Beyond the Dome

So the veterans' educational benefits package John McCain opposed, but most of his Senate colleagues didn't, appears to be on its way to President Bush's desk as part of the final emergency spending bill for Iraq. And Bush is ready to sign the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., into law.

That's a bit of a quandary. What's a presidential candidate to do? Better claim credit for whatever you can.

In a statement this afternoon, McCain made the most of a "transferability" provision added to the final package that would allow service members to pass on the educational benefits to their family members. From the statement:

I am very pleased that the important education benefits that will be provided to our veterans and servicemembers will include the option for those currently serving to transfer educational benefits to their families and in that manner encourage retention. That has always been my primary concern with respect to the Webb bill, and it is essential that we continue to act decisively to encourage military service and ensure the well being of our All Volunteer Force.

With the addition of the transferability provisions sought by Senators Graham, Burr, myself and others to give servicemembers the right to transfer earned G.I. Bill benefits to spouses and children, we will have achieved in offering vastly improved educational benefit while also offering incentives for continued service by the most capable, experienced NCO's and officers.

McCain's statement makes it sound like the transferability provision was the language written by him and his allies, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Richard Burr of North Carolina. It wasn't. It was just an extension of a pilot program already in place since 2002 that didn't get much use from the Department of Defense.

In fact, Webb's co-sponsor, Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia - a longtime friend of McCain's from their service together on the Armed Services Committee felt it was necessary to point out that such a program was already on the books. He was particularly incensed by a White House press release this afternoon that suggested Bush had asked for the transferability language and "Congress answered his call."

"The concept of transferability has been around for a long time," Warner said in a Senate floor speech late this afternoon. "It has been around for a long time and received no support from the Bush administration in 2002 when it went on the law books. It was not utilized by the department."

Moreover, transferability wasn't the only concern McCain had raised about the Webb version of the veterans' bill. He complained that it was an expensive new program that would have made it harder for the armed forces to retain service members.

Still, McCain has been around the Senate long enough to know this: When you're on the losing end of a 75-22 vote - the margin of the Senate's approval of the original Webb bill last month - you take what you can get.