By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Did you hear? Republicans hate the troops! Well, close enough. I long ago lost the capacity to be surprised by the imbalance between shame and hypocrisy in Washington, but that doesn't mean that it's not still fun to point out really screamingly egregious examples. Take, for one, Tuesday night's vote on a troop-funding bill, funding that most Republicans already supported. But they almost uniformly voted against it because they objected to a (relatively) piddling amount for the International Monetary Fund (horrors!).
Republicans, you will recall, skewered John Kerry in 2004 for voting against a troop funding bill because he didn't like some unrelated provision in it. (In fairness, he added fuel to the fire with "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.") As Politico's Glenn Thrush aptly put it today, "Shoe, meet the other foot."
Rep. Peter King told Politico:
"The American Legion supported the bill, for God sakes," added King, who was lobbied personally by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. "If I'm marching in the Fourth of July parade and the local American Legion guy asks me why I didn't vote for the troops, what am I going to say — I didn't want money to go to the IMF? He doesn't even know what the IMF is!"
Indeed.
Check out our political cartoons.
Become a political insider: Subscribe to U.S. News Weekly, our new digital magazine.
Follow Robert Schlesinger on Twitter.
Reader Comments Read all comments (14)
lynn of NC 12:55PM June 23, 2009
Ken Myers of NJ 10:06PM June 21, 2009
Gary 8:44PM June 21, 2009