Our friend Hal Kimball, who enjoyed thirteen years serving in the Infantry, has posted several times about Brian Davis's cluelessness about vets' issues at Blue Man in a Red District*. See posts here and here.
Today, the Annandale native and Army vet's voice got some company in Mankato. This just in from the Walz campaign:
Mankato Veterans Say Brian Davis Has “Troubling” Lack of Knowledge of Veterans’ Issues
Tim Walz Gets A+ Rating From Vets Group( Mankato , Minn. ) – Today, a group of Mankato-area veterans released a copy of a letter they are sending to Congressional candidate Dr. Brian Davis, regarding Davis’s inability to list a single aspect of veterans’ health care or benefits that he would try to improve in Congress.
The veterans said it was very troubling that Davis, who is running for Congress against Rep. Tim Walz, could not name even one way in which he would work to improve health care and benefits for veterans.
“On two separate occasions, Dr. Brian Davis has been asked what he would do in Congress to improve veterans’ health care and benefits,” said Wynn Kearney, a veteran from Mankato . “Both times, he couldn’t come up with even one idea. It’s very troubling when someone who is running to represent 50,000 southern Minnesota veterans in Congress can’t answer even the most basic questions about veterans’ issues.”
Kearney said that the group was mailing Davis a copy of the 2009 Independent Budget, which is written by a coalition of Veterans’ Service Organizations and provides a comprehensive list of suggestions to improve veterans’ care and benefits.
The group also announced that Rep. Tim Walz received the highest possible rating from a national veterans’ organization for his work in Congress.
Walz’s Campaign Manager, Chris Schmitter, said that Walz received an A+ ranking on the 2008 Congressional scorecard released by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). Schmitter said that IAVA, the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , recognized Walz’s work on veterans’ issues by giving him their highest possible rating.
“As a 24-year veteran of the National Guard, Tim Walz knows how important it is that we stand by our veterans after they return home,” Schmitter said. “He’s fought for Minnesota ’s veterans in Congress and his A+ rating by the IAVA is recognition of that hard work.”
A copy of the group’s letter to Dr. Davis is [available in the thumbnail above]. To view the IAVA’s 2008 Congressional scorecard, visit: http://www.veteranreportcard.org/
View the Independent Budget here [pdf file]
Davis Said He Has No Specific Proposals to Help Our Veterans: During the debate, when asked about specific proposals he would support to increase care and benefits for our veterans, Davis said: "I have no specific proposals right now." [KSTP – League of Women Voters Debate, 10/12/08]
Davis Can’t Identify Ways to Improve Care for Veterans. At a Fairmont candidates forum last week, Dr. Davis was asked, “What action would you take to provide better educational methods and health care to our veterans?” Davis responded, “I can’t identify any specific areas where we would improve the educational or healthcare methods for veterans. I know there was a recent bill passed that is doing just that.” [Fairmont Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum, 10/2/08]
*Since he doesn't support Franken, but Barkley, in the U.S. Senate race, some wags have recommended that he change the blog's name to "Red Man in a Red District." Given Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's severe relapse of chronic hoof-in-mouth disease, we suspect odds are better that he'll have to rename it" Blue Man in a Blue District" some time on November 5th. Unlike our friend, we support Al Franken (and have already cast our absentee ballot for Al), but respect Blueman's right to decide otherwise.
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