Beyond the Dome

If you were John McCain, would you fly all the way in from California to vote against an Iraq spending bill most of your colleagues voted for - and against a veterans' educational benefits bill just about everyone voted for?

The real John McCain didn't either. Instead, he submitted a statement to the Congressional Record late today that lays out all of his objections to the spending bill and the veterans' package that is now included in it.

The statement is vintage McCain. The spending package is "a bloated bill, loaded down with extraneous provisions unrelated to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan." (He lists them all, as he has done throughout his Senate career with spending bills he opposes.)

And the veterans' benefit package sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia - and co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia - is flawed because it wouldn't do enough to keep people in the armed services or allow them to transfer education benefits to their children and spouses, McCain said.

He also threw in a complaint about the fairness of the process, scolding Democrats for not allowing Republican amendments. It was the same complaint Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina raised last week when he forced a vote on an alternative veterans' bill he and McCain wrote.

"Adding a $52 billion mandatory spending program to this war funding bill without any opportunity for amendments to improve the measure is not the way to move legislation," McCain said. A properly structured veterans' bill could have "near unanimous support," he said, and "I am confident that we will reach that point in the days ahead."

Of course, McCain might have more bargaining leverage if Webb's bill hadn't won 75 votes today, including 25 Republicans. This afternoon, Webb shared with reporters his theory of why it won so much support: "I know that there was a lot of communication between a lot of the veterans' groups and the Republicans about how important this was to them."