Where did VoteVets come from?
This from an April, 2007 interview with Paul Rieckhoff, the man who went on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to endorse report Obama had a stronger record on veteran’s issues than Sen. McCain.
Of course, that was before Obama brought up that whole “have your private insurance pay for that battle injury” thing. Rieckhoff has been such a non-partisan champion for all of us vets (I just threw up in my mouth a little.) But I digress.
This is a nice little gem:
Is IAVA PAC something else entirely then?
(Rieckhoff) Non-existent. We folded it. It was then resurrected as VoteVets.org, by a different group, totally separate from us. We wish them well, but are separate. We might try to host an event, forum or something though, on vets issues and/or the war. We want to ask them all the tough questions. But I have my personal favorites.
Question: If it were not really the same thing under a different name, why did VoteVets.org “resurrect” the IAVA PAC instead of just creating their own? How do you “fold” something and someone else just comes along and picks it up and unfolds it like a found dollar?
Bullshit.
VoteVets “resurrected” the PAC he “folded?” That’s because PACs are like NYC Hack licenses, right? Or seat licenses for NFL games? Like they were a totally unrelated group, and they just happened to pick up an unused PAC they found laying around. If it hadn’t been IAVA PAC, they would have picked up the lapsed New Mexico Avocado Solidarity Union PAC, right?
Totally separate. Yeah. Whatever. I don’t care if the money is separate. I don’t care if there is no legal connection. Isn’t it more like IAVA spun off VoteVets because the PAC was tainting IAVA credibility/deniability in other areas?
IAVA started in 2004 as “Operation Truth.” Looking into their background is interesting indeed. At least one anti-war protester expressed anger with them for being a “mouthpiece for the Democrats.” When you have those on the far left belittling you for being a Democrat, you’re pretty much getting pegged.
Reickhoff is a politician. I watched his endorsement pick report screw it, it was an endorsement of Obama on Maddow. He sat there and endorsed Obama while dodging the word “endorsement.” It’s bullshit. Just like all of this dancing around about where VoteVets came from.
NONE of these guys was elected to run these groups. They created their own little fiefdoms, and they make a living off of running them, “representing” veterans. They make a pretty good living, apparently. There is money to be made in “representing” veterans. NONE of them represent ME. And when do they have to answer for “where does ALL the money come from, and where does ALL of it go?
They don’t, really. They just point to a pie chart that says that most of it came from the internet.
Rieckhoff is a brilliantly sidestepping politician. He made a lousy lousy lousy call on which guy would be the better president on veteran’s issues, and then he had the balls to put up a post on his website extolling his virtue for having met with Obama to convince him not to destroy the health insurance of wounded/injured veterans.
I’ve got a clue for you, Paul… You really dicked that one up. Nice job calling that one for the vets, old boy. Do you think for one minute… or even a second… that John McCain would have ever in a million years raised that idea? Not just no, but HELL NO. But you went ahead and gave them a “grade,” and you gave Obama a B. Biden got a B. What was that you gave McCain? I think it was a C-, isn’t that right? No. It was a D.
Dork.
You know, if Bush or McCain had raised that idea… even if they backed off like Obama did… you would NEVER forgive them. Never. You’d bring it up every day to someone. It was the biggest single threat to veterans welfare since Hooverville. Now it’s all hugs and smiles with Obama. One would think that Rieckhoff would forever cast a jaded eye on anything Obama had to say.
Instead, he’s now going to the White House with the Big Boys… the VFW, the Legion, DAV, the AMVETS… you know, the real veterans organizations… the ones with physical locations in your hometowns, the ones where they elect their leadership. The ones where there is accountability to the membership, because they’ve got charters and bylaws and they hold elections. Yeah, Rieckhoff the privateer is hanging with the legitimate ones. That never happened under Bush. Funny, isn’t it? Suddenly, Rieckhoff’s a playa. The only thing different is the president.
Kinda makes you wonder if that ridiculous idea was some kind of feint. Nah… nobody would do anything like that, would they?
IAVA does not represent veterans. Oh, some veterans might agree with them, and some veterans might appreciate some of the work that they do. I think that we could get the same or better out of organizations that actually elect their leadership, like the VFW, Disabled American Veterans, the American Legion or AMVETS, instead of creating little personality cults who make a living out of “representing” veterans and putting up a front for political activities that many of us veterans don’t believe anyone who “represents” us should be participating in. I don’t give a crap if Rieckhoff makes headway for TBI funding with one hand while he is bottle feeding the left with his other.
“Independent,” my ass. He gave the Democratic Response speech, but in 2007 he couldn’t distance himself far enough away from Kerry the presidential loser. You should notice in the interview that he was already talking up Obama a little. Rieckhoff is a typical Army politician. For those of you who don’t know, that’s how politics is played in the Army… getting to your point by talking all around it and forswearing any support for the outcome that you really want. Rieckhoff plays this role believably, but no one can pull off such bullshit without having a few cracks show.
The most recent annual report on the IAVA website is from 2007, showing massive growth from the year before. With over a million and a half dollars in revenue, they spent about $1.2 million on “programs” and “management.” I wonder how much of Rieckhoff’s salary was from “programs” and how much of it was from “management.” There is no statement available for 2008. There is a victory cry about legislation to fund VA healthcare… of course, that was after the VFW, the Legion and AMVETS objected to Obama’s horrible freaking plan to privately subsidize the whole thing from the pockets of veteran’s private insurance, but hey, let’s let bygones be bygones, right? It was an honest mistake. No harm, no foul. Kinda like when the pitcher dusts you off a little but doesn’t actually hit you with the ball he threw directly at your face.
