{"id":6921,"date":"2006-03-22T11:05:12","date_gmt":"2006-03-22T16:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6921"},"modified":"2006-03-22T11:05:12","modified_gmt":"2006-03-22T16:05:12","slug":"the-pot-accuses-the-kettle-of-exploiting-the-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-pot-accuses-the-kettle-of-exploiting-the-military\/","title":{"rendered":"The pot accuses the kettle of exploiting the military"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s office put together some materials for the Dem caucus on how best to use their time during this week’s St. Patrick’s Day recess. Roll Call obtained a copy<\/a> of the internal planning document last week and noted that Reid’ office encouraged Dems to focus their attention on Bush’s failures on national security and the war.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the recess-event packet provided a series of prototype public events “around homeland security, veterans, or troops and military families,” and recommended that senators hold events at locations such as ports, local veteran halls, military bases, and the homes of military families that have “purchased body armor on their own.”<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans have responded by — get this — accusing Dems of trying to use the military as campaign props<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republicans accused Capitol Hill Democrats yesterday of plotting to use military bases as props for political press events to criticize President Bush for his handling of the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

“I think that is deplorable,” Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican, said yesterday on Fox News. “It is pitiful.” […]<\/p>\n

Kevin Madden, spokesman for House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said, “…This memo is verification of a party that bows at the altar of political opportunity while ignoring real homeland security interests.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I can appreciate when the right thinks it has an opportunity to score a few cheap points, and maybe there’s some merit to the notion that Dems should avoid political events on military bases. But for Republicans to accuse Dems of trying to use the military as “political props” is breathtaking hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Have they forgotten Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s (R-Colo.) GOP event in Colorado<\/a> earlier this month? Do they no longer recall complaints from active and retired military officials<\/a> about Bush exploiting troops for partisan gain? Or how about the White House’s political affairs office directly contacting GOP county chairmen to arrange local speeches by active duty military personnel<\/a> to put a positive spin on the war in Iraq?<\/p>\n

Dems<\/i> are manipulating the military? Do Republicans really<\/i> want to have a serious debate on this point?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s office put together some materials for the Dem caucus on how best to use their time during this week’s St. Patrick’s Day recess. Roll Call obtained a copy of the internal planning document last week and noted that Reid’ office encouraged Dems to focus their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}