Sneaking out? Not so Fast, Mr. Senator! Lunch can wait!
Senator Burr walked out on veterans' testimony before a word was spoken and then condemns what they had to say. Or rather what they did not say: that VA Secretary (General) Eric Shinseki had to resign. For the GOP embarrassing Shineski, who had warned the GOP that Iraq would prove far more difficult to win than their propaganda was proclaiming (and was dismissed from his role as Chief of Staff of the Army as a result), is a priority,
Sen. Richard Burr of NC is not a veteran but the GOP named him the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs. His record? Well he blocked severely wounded Iraq War Veteran Tammy Duckworth from becoming the Assistant Secretary for the Veteran's administration (without reason) and had to back down. He has voted against efforts to expand access to records, to increase funding for computerization, and to bring in contractors to assist in processing the record number of vets needing post Iraq and post Afghanistan service. He has filibustered bills to expand VA health care access, tuition assistance, and job training.
Last Friday....the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend....Several veterans groups were called before the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs including The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Burr, just as the representatives of these groups were about to testify, got up and left. The rumor is that he had a luncheon engagement.
He returned just as the testimony was wrapping up. He had no comments. No questions.
That afternoon his office issued an open letter (i.e. one published on his Senate website and not directly communicated to the organizations) that condemned the veterans’ groups that had not yet called for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.
Burr argued that leading veterans’ organizations are less interested in helping those who served and “more interested in defending the status quo within V.A., protecting their relationships within the agency, and securing their access to the secretary and his inner circle.”
THE VETS HIT BACK HARD....
Bill Lawson, the national president of the paralyzed veterans group, and Homer S. Townsend Jr., the executive director, criticized Mr. Burr for supporting the filibuster of the veterans bill in February, and said, “You clearly represent the worst of politics in this country.”
William A. Thien, the commander in chief of the V.F.W., and John E. Hamilton, the adjutant general, pointed to a staff with more than 47 combat deployments in Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan and four Purple Hearts, 16 Air Medals, Bronze Stars and other honors. “Senator, this is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed in more than forty years of involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate. Your allegations are ugly and mean-spirited in every sense of the words and are profoundly wrong, both logically and morally. Quite frankly Senator, you should be ashamed.”
AND BURR'S RESPONSE? The senator told the New York Times yesterday,
“Clearly I hit a nerve. I think they’ve shown more outrage toward my open letter than outrage toward the current crisis at the V.A.”