GOP image goes from bad to worse, even Lincoln would have switched

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln78.html

Republicans, for the most part, have honored this kind of attitude. The problem is, the elected have not. Thanks to CSPAN and their coverage of the floor speeches, we have an enormous record of exactly where the elected Republicans have been on every issue. It has not been with the kind of morality Abe Lincoln was talking about. It has been with corporations and watching out for the rich. While they had absolutely no issue at all in funding the two occupations, these same people had a huge problem with funding the men and women who participated in both of them and then needed the nation to tend to their wounds of body and mind.

Think of this. In 2005, with two military campaigns producing more and more wounded, there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. Where was the planning for them? Why wasn't the GOP demanding increases for the VA when they held all the power? Why weren't they holding the same kind of hearings the Democrats were holding in the basement rooms, also covered by CSPAN? When the Democrats were holding up charts about the increases in the wounded and the need to take care of our veterans, the GOP were arguing against the increases and President Bush said they would have to find the funding to do anything. One more point to contemplate here is that none of the GOP elected were asking for any accountability at all no matter what the news papers were reporting or the GAO.

It was not until the following year when the Democrats took control in the November election that things began to change. In January of 2007, the Democrats took control over the committees and moved mountains out of the way. The biggest increase in VA funding in the history of the USA. The GI Bill was passed. Hearings were held on how to best take care of the veterans and programs were started that were needed since 2001. Think of where we could have been had the GOP been as interested in doing the right thing the way Lincoln talked about as they were in doing what was just perceived to be "right" attacking the morality of other people.

Think about how many veterans would still be alive today had they been taken care of when it came to PTSD. Had they received the help they needed when they needed it, it would have saved the 18 veterans committing suicide each day and the 12,000 attempted suicides each year would not have happened if they had the treatment and hope they needed to want to go on.

Read it here. I'm not making these numbers up.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/21/
cbsnews_investigates/main4032921.shtml

This should have never been morally acceptable to any of them but they were too busy just agreeing with Bush and disagreeing with the Democrats instead of working with them to do the right thing. Why didn't they take the lead when they had control? Most of them managed to vote in favor of the changes once the Democrats wrote the bills but they didn't do any of it when they had the chance.

These are the senators who received lower than a C, which we all know is just average.

Alabama
Senator Jeff Sessions F
Senator Richard C. Shelby D


Alaska
Senator Lisa Murkowski D
Senator Ted Stevens D

Arizona
Senator Jon L. Kyl D-
Senator John McCain D

Colorado
Senator Wayne Allard D

Florida
Senator Mel Martinez D

Georgia
Senator Saxby Chambliss D-
Senator Johnny Isakson F

Idaho
Senator Larry E. Craig D-
Senator Mike Crapo D

Indiana
Senator Richard G. Lugar D+

Iowa
Senator Charles E. Grassley D

Kansas
Senator Sam Brownback D
Senator Pat Roberts D

Kentucky
Senator Jim Bunning D-
Senator Mitch McConnell D

Louisiana
Senator David Vitter F

Minnesota
Senator Norm Coleman D

Mississippi
Senator Thad Cochran D
Senator Trent Lott D

Missouri
Senator Christopher S. Bond D
Senator Jim Talent D+

Montana
Senator Conrad Burns D+

Nebraska
Senator Chuck Hagel D+


Nevada
Senator John Ensign D-

New Hampshire
Senator Judd Gregg D
Senator John E. Sununu D

New Mexico
Senator Pete V. Domenici D

North Carolina
Senator Richard Burr F
Senator Elizabeth Dole D-

Ohio
Senator Mike DeWine D+
Senator George V. Voinovich D

Oklahoma
Senator Tom Coburn F
Senator James M. Inhofe D-

Pennsylvania
Senator Rick Santorum D-

South Carolina
Senator Jim DeMint F
Senator Lindsey O. Graham D-


South Dakota
Senator John R. Thune D+


Tennessee
Senator Lamar Alexander D
Senator Bill Frist D


Texas
Senator John Cornyn D-
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison D+


Utah
Senator Robert Bennett D
Senator Orrin G. Hatch D


Virginia
Senator George Allen D+
Senator John W. Warner D+

Wyoming
Senator Michael B. Enzi D-
Senator Craig Thomas D

If you really want to know how many voted against veterans, go here and see the members of the House and how bad they are.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f86_1217015024
Care to guess what party these senators belong to? They make great speeches when they know we're listening but what they say when they do when they think we aren't watching is totally different.

Now maybe you may have a better idea of what the GOP really need to do from here on.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Poll: GOP image goes from bad to worse
Posted: 02:09 PM ET
From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby

A new poll out Thursday paints a bleak picture for the GOP.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Republican Party has hit a new low.
Just 34 percent of Americans in a Gallup Poll released Thursday say they have a favorable view of the party, down 40 percent from a month ago, before the election.
What’s worse: 61 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.
According to Gallup, that unfavorable rating is the highest the polling organization has recorded for the GOP since the measure was established in 1992.
The poll of national adults was conducted on November 13-16 with a three percent margin of error.
The numbers are slightly up from a CNN poll released last week that indicated a 54 percent unfavorable rating for Republicans. Only 38 percent of those polled had a favorable rating for the party.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to bask in the glow of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic victory on November 4. The Gallup poll suggests that 55 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 39 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. Those numbers are mostly unchanged from a mid-October survey.
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