Our "Worst 10" Senators

Empowering Veterans, a PAC founded in 2006, is targeting senators who consistently vote against the interests of veterans. It goes without saying they also have a sorry record on many other issues including the current war.

Ralph Parrot, the founder of Empowering Veterans, gives his list of ten in The Daily Kos today. Below is an excerpt from his column. So far. nearly 400 comments have appeared.

"Worst 10" Senators List Unveiled

by Ralph Parrott

Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 06:27:12 AM PST

Empowering Veterans, Inc. Unveils its "Worst 10" list of incumbent Senators up for reelection in 2008. These people are very pious in the "Support the Troops" rhetoric, but most hypocritical when it comes to voting to support members of the Armed Forces and their families and veterans and their families.

• Ralph Parrott's diary :: ::
• 
  

Empowering Veterans Unveils it "Worst 10" List of Senators

My name is Ralph Parrott. I am a 65 year old retired Navy Supply Corps Captain and retired businessman from Fairfax Station, Virginia. I served in the US Navy from March 1963 until September of 1990, over 27 years.

. . .

I started the PAC, Empowering Veterans, Inc., during the 2006 Senate campaign in Virginia in support of Jim Webb’s candidacy against George Allen. I decided the best way to support Jim Webb was to expose the voting record of George Allen on issues relating to members of the Armed Forces and their families and veterans and their families. As I researched George Allen’s record I became shocked at the difference between his lofty rhetoric of "Support the Troops" and the reality of his actual record. As I dug deeper I came to realize that George Allen was not alone in establishing a record of deceit and hypocrisy when it comes to really "Supporting the Troops". Indeed, his sorry record is shared by a large portion of his Republican colleagues.

Learning this, I decided to devote the time from now until the election of 2008 to exposing the "Worst 10" incumbent Senators up for reelection in 2008. As I watched the Republicans tie the US Senate in knots last week in order to avoid a debate about on the wisdom of the President’s troop surge in Irag I was struck by the sheer hypocrisy of many members of the "Worst 10" club as they piously implored their colleagues to "Support the Troops". A cursory view of their sorry voting records puts their rhetoric in sharp relief of where they really stand. Namely, there is always money for tax cuts for the wealthy, tax giveaways for the corporations, and no bind contractors for insiders, but when it comes to mental health care soldiers, head trauma research, or support for military families the budget is somehow constrained. The "Worst 10" on issues relating to members of the Armed Forces and their families and veterans and their families are:

Alexander of Tennessee
Chambliss of Georgia
Cochran of Mississippi
Coleman of Minnesota
Cornyn of Texas
Dole of North Carolina
Graham of South Carolina
Roberts of Kansas
Sessions of Alabama
Sunnunu of New Hampshire

Empowering Veterans’s strategy for the next election cycle is very simple.

• We will track ("Bird Dog") each target incumbent’s voting record on issues relating to members of the Armed Forces their families and veterans and their families.
• We will maintain that record on our website, www.empoweringveterans.org.
• We will recruit volunteers in each targeted state to conduct Letters to the Editor campaigns to keep each incumbent’s record of deceit and hypocrisy constantly before his or her constituents.
• We will encourage veterans to run against these incumbents.
• We will raise money to support those veterans that do run against these incumbents.

. . .
For full text visit Ralph Parrot's Diary, link given abovve