the Senate, past and present, he is the only one who has continued to champion the war in Iraq; by contrast, Kerry, Webb and Hagel have emerged in the years since the invasion as unsparing critics of American involvement there. (In a new book, Hagel, who voiced deep concerns about Iraq even as he voted for the war resolution in 2002, predicts that the war will turn out to be “the most dangerous and costly foreign-policy debacle in our nation’s history.”) This divide among old allies may be the inevitable result of a protracted war that has cleaved plenty of American households and friendships. But it may also be that the war is revealing underlying fractures among the Senate’s Vietnam coalition.

There is a feeling among some of McCain’s fellow veterans that his break with them on Iraq can be traced, at least partly, to his markedly different experience in Vietnam. McCain’s comrades in the Senate will not talk about this publicly. They are wary of seeming to denigrate McCain’s service, marked by his legendary endurance in a Hanoi prison camp, when in fact they remain, to this day, in awe of it. And yet in private discussions with friends and colleagues, some of them have pointed out that McCain, who was shot down and captured in 1967, spent the worst and most costly years of the war sealed away, both from the rice paddies of Indochina and from the outside world. During those years, McCain did not share the disillusioning and morally jarring experiences of soldiers like Kerry, Webb and Hagel, who found themselves unable to recognize their enemy in the confusion of the jungle; he never underwent the conversion that caused Kerry, for one, to toss away some of his war decorations during a protest at the Capitol. Whatever anger McCain felt remained focused on his captors, not on his own superiors back in Washington.

Not all of McCain’s fellow veterans subscribe to the theory that the singularity of his war experience has anything to do with his intransigence on Iraq. (Bob Kerrey, for one, told me that while he was aware of this argument, he has never believed it.) But some suspect that whatever lesson McCain took away from his time in Vietnam, it was not the one that stayed with his colleagues who were “in country” during those years — that some wars simply can’t be won on the battlefield, no matter how long you fight them, no matter how many soldiers you send there to die.

“McCain is my friend and brother, and I love him dearly,” Max Cleland, Georgia’s former Democratic senator, told me when we talked last month. “But I think you learn something fighting on the ground, like me and John Kerry and Chuck Hagel did in Vietnam. This objective of ‘hearts and minds’? Well, hello! You didn’t know which heart and mind was going to blow you up!

“I have seen this movie before, and I know how it ends,” says Cleland, who lost three of his limbs to an errant grenade during the battle of Khe Sanh. “With thousands dead and tens of thousands more injured, and years later you ask yourself what you were doing there. To the extent my friend John McCain signs on to this, he is endangering America’s long-term interests, and probably his own election in the fall.”

So what is it that Bai is missing? The bitterness and frustration of an ego-obsessed hot dog-- an elderly but tragically immature one-- whose incarceration, something he was once ashamed of but has turned into his calling card, never allowed him to get the blood lust out of his system. And now, as he smells his own mortality, he senses the opportunity. Back in 2000 when he was battling Bush for the GOP presidential nomination, Bush was calling for a more humble foreign policy while McCain's bellicose attitude was all about "rogue-state rollback" and taking hostile action against Iraq, Iran and North Korea. That's when he threw his lot in with the most demented, naive and least trustworthy bunch in U.S. politics, the neocons. McCain was another right-wing pol taken in by Iranian double agent Ahmed Chalabi.

By the time Bai gets into his interview with McCain, it is clear-- although maybe not to Bai-- that McCain is so far gone that he should be wearing a bib and being kept away from sharp objects lest he hurt himself. Out of nowhere he starts carrying on about how wanted war criminal Henry Kissinger is his most trusted foreign policy adviser and how he isn't a hawk. Bai is moved to mention that the campaign could "become a referendum on whether he was stable and rational enough to be trusted with the nation’s nuclear codes." How could it not? He's a confused old man who should be thinking about presiding over birthday parties for his grandchildren, not over the National Security Council. "It’s hard to know who the Janjaweed is," he tells Bai as he contemplates invading Sudan, "who are the killers, who are the victims. It’s all jumbled up." Yes it is... time for a nice nappy... although he insisted, albeit wistfully, on expanding his list of who to invade to include Myanmar.

“It goes back to the Vietnam thing,” McCain told me. “I’m just not sure the American people would support a military engagement in Burma, no matter how justified the cause. And I can’t tell you exactly when it would be over. And I can’t tell you exactly what the reaction of the people there would be.”

