PrintOctober 12, 2010
Barbara Boxer, Code Pink's favorite Senator
In the final days of her most difficult reelection bid, California Senator Barbara Boxer is emphasizing veterans issues to deflect criticism of her long history of undermining the US military, a cynical strategy that has garnered an endorsement from the increasingly leftist VFW. At the recent opening of a new veterans' center in Pasadena, Boxer was overcome with emotion as Senator Inouye of Hawaii defended her record of support for veterans and veterans' issues.
Let's review a few facts that Boxer and her handlers hope the voters won't recall.
In Congress during the Cold War, Boxer consistently worked to cut military funding for projects such as the Patriot missile and stealth aircraft, and supported a Congressional Black Caucus recommendation to cut the defense budget in half. In 1991, she sponsored a House resolution demanding prior Congressional approval of all covert US actions overseas - a measure that would have crippled anti-terrorist efforts. The radical proposal was defeated unanimously.
As a US Senator, Boxer voted against health care reconciliation bill amendments to exempt veterans from a new tax on medical devices, including prosthetics such as artificial limbs.
Perhaps the most revealing window into Boxer's true feelings towards our military is her close alliance with Code Pink, a radical leftist group that reviles American troops as terrorists and assassins while praising their enemies as freedom fighters. For years, Code Pink has viciously harassed wounded veterans and their families outside Walter Reed Hospital, even telling the mother of a slain Navy Seal that her son "deserved to die." Code Pink actively supports terror groups such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, Hezbollah and al Qaeda.
The Code Pink website repeatedly praises "our beloved Barbara Boxer." And why not? Boxer has worked with the group and supported its goals on many occasions. In early 2005, Boxer was the only member of the Senate to oppose certifying the Electoral College result that returned George Bush to office for a second term. Code Pink hosted rallies and participated in various demonstrations and marches to "defend democracy" against the results of the 2004 elections. They wrapped up the event at Senator Boxer's California office, "singing her songs of thanks."
Code Pink's leaders had just returned from Fallujah, Iraq, where 51 Americans had been killed and 560 wounded in the US Marines' heaviest urban combat since the Vietnam War. Code Pink delivered $600,000 in cash and supplies to the very insurgents the Marines had been fighting against - quite literally giving aid and comfort to America's enemies in a time of war. As noted in Islam Online (removed from the site -- it is revealing that Islam Online seems willing to delete articles to protect a leftist American politician -- but cached here), a diplomatic courtesy letter from Barbara Boxer helped make the trip possible.
In early 2006, Code Pink cheered as Boxer became one of only three Senators to support a resolution to censure President Bush for wiretapping US citizens; specifically, citizens who were communicating with terrorist organizations overseas. Citizens like the members of Code Pink.
It's something to keep in mind when you see Barbara Boxer weeping over American veterans.
Scott Swett is the author of To Set The Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry and webmaster for TrueTheVote.org, SwiftVets.com and WinterSoldier.com.
