Vet Group Ranks Politicians’ Voting Records; Guess Who Comes out on Top?
June 9th, 2007 by 
Morgan J. Locke
Via Bob Geiger. I thought this was interesting. The IAVA—the oldest and largest group of soldiers returned from Iraq and Afghanistan—rated how U.S. senators’ voting reflected war veterans’ priorities. And guess what? The Democrats totally pwned the Republicans. Geiger took a look at the Senate, and says:
No Senator in either party was given an A grade by IAVA. Thirteen Senators received a rating of A- and all of those were Democrats. A total of 23 Senators were given a B+ rating and 22 of those were Democrats as well. The other was Independent James Jeffords of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats.
Cutting to the chase — and, perhaps more than anything I’ve seen in recent years, truly defining the difference between the two parties — is that the worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade granted a Republican. GOP-lite Ben Nelson (D-NE) received the lowest grade of any Democrat with a B- while Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) managed a C grade from IAVA.
So much for Republicans supporting the troops.
Incidentally, the picture above is from IAVA’s gallery of veterans’ photos. There are lots and lots of images there; some are similar to what you see in the media, but others are unique and tell a more personal story. It’s worth checking out.
Posted in Dammit!, Morgan, Politics, Pop. Culture | 
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