In Washington Irving’s book “The Life of George Washington”, the president was quoted as saying “When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.”<\/p>\n
The Washington Times<\/a> reports this morning that, in the spirit of that quote, more veterans are choosing to run for political office this season than they have in the past. The Times highlights the campaign of Bill Russell’s run at the seat vacated by the late John Murtha’s ample ass;<\/p>\n Mr. Russell’s battle with the party establishment is one that many veterans face when looking to make the jump into politics, said D. Patrick Mahoney, an Iraq veteran and president of the Veterans for Congress political action committee.<\/p>\n Mr. Mahoney has been sharply critical of the Pennsylvania Republican leadership’s decision to pass over Mr. Russell, saying the move had less to do with qualifications than with the Republican establishment’s obsession with Mr. Burns’ wealth.<\/p>\n “That’s why you don’t see more veterans running for Congress. It’s so expensive,” he said. “It’s tough for veterans who have been fighting a war, stationed around the world. Veterans who come back and want to seek office \u2014 especially the recent vets \u2014 generally are not going to be the rich guys.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some organizations have tried to overcome that cash shortfall. VoteVets<\/a>, for an example, has run such stellar candidates as party perv, Eric Massa and the unbalanced Joe Sestak. Of course, with VoteVets, they require their candidates to adhere to the agenda of MoveOn.org and embrace issues that have nothing to do with veterans.<\/p>\n Other organizations that focus strictly on electing veterans are emerging like Iraq Veterans for Congress<\/a> and Combat Veterans for Congress<\/a>. I’ve linked their endorsed candidates for your perusal.<\/p>\n