Once again, props to Ripper for suggesting the ass themed week. Please show support by recommending posts like this and by supplying additional evidence.

McCain’s Naval career and POW status make his claims of fully supporting the troops and veterans unquestioned. It is time that Americans take a closer look at whether or not John McCain’s rhetoric is supported by his voting record.

McCain’s Voting Record: Does It Reflect Support of Troops and Veterans?

Congressional votes are difficult to interpret. That being said, McCain’s voting record for troops and veterans deserves more scrutiny.

John McCain has missed votes on and voted multiple times against funding the troops in Iraq. According to this article, “John McCain skipped close to a dozen votes on Iraq, and on at least another 10 occasions, he voted against arming and equipping the troops, providing adequate rest for the troops between deployments and for health care or other benefits for veterans. In mid 2007, Senator Reid noted that McCain missed 10 of the past 14 votes on Iraq.”

Again, Congressional votes are tricky things to construe, (especially when the interpreting is done by those of us who do not assiduously follow the legislative branch). What do organizations that presumably watch Congress closely think of McCain’s record? 

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America grades Congress on how they voted on “legislation that affected troops, veterans or military families.” They gave a McCain D (Obama got a B+). According to FactCheck.org, “...McCain doesn’t have a perfect score with DAV (Disabled American Veterans), a [non-partisan] group of 1.3 million disabled veterans that supports more funding for veterans health care. McCain has a 20 percent record of voting the way DAV would like him to in 2006.”

At minimum, the above suggests that voters should question what McCain really means when he says that the supports the troops and veterans, especially when this claim is central to his persona/campaign.

McCain’s imperfect voting record makes his attacks on Obama support of the troops hypocritical. According to the NYT, McCain, at a VFW convention yesterday, “charged that when his rival voted against funding the troops in a single vote in 2007, he had tried to ‘legislate’ failure.” McCain has tried to exploit this vote before.  This article by FactCheck.org not only corrects the record on Obama’s troop support but also reminds us that “although he's [McCain is] the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he missed all seven of the hearings that his panel held on Afghanistan” for the past two years.

McCain relies on his reputation and rhetoric on troops and veterans to mitigate the reality of his voting record and committee absences. He has on at least one occasion shamelessly exploited the armed forces for selfish reasons.

The last word on John McCain should go to the troops themselves. Speaking with their wallets, deployed troops donated six times more money to Obama than McCain. Hmmm…