Sen. Larry Craig is the
former Republican Chairman
of the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee, and one of many
who have been subordinated
to the ranking Minority seat
on the heels of the lost
elections last November.

Senator Craig is NOT a Veteran,
and in an odd kind of way,
he makes for a stunning contrast
when compared to his counterpart
in the House, Rep. Steve Buyer.

Both Buyer and Craig function
at the same level of disconnect
and out-of-touchedness, and yet
Buyer is a Veteran and Craig
is not.

Most independent Veterans did
not get the universal message
in the last 2006 session that
Larry Craig is big trouble for
Veterans, and many, for a time,
were actually running to Craig
on issues as if he was some kind
of rescuer for us. He isn't.

In fact it can be said that
Sen. Larry Craig is a glaring
example of what the national
Veterans problem is
as opposed to anything even
close to what our solution
might be. In short, the Veterans
advocates were actually running
to their own Doom when they
ran to Larry Craig for legislative
assistance.

Sen. Larry Craig has one of
the plainest and unglamourous
legislative backgrounds you
would ever want to read as
a congressional type.
He basically grew up on a
family ranch, went to college,
and then immediately ran for
elected office. The end.

He has not one iota of any
connection to Veterans or
their issues, other than
he was apparently "dumped"
into the Senate Veterans Committee
as a newbee and not much
else for a reason why.

So it's no wonder that he
emerged as one of the most
disconnected, most dysfunctional,
most out of touch Veterans
Committee person known to
Vet-Kind everywhere in the
2006 session last year.

Most of us national advocates
spent the entire last 2006
legislative season putting
up opposition in the House
to do what we could to block
almost every misworded piece
of crap that was emulating
from Larry Craig's office.
It was one bungled bill after
another and Craig all by
himself kept all of us running
in opposition to the whole pile.

It was Craig's office who
gave momentum to the much
bally-hooed lawyers for
Veterans clause in the last
minute and totally rushed
end of session VA budget
bill, which seriously imposed
full lawyer fees upon poor
Veterans even in cases where
the VA was at fault in denied
claims. This on the heels of
so many of us chasing the
House for totally FREE lawyers
for Veterans claims. Hey Larry,
what is it about the word FREE that
you don't understand??

It was Larry Craig who also
rushed through another end
of session anti-Vet clause that
was tagged onto a VA Healthcare
bill, which effectively handed
over some $40 million additonal
budget money for the Court of
Veterans Appeals to enlarge and
entrench itself as the nations
lead perpetrator against disabled
Veterans who are pursuing their
benefits money in the system.
This is something that only a Senator
who wants to flirt with political
suicide would do, and sure enough,
he did.

Sen. Larry Craig is a member
of the old, white boy crowd
in Congress who is a throwback
to days gone by, where legislators
could say and do whatever stupid
or deceptive thing they wanted to,
and then without blinking a
guilty eye, blow their own horns
as if they had done something
wonderful without the public
or constituents ever knowing
the truth about the totality
of their deeds.

Senator Craig has not yet
joined the enlightened era
of Veterans literally thundering
on the Internet and all talking
to each other and probing
official websites at every
corner of Congress, where we
absolutely do eventually find
out what the Devil in the Details
are. He doesn't quite get it
just yet, that it's no longer
viable to tag on undesireable
anti-Veteran clauses inside
of Bills which on the surface,
are absolutely what the Veterans
do want. Hey Larry, we are hip
to that move so get over your
sorry self!

Senator Larry Craig has a
serious lesson to learn out
here in out Vet universe,
that it's not nice to fool
the Veterans.

So I enter Larry Craig in this
Forum category as the Veterans
legislative fool of the day,
and as an all time warning to
Veterans everywhere to stop running
to him as if he actually has a brain
to run on. He is, for sure, running
on empty so get a clue.