GOP's Roskam (IL-6) gets VFW endorsement over Duckworth, could backfire!!!

[wndycty]

Nov. 3: Roskam's VFW "endorsement"
By Eric Krol
Friday, November 03, 2006

Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth gave both legs in sacrifice to her country, but that apparently wasn’t enough for the Veterans of Foreign Wars to endorse her.

Instead, the national VFW relied on the word of former Republican state Sen. Ray Soden of DuPage County to back Republican Peter Roskam in the down-to-the-wire 6th Congressional District.

Roskam tried to bill the endorsement as a major boost to his campaign in the final days, but found himself admitting he sat on the endorsement until the end for maximum attention. The VFW representative was unable to give much of a reason for the endorsement or explain how it happened, and Roskam looked stunned at the harsh questioning from reporters.
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http://www.dailyherald.com/special/election/animalfarm.asp

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[blm]

1. MORE BACKFIRE to GOPs audacity against veterans.

.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Some things are just TOO outrageous...

...to be explained away. The GOP and the VFW have just made a serious tactical error.:thumbsdown:

[MADem]

3. VFW email addresses. DU VETS might want to send a POLITE but pointed

note to either your local affiliate or the IL one: http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.leveld&did=3014

[atreides1]

6. I sent an e-mail to the National HQ

It was polite and pointed, like a bayonet!

[MADem]

8. Heh heh, good on you! NT

[BOSSHOG]

9. My email to the American Legion

was not polite but right to the point. I took the "national commander" into the goat locker and kicked his sorry bush supporting ass.

[MADem]

11. I gave them the "on the carpet" speech, myself. Hopefully they'll

get sufficient feedback to make a course correction.

[dmosh42]

20. Too drunk to know

If anyone remembers after Vietnam, many vets started there own groups like Amvets. The legion and VFW were still controlled by WW2 vets, and didn't have much sympathy for any of the following war vets. A lot of those guys are still there, and probably drunk when they voted to back this guy against Tammy.

[indepat]

21. Like Dear VeffingW?

[MADem]

22. The temptation is enormous! I was polite and told them they

didn't represent me, or anyone I served with in foreign conflicts or stateside, and that they should be ashamed of themselves for failing to represent all veterans, and instead aligning themselves with a political party that is full of those who never wore a uniform past their Boy Scout days.

[BOSSHOG]

4. The American Legion and the VFW

both have pissed me off royally this week. I'm looking forward to the next solicitation from the VFW. I've shared my heartfelt patriotic veterans point of view and disdain to the American Legion.

[MADem]

7. I'm with you, Boss. They can stuff it if they think the ones who served

are gonna put up with their bullshit endorsements of chickenhawk candidates and the coddling of a party that uses us as fodder.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. i was driving through that district yesterday.

by my estimate, 60% of the signs were for Duckworth, 40% for roscum.

[never_get_over_it]

10. Has Roskam ever been in the military? eom

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. If so, he fails to mention it in his Bio on his web site.

I doubt it, I looked in a few places with no mention of military service found. Wikipedia has this brief note...

"Roskam worked with his mother, Martha Roskam, to return lost dog tags from the Vietnam War to military personnel or their surviving relatives."

...but the footnote they leave for reference is dead.

Here is the link for his campaign web site Bio:

http://www.roskamforcongress.com/aboutpeter/

[Jack Rabbit]

12. The Veterans of Foreign Wars

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has an unfortunate habit of endorsing candidates who will create more veterans of more foreign wars.

That it is a partisan organization that doesn't really value military service was shown in 1988 by cheering the shameless chickenhawk Dan Quayle when he spoke before the VFW convention.

[movonne]

14. When the VFW don't endorse a veterans, that really takes the

cake...although the VFW are right wing enablers..at least that is what I see living here in a small town...the ladies in black stand on one side of the street and the VFW on the other with American flags as big as the fly on the top of bldgs...and very nasty to the ladies in black and making obscene jesters to them...

[Infinite Hope]

15. Ask VFW members you know to drop their membership n/t

[ieoeja]

16. This actually makes sense.

It doesn't matter a hill of beans who served and who did not. The question for the VFW is, "who will take care better of the veterans?"

Given the GOP track record during this war of cutting VA benefits, refusing to supply the troops, eliminating hazard pay for pilots put in harm's way, etc, then clearly they deserve VFW endorsements.
:sarcasm:

[In Truth We Trust]

17. Holy Shit what obvious corruption! VFW SELLOUTS!!! They paid them off with our tax dollars I'm sure.

Fuck you Bush Rove et al!!!!!!

[FrenchieCat]

18. A Republican organization is what they are, and so I'm not surprised!

Care more about politics than about veterans.

Note, VoteVet.org will have something to say about this shortly, I'm sure!

I guess leaving one's legs on the battlefield just ain't fucking enough! :mad:

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. They may be able to hold a Republican line now, they're dug in, but

"The Times they are a changing", and they will sink like a stone. Tammy is part of that change and the old line VFW leadership is threatened by her.

[SouthernBelle82]

23. I hope it does backfire

This is just really mind boggling why they would support him over an actual veteran. :shrug: Wouldn't she know more about veteran affairs from her personal experiences?

[Cha]

24. Is it because it's a good ol' boys

club there? That's the only reason I can think of..I'm hoping roskam is a vet?