I thought IVAW was supposed to be watching out for stuff like… oh, nevermind. It’s such a damned triumph that they can get Rieckhoff on the news again. And again. And again. (The Board of Directors includes a couple of advertising guys… and one of them specializes in the entertainment industry.) You’ll never see the VFW guys getting so hip as to go on The Colbert Report. They have a tendency to get old working their way up through the organization, what with all of those elections they have to win and so on.
Am I saying that Paul Rieckhoff is evil? No. I am saying that he is a self-serving egotistical man who does a few good things here and there but is careful to make himself the king. I think that he makes a pretty good living out of doing what he does, any good of which which largely replicates the efforts of the VFW, AMVETS, and others. I’m saying that his organization endorses candidates without “endorsing” them, and that they are politically enough motivated that they didn’t see the attempted mugging of wounded/injured veterans by the Obama Administration coming because they supported Obama’s agenda overall and they simply weren’t strictly being advocates for veterans, but instead in the business of making it appear that veterans really supported Obama. I’m saying that Rieckhoff has created a business around being an “advocate,” but he only “advocates” in accordance with Democratic Party lines. I’m also saying that there is something wrong with that.
He’s just a guy, no more special or noteworthy and even less worthwhile to listen to compared to a lot of veterans. He describes himself as an “expert” on Iraq, which he isn’t. He was an expert whiner about things that were missing, but he was such an expert that he totally missed the call, in 2007, on what direction the conflict was going in. Nice call again, hotshot. We’re talking about a man whose favorite strategic analysis tool is the game, Risk.
Yes, the board game. In more than one place I have heard or read him making the Risk analogy. This is not a high level of either strategic or tactical analysis. Here’s a series of clips on YouTube, a five part series, where he’s doing a show called, “Shoot the Messenger” or “Thinking and Drinking.” I can’t tell. It says both. He drops the Risk analogy in one of the segments. It doesn’t sound any smarter coming out of his mouth than it does in print. He’s also pretty clueless about Afghanistan. I did not hear one substantial thing come out of his mouth about Afghanistan… but, then, that’s a Risk player for you.
Have you ever heard a serious expert on military affairs ever once refer to the game of Risk? Neither have I. That’s because it’s ridiculously simplistic.
There are five parts to the video below. It’s not exciting, but it’s telling. It’s like he’s hanging out with his Demfriends and assumed no one else would notice. Kinda like an Olympic swimmer taking bong hits.
He’s not an idiot… but he’s not a military expert, either. He’s well-spoken, and he sounds like he makes sense… and he’s definitely boosting Obama and downgrading McCain. Non-partisan my ass. I’m sorry, real independents just aren’t that chummy with Rachel Maddow. He also talks about how the VA is like nationalized health care… by way of advocating for national health care. He’s obviously in favor of nationalized health care, which is socialism, which I’m opposed to. Strongly. His domestic policy is as strong as his military analysis.
I’ve got news for you, Paul. Nationalized health care is an entitlement just because you live. VA health care is something that is earned via service. The VA is not a model of a free giveaway. That’s got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard come out of the mouth of someone who should know better. It’s also a lie that the Democrats peddle, because they apparently view the government as something to be milked as much as possible. He sees his advocacy as some sort of production thing towards that end.
He’s a Lieutenant with the best ponzi scheme in town. Musta learned that on Wall Street. He’s like a guy who came home and started a business and is doing quite well running it. He got great marketing. I’m sorry, no one just blunders into that type marketing. Ever tried to start a business, even a charity, and just had guys like this suddenly in your corner? They’ve created a brand and he’s pushing it consistently. The big difference is that his business is tax-exempt and really depends on nothing more than a bunch of yak. In return, he gets donations, small and large, until he’s grown his business from “a cell phone and a few dedicated followers” to a business that had $1.5 million in revenues in 2007 (more than double those of 2006) and personal meetings with the President of the United States. He doesn’t have to answer to an electorate at all. Not bad, huh?
Notice that he didn’t meet with the last President. He didn’t have a seat at the table. He didn’t deserve one, nor does he now. Why is he meeting with this one all of a sudden? Why the instant credibility? Would he have such credibility had McCain been elected? I think not.
Now, here’s another clue… watch how often he deviates from the Democratic Party line. He doesn’t. I guess that might explain the faulty analysis on some of these veteran issues and the dependence on a (very simple) board game for the strategic/tactical analysis. It’s all very clever, but it’s true. IAVA may be able to pass legal inspection on this issue, but that doesn’t make it any less true. It’s a political strategy, as is VoteVets, (they are born of the same mother,) and they are front groups, like MoveOn, for the Democrats. Some say that there is evidence of a linkage between MoveOn and VoteVets. If there is a linkage between those two, then there would be linkage between all three. Each fills a niche. Still works out really well for the unaccountable boyz in the driver’s seats of these organizations. They are petty celebrities embraced by the liberal media (ever notice how many times Rieckhoff has been on Maddow and CNBC in particular?) and they get paid (well) without having to answer to a constituency. It may be legal, but it is subterfuge, and it sucks.
Another word for subterfuge is lie.
**UPDATE**
Did I say politician? Did I say actor? Well, how many advocates, other than Jane Fonda, have their own IMDb page? How many veterans would be in a movie with Matt Damon? (Say it with the “Team America” flourish… it sounds funnier that way.)
The Left rewards its own. As an advocate for veterans, he’s a pretty good actor.
Posted on May 27th, 2009 by Andy Wahl
Filed under: Uncategorized
Go back to 26 min, 40 sec into Episode #29 of our You served show here, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/youserved/2009/03/12/Episode-20 and you will hear Brandon Friedman of VoteVets spout almost the same garbage and bullshit that Rieckoff does in this video.
Oh and hey idiot Rieckoff, everyone to include your FEARLESS leader Obama said the surge worked.