And the sun rises in the east...but what DOES make this amazing is the referenced article (below) appeared in
The Army Times today! Finally people are catching on to the glaringly obvious. (Who knows. Someday someone may even tell Chris Mathews.)
Help spread the word. Please forward these two links to every pro-military person you know:
Hint: The second link is good fodder for LTEs. E.g., here in Ohio, we have Sherrod Brown (rating B) vs Mike DeWine (rating D+).
There have been other diaries linking to sites with troop support ratings, but those were mostly using only Disabled American Veterans scores, and for only the last 1 or 2 years. The link above scores over 6 years, for many more votes (all listed at the site).
From the Army Times article:
A group representing Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans says voting records do not match words in Congress about supporting the troops.
"Every member of Congress claims to support the troops, but this guide shows us that, more often than not, the rhetoric does not match the reality," said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and the founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which assigned grades to the House and Senate based on a review of six years of votes on military and veterans' issues such as Tricare for reservists or bigger veterans' health care budgets.
Here are rankings cited in the article:
House Leader:
- Democrats - Pelosi -- A
- Republicans - Hastert -- F
Top four House Leaders, average:
- Democrats -- A
- Republicans -- C
House Veterans' Affairs Committee:
- Democrats: Ranking Dem., Lane Evans D-Il -- A
- Republicans: Chairman Steve Buyer, R-Ind -- C
House Armed Services Committee
- Democrats: Ranking Dem., Mike Skelton D-Mo -- A-
- Republicans: Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif -- C
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee
- Democrats: Ranking Dem., Daniel Akaka, D-Hi -- B
- Republicans: Chairman Larry Craig, R-Idaho -- D-
Senate Armed Services Committee
- Democrats: Ranking Dem., Carl Levin of D-Mi -- B+
- Republicans: Chairman Sen. John Warner, R-Va. -- D+