Many of you have seen this video of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objecting on behalf of colleague Tom Coburn (R-OK) for the purpose of blocking S.1237, Senator Patty Murray's (D-WA) "Homeless Veterans and Other Veterans Health Care Authorities Act of 2010".
Here is the rest of the story.
Why wasn't Tom Coburn present to make the objection himself? He was hosting a fundraiser for Senator Murray's opponent, Dino Rossi.
Senator Murray became aware of a homeless Navy veteran mother named Natalie in Issaquah, Washington, who was living on the street with her small children.
So what did Senator Murray do? She met with Natalie, then wrote a bill to help homeless veterans, with a section that specifically helps homeless mothers with children.
This bill cleared conference committee and would have passed easily, but Oklahama Senator and ordained Southern Baptist Deacon Tom Coburn objected by proxy to bringing the bill to the floor for consideration.
The stated reason for the objection was that the bill wasn't "paid for up front".
If the Senate would have agreed with Senator Murray and voted against the authorization for the Iraq war, this bill would not exist. Has Senator Coburn ever objected that the trillions of dollars in direct costs of the Iraq war and the legacy costs for physically and/or mentally wounded veterans has not been paid for "up front", or paid for in any way shape of form, at any point in the time-space continuum?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "no".
Has Tom Coburn ever served in the military? No. He was born in 1948, but somehow managed to avoid serving in Vietnam.
Does chickenhawk Tom Coburn know that nobody in all of Congress has done more for veterans than Senator Patty Murray? Yes. Everyone knows that.
Senator Murray has been honored many, many times by veteran's organizations. VoteVets.org is supporting Senator Patty Murray, and we should too.
Patty Murray isn't just a good Senator, she's one of the truly great ones. Dino Rossi isn't qualified to carry her satchel. He is a Real estate salesman that was a state senator from 1999 - 2003, then ran for governor and lost to Chris Gregoire twice.
Dino Rossi got his friend Tom Coburn to block an important piece of legislation for our most destitute veterans purely for the political value of denying Senator Murray that legislative success.
This is unconscionable. We need to make Rossi pay a price.
Please support the Patty Murray campaign any way you can.
Thank you,
Rob Sargent
Newcastle, WA