The Senate was briefly tied in knots today when Republicans forced a vote on a veterans' benefits bill co-sponsored by John McCain. But was it presidential politics, or just the Republican senators' way of complaining about their treatment by the Democratic majority?
In a way that's unique to the Senate, it probably was a bit of both.
Democratic leaders were incensed when Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina , one of McCain's closest allies, tried to attach his GI benefits proposal - which is co-sponsored by McCain - to a collective bargaining bill that's a high priority for the Democrats. The surprise move came two days after McCain and Graham had offered in writing to negotiate with Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who has been working on his own version of the measure since January 2007, and a day after Graham and Webb had talked about setting up the negotiations.
To catch up on the politics of the competing bills, and why Democrats insist the Webb version is more generous, here's the writeup from CQ's Kathleen Hunter, Bart Jansen and Josh Rogin.
The bottom line for the presidential race, however, is that Barack Obama has been attacking McCain for not supporting the Webb version, calling the Republican nominee-in-waiting "one of the few Senators of either party who oppose this bill because he thinks it's too generous."
So when Graham filed his version as an amendment to the collective bargaining bill, Webb called it "an irresponsible act" that was "done in bad faith." And Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois - an Obama ally - griped that "this is about the presidential campaign. This is about Senator McCain's dilemma."
"Senator McCain is looking for political cover here in a very difficult situation," said Durbin. "So what he has done is hijack another bill." (Webb's version is set to be included in the supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war that the Senate will take up next week.)
Graham, however, insists presidential politics have nothing to do with it. In fact, he insists he's going to keep talking with Webb about a compromise. The issue, he says, is that Democratic leaders planned to include the Webb version as a take-it-or-leave-it deal in the supplemental bill, with no guarantees that Republicans would get to vote for their own measure.
So, Graham says, he filed his version as an amendment to the collective bargaining bill because "this is the last train leaving the station" before the supplemental vote next week.
"Those of us who have a different opinion will have to take a vote, and everyone will say, 'Oh, you don't care about veterans.' Well, I do care about veterans," Graham said.
But Graham thinks Webb's formula for covering education costs would create too many disparities from state to state, and he and McCain want to include incentives to retain service members in the armed forces, an issue Graham says Webb doesn't cover. (Critics of Graham's approach, meanwhile, say his benefits formula wouldn't keep pace with tuition increases.)
It's hardly unusual for senators in the minority party to complain about being treated unfairly, of course. But in a presidential election year, it's also not surprising that Republicans would resent looking like they're against veterans' benefits - or that McCain would want a chance to prove that Republicans care about them, too.
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