Endorsements Rile the Grassroots -VFW's move to dissolve its political arm..

CONGRESS.ORG ^ | 10.25.10 | Ambreen Ali

[fight_truth_decay]

..fuels a long-standing debate over PACs.

Should grassroots members have a say in political endorsements made in their group's name?

A dispute over that question could end in the Veterans of Foreign Wars dissolving the political action committee its members created more than three decades ago.

At heart, the debate is one between Washington insiders—who seek to increase their leverage on Capitol Hill—and veteran members the PAC said are swept up in a national anti-establishment tide.

"I think the nation is upset with Congress period," Jerry Newberry, a PAC spokesman, said.

They are especially upset at the PAC's endorsement of two Democratic incumbents: Sen. Barbara Boxer over Republican Carly Fiorina in California and Rep. Ron Klein over Republican and war veteran Allen West in Florida.

"VFW’s values and guiding principles aren’t grounded in a desire to participate in partisan policies in political activities," VFW leaders wrote in a letter to the PAC. "However, our recent endorsement process unintentionally provided favoritism to the incumbents."

[fight_truth_decay]

The advocacy group of 1.2 million has asked its political action committee, which operates independently, to rescind all candidate endorsements for this election cycle.

The reason is that VFW has received a flood of angry calls from its members over the PAC's endorsement of two Democratic incumbents – Sen. Barbara Boxer over Republican Carly Fiorina in California and Rep. Ron Klein over Republican and war veteran Allen West in Florida.

"The angry tone and tenor of the telephone calls and messages being received at national headquarters it clear that many of our members are not cognizant of the fact that VFW National By-Laws clearly stipulate that the VFW Commander-in-Chief is not authorized to direct or otherwise attempt to introduce his control over the VFW PAC," VFW leaders wrote in a statement.

Veteran's Issues

[Lumper20]

The VFW was nothing to me except a place to get a darn drink on Sunday in 75. Now, if they have a PAC supporting these leftists like Boxer, I am glad I have never been back.
I am life member of the DAV and MOPH. The MOPH had best fire the national heads as 14-16 cents on the dollar going to wounded vets sucks. This is robbery. The MOPH is a ripoff above local level.

[mazda77]

"By weighting selections towards sitting members of Congress, you are encouraging complacency and taking discourse out of the electoral process," Pete Nicholsen, Florida VFW state commander, wrote to the PAC.

I will now send a letter of apology and support to my state's commander, Pete Nicholson. Never let anyone do your bidding for you unless you have a choke collar on them.

[loveliberty2]

Favoring Klein over the Retired Lt. Col. Allen West, an exceptional American patriot, the VFW has completely discredited itself.

All veterans should rise up as one to condemn this action.

[Nip]

If nothing else the uproar over the VFW-PAC has clearly identified the problems we face.

The endorsements was all about building a power based relationship between the PAC’s leadership and powerful political figures inside the beltway. While individuals might be worth it you must understand that those individuals voted for the Congressional leadership that spent us down the river.

We must always judge things by the total impact - not individual events. As vets we learned that lesson the hard way with our blood and tears.

We were correct in letting our leadership at both state and national levels know that the PAC errored and continued support of that error was not going to be tolerated.

[jivin gene]

WTF!!! Those lying bastard polititions look down their snotty noses at us, and we come out and support their sorry asses. Those bastards start the wars and then step back and draft the best and bravest to fight them. You better dissolve that PAC or I turn in my life membership and never set foot in another VFW post - ever!!!! Pardon me while I go puke.

[VeniVidiVici]

The VFW-PAC states its goal as supporting "candidates who share our views about key veterans' military and defense issues." It has backed both Republicans and Democrats this cycle.

Those candidates wear their VFW endorsement as a badge of honor.

What is not being reported is that VFW-PAC endorsed some incumbents who DIDN'T COME CLOSE to meeting VFW-PACs own criteria for endorsement! For example, Ron Klein, a first-term Democrat who is the incumbent, got the VFW-PAC nod even though he didn't come close to qualifying for the endorsement using VFW-PAC's own standards. Even so, VFW-PAC gave Klein the clown, their endorsment... over LTC Allen West.

So to blame VFW-PAC's demise on the "right wing" is BS. They were a bunch of lying leftists. THAT'S what got them tossed.