Bill to rename VA Medical Center for Wellstone languishes

[Dickie Flatt]

Wellstone!

Two years after Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, legislation to rename the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center for him has languished on Capitol Hill because of objections from some Minnesota Republicans. ...

(Rep. John Kline explained his opposition to the bill, saying) "But we're talking about a VA Center. It seems to me that Sen. Wellstone was a senator who couldn't find his way to supporting defense budgets, and had some reputation as an anti-war protester. And while it's certainly his place to do that, it seems to me that a VA center ought to be named for a veteran who is a real war hero." ...

(Democratic Rep. Betty) McCollum noted that the bill has the support of the major national veterans groups and their state chapters, including AMVets, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans. ...

"Here's a guy who wasn't a veteran himself, but he went to the wall for veterans," (commander of the Minnesota chapter of Disabled American Veterans Hank) Sadler said. "Sometimes the non-veterans support the veterans more than the veterans do."

[salin]

1. jerks.

n/t