Most American politicians, of course, would immediately dismiss the idea of sending the military into Zimbabwe or Myanmar as tangential to American interests and therefore impossible to justify. McCain didn’t make this argument. He seemed to start from a default position that moral reasons alone could justify the use of American force, and from there he considered the reasons it might not be feasible to do so. In other words, to paraphrase Robert Kennedy, while most politicians looked at injustice in a foreign land and asked, “Why intervene?” McCain seemed to look at that same injustice and ask himself, “Why not?”

And one thing he will never ask "why not?" about is ending the occupation of Iraq. In McCainWorld, that war never ends. Bai is sympathetic and forgiving of all of McCain's unattractive traits. "We made a mess in Iraq, he says, but it’s our mess now, and we have to stay on and fix it."


UPDATE: McCAIN BACKS BUSH AGAINST MILITARY VETS... AGAIN

Senator Jim Webb explained it on Meet The Press today. If Bush vetoes the bipartisan GI Bill he will be the first president in the history of our country to veto benefits for military vets. And his two biggest enablers on this-- Mitch McConnell and John McCain.

MODERN DAY GI BILL PASSES BY WIDE MARGIN IN THE HOUSE-- McCAIN & McCONNELL VOW TO KILL IT IN THE SENATE

Although the fight that matters will be in the Senate, the House passed the bill to modernize the GI Bill today, HR 2642, 256-166. Those numbers are pretty overwhelming and the reflect the fact that 32 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote against Bush and their own reactionary leadership and for our military vets. At the same time, the Blue Dog caucus was unable to muster it's own members to bolster their Republican allies. Only 7 of the sleaziest and most Bush-oriented Democrats voted against vets today:

Melissa Bean (IL)
Dan Boren (OK)
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Brad Ellsworth (IN)
Nick Lampson (TX)
Tim Mahoney (FL)
Jim Matheson (UT)

Our newest conservative Democrats, Don Cazayoux (LA) and Bill Foster (IL) both voted with the Democrats on this crucial bill, Foster even stepping away from Bean's apron strings. This bill will allow vets who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq to go to college-- just what it was intended to do. McCain and McConnell have vowed to kill the bill in the Senate.

I took a look at the Blue America House races to see how the Republican opponents of our candidates-- all of whom support the bill-- voted Most of them voted against vets, as they usually do. Joining the dead-end minority today were Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), David Dreier (R-CA), Ric Keller (R-FL), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Gary Miller (R-CA), Mike Pence (R-IN), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-OH), and Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH). Heather Wilson (R-NM) is running for Senate and she stuck with Bush, as she usually does. John Doolittle (R-CA) is retiring under a cloud of corruption charges and he also stuck with Bush.

Interestingly, some of the tightest and most competitive races we're following saw die-hard reactionaries abandoning Bush, not because they wanted to or because they suddenly want to help vets, but because they are scared to death that they're about to lose their cushy jobs. John Barrow, a Georgia Blue Dog who almost always supports Bush on these matters is so frightened of the surging state Senator from Savannah, Regina Thomas, that he actually abandoned his usual stance and voted, reluctantly, with the Democrats. Same story in Iowa, where Leonard Boswell's fear of Ed Fallon voters caused him to vote like a Democrat for a change. Republicans Robin Hayes, Chris Shays and Charlie Dent are so worried about the likelihood that they will be defeated by, respectively, Larry Kissell, Jim Himes and Sam Bennett that each switched positions and voted with the Democrats today.

Up top you see a picture of Blue America candidate Russ Warner and his son, Greg, currently back from active duty in Iraq and studying at West Point. Click on that and see what Russ and Greg have to say about this war and how Bush has botched every aspect of it. Here's what Russ had to say about the vote today, after Dreier (whose net worth has increased by over $10,000,000 since he's come to Congress) again demonstrated that he is incapable of any kind of action accept rubber stamping all that Bush sends down the pike:

"I would have voted differently on this bill. It's important to make the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan part of an American economic recovery, just like the veterans of World War II were. They put their lives on the line for us, and deserve to be able to come home and go to school if they so choose. We need new leaders with new priorities in Washington, and that's why I'm running for Congress. I believe that fully equipping our soldiers, providing them with good medical care and paying them a fair wage should be considered costs of war. But David Dreier seems to believe that we don't owe our veterans anything."

