18
Jun
09

SCARLET H (Hypocrisy) UPDATE – Repubs Vote No on War Funding

Scarlet H - Repubs - War fundingI’m starting a new series entitled “Scarlet H Update” about political hypocrisy, as I described in my last blog. I’m sure it will be a regular series, because now that there’s a Democrat in the White House, we’re sure to routinely witness Repubs again and again do the same things they chastised Democrats about while Bush was ruining the world.

I’ll probably have to start another series “Spineless Dems – WTF?!” and we might have an installment of that tomorrow.

In case you didn’t happen to read yesterday’s post in which I discuss the all-too-common combination of Republicans, adultery, and hypocrisy, the Scarlet H will now be applied to those who criticize one and then do the exact same thing down the line. It’s elementary, but you see, our politicians simply cannot stop themselves from issuing the almighty condemnation for actions they themselves pursue. While I would say this is a bipartisan problem, the majority of Scarlet H award winners are Rebubs for too many reasons to go into at this juncture.

Today, we focus on war funding.

Remember this little gem from the campaign trail in which Cindy McCain attacked Obama for voting against a war funding bill – which her husband had done earlier as well (I could only find a video of the ridiculousness enmeshed in a Hardball clip, but it’s at the beginning, so you don’t have to watch all the commentary if you don’t want to):

Cindy’s speech mimicked many attacks the Republicans have launched against Democrats should a leftie ever, ever decide to vote against a war fuding bill. Why would they do such a thing? You see extraneous funding are always attached to bills that guaranteed to pass – like a military funding bill. This is how many projects receive money. I’m not saying it is right. I’m saying this is how it is – whether a Democrat or Republican has been in the White House.

Well, it just so happens that a war funding bill has come across the laps of our Washington legislators – complete with the typical extraneous funding requests and guess what? The VAST majority of House Republicans voted against the lastest war funding bill June 16.

As Politico (whose piece I linked to above) points out:

In 2005, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) ripped Democrats who opposed the supplemental request, calling their position “immoral.” When war funding came up again in 2006, Cole took to the floor to say, “I would ask members to remember this is a vote about our willingness to support our servicemen and women and not about other policy issues.”

He voted no on the war funding Tuesday.

Even McCain said he is leaning against voting for the bill – I wonder who his wife would support on the campaign trail now.

The fact of the matter is that Republicans have railed against Democrats repeatedly, consistently in recent years when Democrats voted against war funding bills for the exact same reason Republicans are turning their backs on this piece of legislation.

In a flood of vitriol, Republicans hurdled accusations claiming the Democrats did not care for the troops, hated America, weren’t patriotic every time they Dems something stripped from a war funding bill.

Now Republicans are committing an act they had, as recently as the last presidential campaign, called a grievous sin.

There’s no honor, no dignity in politicizing the troops, which the Republicans do repeatedly when it serves their purpose. Then, to turn tail when the White House is blue, is a true bottom-feeder low. Despicable from all angles.

And don’t write any comments criticizing the legislation. I’m not defending the legislation. War funding bills have always had these tag-along items and only now are yellow-bellied Republicans standing against such legislation. Shameful.

And that’s why, today, Republicans get the H.

And talk about double standard, why isn’t Fox reporting on the lack of Republicans supporting the bill?


4 Responses to “SCARLET H (Hypocrisy) UPDATE – Repubs Vote No on War Funding”


  1. 1 Matt Bennett
    June 19, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    what the hell! Why aren’t you following me on twitter? ;-)

  2. June 20, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    oh shit – i need to get on that and put tweets up and shit. if i do, i’ll look for your crazy ass over there in killing-the-english-language land.

  3. 3 essenceofamerica
    July 7, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    Democrats, notoriously weak on matters of national defense, voted against Bush’s war funding because the legislation did not include either firm deadlines or ballpark timelines in Iraq for troop withdrawal. Obama was one of the opponents, and he voted that way more than once. Dems’ votes against that war funding came at a particularly desperate time in Iraq when American troops needed that money the most.

    What Republicans did last month was a condemnation of some liberals’ repeated efforts to include language that would release photos of U.S. troops allegedly abusing terrorists in detention. Obama promised to strip such a measure from the legislation if it had made it to his desk, but since the man simply can’t be trusted, who’s to say he would have kept his own promise. He’s already broken so many, including one to eliminate the method of “signing statements” he so fiercly opposed when Bush was in office.

    But this isn’t about the coward-in-chief. It’s about right and wrong. You are right about politicians being wrong to politicize American troops. That is something on which we can always agree, and I am glad you recognize that truth.

    This war-funding bill also included a $5 billion line of credit for the International Monetary Fund, $2 billion of which is expected to be delivered to Iran. Moreover, it included more than $7 billion for a potential pandemic flu outbreak. Those add-ons are what Republicans opposed.

    What Democrats voted against near the end of Bush’s term and what Republicans voted against in the first tragic months of Obama’s presidency are separate. Republicans, recognizing a war-funding bill that included manufactured timetables for withdrawing from Iraq would be devastating to that country and this one, opposed that liberal nonsense. The Dems’ bill last month was loaded with wasteful spending – something the Obama Nation embraces and celebrates – and that is what Republicans opposed.

    It would be nice if war-funding bills and other critically important measures would get through Congress without harmful add-ons. But that’s just not going to happen, so we will continue to argue about who is right and who is wrong.

    You talk about shame. Now that’s hypocritical. Liberals are the epitome of shame. Particularly as it relates to all matters of national security, Republicans are not hypocrites. They’re patriots – a word never used to describe a liberal.

  4. 4 Matt Bennett
    August 30, 2009 at 11:44 am

    This blog is getting pretty stale….Come on Meredith, get to work! :-)


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