Now that Bush-Cheney has circulated a proposal including deep cuts for U.S. Veterans, they deemed it important to post the following announcement to their campaign website:
Rolling Thunder Endorses President George W. Bush.
Who is Rolling Thunder? A Veterans group that also endorsed Bush in 2000.
ARLINGTON, VA - Bush-Cheney '04 announced today the endorsement of President George W. Bush by Rolling Thunder, Inc. National, an organization which supports veterans and advocates veterans issues. In a letter addressed to President Bush, Rolling Thunder President Artie Muller said the group reached its decision, by overwhelming majority, at a business meeting in March.
Well, they decided in March, which I guess is a valid excuse. But they're sure bound to be disgruntled this Memorial Day...
Leaders of Rolling Thunder will visit with President Bush at the White House on Sunday. The meeting is part of the organization's events surrounding its traditional annual "Ride for Freedom" to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The group also endorsed the President in 2000.
"This is our way of thanking this President for his commitment to increasing access to housing and health care services for all veterans, reducing the disability claims backlog and overseeing the largest expansion of our national cemetery system since the Civil War," added Muller.
That national cemetary system is a good laugh. Considering that the administration tried to close several VA hospitals, it seems strange that veterans have "increasing" access to health care. Not sure about housing.
Rolling Thunder doesn't appear to be a bunch of shills. They have the name partly because they do a motorcycle rally in Washington every year. Apparantely they numbers expected this year are around 250,000, which is pretty significant. This will be the sixteenth rally. Their main focus appears to be prisoners-of-war.
They do, however, seem overwhelmingly red-state-conservative. One of the featured pictures is from a 1994 rally where a sign stating "Clinton abandoned his duties in the 60s and abandoned our POWs in the 90s!"Committed to veterans, I think, but very steeped in Republican loyalty.
With luck some cognitive dissonance will kick in.