Nor was Russ the only Blue America candidate furious about how their opponent refused to stray away from Bush long enough allow our military vets this one hard earned benefit. We also spoke with Larry Joe Doherty in less-red-by-the-day Texas. Like many Texans, Larry was steamed. "Michael McCaul has voted against health care for veterans. He's voted against disability coverage for veterans. Now he's voted against education for veterans. He'll vote any sum of money necessary to put them in harm's way, but he won't help them get ahead in America when they come home. They come home wearing a badge of honor, and are denied the opportunity to get ahead. This is a disgrace." It is a disgrace. At election time McCaul is always trying to smear Democrats by screaming that only he supports the troops. Well, since Tom DeLay created a district for him, McCaul has voted 18 times on vet-related matters. And guess what-- he voted all 18 times against them. He has the worst voting record in Congress. He's also voted 15 times on issues directly impacting the well being of our active duty military personnel-- you know, the troops he claims to support. Well, he's voted against our troops' well being all 15 times. And don't be shocked to read that David Dreier has the exact same rubber stamp record as McCaul-- zero votes for vets and zero votes for our troops well-being! David Dreier and Michael McCaul have a clear message for our troops and our vets-- a middle finger-- and it's a very different message than the one they send to corrupt military contractor and war profiteers. If you'd like to send a message to David Dreier and Michael McCaul, you can contribute whatever you can spare to Russ Warner and Larry Joe Doherty.


UPDATE: REMEMBER MEAN JEAN SCHMIDT?

She first came onto the national scene by embarrassing herself, her party, her colleagues and her constituents by smearing decorated war hero and ex-Marine colonel Jack Murtha. Today she proved once again that she hasn't learned a thing in the interim and still has no regard for our fighting men and women or our vets. I asked Victoria Wulsin if she had heard about Mean Jean's anti-vet vote-- her 7th anti-vet vote since being elected. "Rep. Schmidt's vote is nothing short of an embarrassment to the people of Southern Ohio. To deny the brave men and women who serve this country financial security and opportunity is unconscionable."

HOW (AND WHY) McCAIN SEEKS TO UNDERMINE MILITARY VETS WHILE SCREAMING ABOUT SUPPORTING THE TROOPS

We've been holding up the hypocrisy of Republican legilsators who falsely claim to support the troops and support U.S. veterans by emphasizing their actual voting records when it does come to supporting the troops. Recently two actual military heroes now in the U.S. Senate, James Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), have been pushing bipartisan legislation to update the GI Bill. Simply put, they want to bring the intent of the law-- to give returning American vets a chance for an education-- into sync with what education costs today, not what it used to cost when Democrats first fought off Republican attempts to kill the concept in the 1940s.

And yet the opportunities offered under the GI Bill have been a path into the expanding middle class for millions of American families. Senators Webb and Hagel-- and dozens of co-sponsors from both parties-- want to make that a reality again. So what's standing in the way? Arch hypocrites led by Bush and McCain, one a coward who never served and despises all military men because of his own shortcomings and the other an angry old man who is basically nothing but a garden variety a control freak. The control freak and Lindsey Graham (his little light in the loafers mini-me from South Carolina) and another reactionary boob, Richard Burr of North Carolina, have offered their own version of the bill with the intent of circumventing its effectiveness.

57 senators support the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (S.22) introduced by Webb and Hagel. All they need is 3 more backers to make it filibuster-proof-- something they will need since anti-military fanatic Mitch McConnell-- thrown out of the Army after less than two weeks when he was caught groping a private's privates (something he denies, of course)-- has vowed to use every parliamentary trick in the book to stop this from passing, the same way he prevented equal pay for women from passing yesterday (women being another "special interest" he hates). McCain's devious substitute bill could split the Senate, undermining the commonsense legislation that Senators Webb and Hagel offered. In doing so, it also undermines America's veterans, McCain's real objective. McCain blurted out his real reason for opposing the bill most senators who want to help vets support. McCain fears that if recruits are offered real educational opportunities they won't keep re-upping and then he won't have anyone to fight his hundred years war in the Middle East.

Our friends are VoteVets outline how McCain's devious bill undermines the intent of the GI Bill modernization:

1) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation creates a flat education benefit, not taking into account the cost of state colleges where veterans live. This would mean veterans in states where the cost of education is higher than the benefit would have go to into debt to get an education, or uproot themselves and their families to move to a place where the benefit would cover college. In many cases, the McCain bill won't even cover half the cost of college.  The Webb-Hagel Bill determines the education benefit based on the highest state college tuition in a veterans' home state, allowing veterans to come home and attend college, without upheaval in their lives.

2) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation creates second-class veterans, by offering those who serve in the military for 12 years the chance to transfer their education benefits to their children. This says to a veteran who serves for two years and loses both of his legs in combat that his service isn't as valuable as someone who has served for longer.

3) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation leaves the National Guard and Reserve out in the cold. In the current conflicts, the National Guard and Reserve have served faithfully alongside their active duty compatriots, and deserve equal benefits. Yet, the McCain bill does nothing to reward our Guard and Reservists for their cumulative service. Under the McCain bill, over 160,000 members of the Guard and Reserves who have done more than one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan would get no credit towards an education for their additional sacrifice.