Veterans in politics need to prove what they say after election

When it's time for elections, being a veteran seems to really matter. As with the case of Joe Sestak winning the Democratic Primary from Arlen Speckter, the used to be Republican Senator from Pennsylvania.

Joe Sestak: From Navy Admiral to Dragon Slayer
Patricia Murphy
Columnist
When Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), the Navy admiral-turned-congressman, defeated 30-year incumbent Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night, it was the second time in his short political career that he had knocked out a better-known incumbent. Four years earlier, Sestak bested Rep. Curt Weldon, beating the Republican incumbent by nearly 13 points to take the seat representing Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional district in Congress.

Two men who know what it is like to serve this country. One from the Navy and the other from the Air Force.

Specter studied first at the University of Oklahoma. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, majored in International Relations, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1951. During the Korean War, he served stateside in the United States Air Force as an officer within the Air Force Office of Special Investigations from 1951 to 1953
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter

We can also see that it is important when they claim to be something they were not, even by mistake in the heat of the moment.

Campaign in Damage Control Over ‘a Few Misplaced Words’

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER and JAMES BARRON
Published: May 18, 2010

HARTFORD — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat running for the United States Senate, said on Tuesday that he took “full responsibility” for saying he had served in Vietnam when he actually had received five military deferments before enlisting in the Marine Reserve, enabling him to avoid combat overseas.


His mea culpa, broadcast live on national television, was hastily arranged by Mr. Blumenthal’s campaign and national Democratic aides in an effort to put out a political fire that some party officials had worried could imperil his candidacy.

“On a few occasions I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that and I take full responsibility,” Mr. Blumenthal said at a packed news conference at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in West Hartford. “But I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country.”

Mr. Blumenthal, 64, said he had been unaware of what he called “those misplaced words” when he delivered them. He said that the errors were “totally unintentional” and that he had made them only a few times in hundreds of public appearances.
read more here
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19reax.html?src=me

What I totally fail to understand is, why aren't they all important to us all year around? We all seem to have fallen into the habit of assumption when it comes to veterans. We simply assume they will take care of other veterans, but as we look up the voting records of a lot of veterans in Congress, we see when their votes are with veterans or against them. No matter who wins in these elections, we have to measure them by what they actually do against what they claim to want to do.