Via Think Progress:
On Tuesday, around 100 veterans and a dozen congressmen gathered on Capitol Hill to rally in support of Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) 21st Century G.I. Bill, which boasts the bipartisan support of 56 cosponsors.
In seeking the support of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — whom Webb said "needs to get on the bill" in order to secure more Republican support — Webb told McCain "several times that this is not a political issue." Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) pointed to the bill’s bipartisan support: "[P]eople like John Warner and James Inhofe are on it."
According to the Congressional record, however, Inhofe (R-OK) quietly removed his name from the list of cosponsors on Tuesday — the same day as the Capitol Hill rally.
Here's just one of the ways that presidential politics intrudes on Congressional politics.
Everyone knows that Jim Webb's "New GI Bill" is a no-brainer. The recruits we've sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in exchange for promises of educational benefits absolutely must get their due. But current law gives them a mere pittance compared to what the actual costs of going to college are. Webb's bill seeks to remedy that, boosting the assistance to a level that's actually capable of giving our veterans a decent shot at paying the bills at a decent school.
McCain can't afford to be seen as being against that. But because he's running for president on the platform that Democrats are evil terrorists, he also can't be seen cooperating with them (even as they fall over themselves to claim they'll "reach out" and "work with the other side," by the way). So what's a 71 year old whose Sugar Mama wife buys him eight houses and a private jet (but won't release her tax returns) to do?
Why, introduce your own new GI Bill, of course. Or better yet, get a surrogate to do it for you, so that you don't look petty. And that's just what McCain did, with a hat tip to none other than his number one sycophant, the man with whom he teamed up to shamefully surrender his anti-torture principles to Bush, Lindsey Graham.
And now, quietly, the Republicans who were on board with Webb's bill (because remember, it's a no-brainer) begin to discover heretofore unknown reservations about the bill. Reservations which are, of course, magically remedied in McCain's Graham's bill. Or so we're told, anyway. The bill wasn't even introduced until Tuesday. But I'm sure that's plenty of time to become certain about the necessity of withdrawing from a bill you've been a co-sponsor of for two months, as Inhofe did.
So there's your McMaverick, who rises above petty partisan politics in service to our men and women in uniform, America. Webb has worked tirelessly -- in the age of the "60 votes to pass anything" Senate -- to get 56 co-sponsors for his bill. And just as he's nearing the ability to close the deal, McMaverick jets in on the wife's puddle jumper to start peeling people away. In addition to Inhofe, look for Susan Collins (R-ME), Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) -- who are currently cosponsors of both bills -- to be pressured to drop their support for Webb's.
And why? Over genuine policy differences? Almost certainly not, though that's what their claim will be. No, this will be so that Mr. Republican Presidential Candidate doesn't have to admit he's working with Democrats, even as he campaigns on being the McMaverick who'll cross party lines to do right by our veterans.
Jim Webb has him dead to rights:
"He’s so full of it."
