MILITARY TO INVESTIGATE LEAVE GRANTED TO MISSOURI LAWMAKER WHO CAST DECIDING VOTE ON GUNS

AP Breaking News ^ | 12 September 2003 | Paul Sloca & Robert Burns

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The U.S. military will investigate whether regulations were violated when a Missouri state senator was granted leave from duty in Cuba so he could return home to cast the deciding vote to override a veto of concealed guns legislation. State Sen. Jon Dolan, a Republican and a major in the Army National Guard, had been serving at Guantanamo Bay for only two weeks, and military regulations say a newly deployed soldier must be on duty at least two months before getting a leave.

Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Friday that the matter will be investigated by the U.S. Southern Command in Florida, which oversees Guantanamo Bay, where Dolan is stationed as a public affairs officer. U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., sent a letter Friday to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld seeking an investigation into why Dolan was granted a six-day leave to cast his vote Thursday. The override of Democratic Gov. Bob Holden's veto gave most Missourians the right to carry concealed guns.

"I am most concerned about whether Senator Dolan's case establishes a precedent that allows members of the National Guard who have certain political affiliations to be permitted privileges that other members of the National Guard are routinely denied," Clay wrote. Dolan said Friday the push for the investigation was politically motivated. "I did my duty and I would do it again," Dolan said. "If my career ends, that's fine. This is simply political retribution."

Dolan received approval for leave from his boss, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart. Burfeind said his leave was granted on a special exception, which is not uncommon. Burfeind referred other questions about Dolan to Southern Command, which said the issue was being handled by public affairs officials in Guantanamo Bay, who did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. Also at issue is whether Dolan violated federal law and military regulations by performing duties of his political office while on active military duty. The rules apply to a reserve officer serving on active duty under a call to active duty of more than 270 days. Dolan said military lawyers told him before he left Cuba that because he hadn't served 270 days of his tour, the rule didn't apply to him. "My position in that issue remains clear," Dolan said. "I knew about the directive before hand and did not feel it applied in my case."

[Timesink]

Why do I get the feeling Rummy is going to keep this letter in his drawer for a couple of weeks, and then send it back to Clay saying (in Diplomat-Speak, of course), "Nothing illegal or untoward occurred here; it was perfectly in line with military regulations. Kindly go f--- yourself."

By the way, note that the AP headline appears to be false. This jackass has ASKED Rumsfeld to "investigate," but I see nothing in the article to indicate Rummy has any intention of actually doing so.

[Ramius]

The decision to grant leave or not is utterly up the C.O. and nobody --nobody-- else. He requested leave and it was granted by the C.O. There is no story beyond that.

[Timmy]

Amazing, isn't it? Dolan is an elected Missouri Senator with every right (and duty) to vote. The Dems only care about winnning. They hate democracy.

[concerned about politics]

Dolan said Friday the push for the investigation was politically motivated. "I did my duty and I would do it again," Dolan said. "If my career ends, that's fine. This is simply political retribution."

Yep. Deathocrats will pull anything they can think of out of their butts right now.

[concerned about politics]

Oh really? Lets think about this. I was stationed active duty Navy in Japan during the last general election. I had people who worked for me who never recieved their absentee ballots. Should these military personnel have been given special leave so they could fly home to their home of record so they could vote in person?

It depends. If in combat, it would be a bad idea for them to leave. Instead, the election results should be held up to wait for their votes.
People in the military depend on timely arrival of their ballots. If our government screws that up, our government should offer an alternative to correct their mistake.
Remember the 2000 election? Clinton saw to it military ballots didn't make it out on time, and thousands were trashed. He refered to it as "An internal err, heh heh. Sorry."

[scott7278]

Did you hear some the liberal whiner yesterday who was complaining that the overriding of Holden's veto was a threat to democracy? "They already voted in 1999!" is their battle cry.

Somehow, I think twenty-three senators overturning one man's pen is pretty democratic myself. Plus, it's in the constitution (most importantly). Hate mongers and power-grabbers are all the libs are. Anything to stay in power -- even attempting a reversal of a constitutional checks-and-balances system. Amazing.

(And yes, I know this is a Republic).

[concerned about politics]

threat to democracy

Aw heck. They say that every time they have a temper tantrum.
They wouldn't recognize democracy if it hit them in the face.
What they really mean is: "It's a threat to socialism."

[barker]

Hi Kim, how you doing? Checked the online KC (Red) Star opinion pages today, for the first time in months, to see what they were saying about the vetoes. Believe me, you don't want to go there.

And I'm so sick of St Louis politicians I could .........

[jokar]

Bump.

Let's get the Ba$tard.

[petuniasevan]

Did you know about this outrage?

[FreedomCalls]

"I am most concerned about whether Senator Dolan's case establishes a precedent that allows members of the National Guard who have certain political affiliations to be permitted privileges that other members of the National Guard are routinely denied," [U.S. Rep. William Lacy] Clay wrote.

How would Rep Clay have reacted if a crucial vote were being taken and the Marine in question was a Democrat who wanted to come back to override a Republican veto and the Department of Defense were to have PREVENTED him from coming home to cast his vote? We would have heard of Rumsfeld the Nazi...keeping our people enslaved in chains...making a partisan decision to pass Republican legislation...etc. How predictible.

[infowarrior]

Doesn't this POS look like Hussein's son! Uday? Or what' s his name?

Are you referring to the one who was recently renamed "Ed-day"?

the infowarrior

[Ronin]

Provided, of course, he has the leave on the books.

[Don Joe]

"If ol' Lacy had his head and eyebrows shaved, he would look exactly like a young James Carville."

And his wife is the spitting image (to coin a phrase) of Hillary Rodman Clinton.

[Don Joe]

You're assuming that there are dem pols who volunteer to serve their country in the reserves. (At least enough of them to matter.)

[Don Joe]

"...it's against the law for any federal employee to actively work for any sort of political campaign..."

Yeah, but that's set aside when they're "working for good causes", eh?

Sorta like "separation of church and state" is set aside when Jessie Jackson uses the pulpit to stump for various leftie candidates. Try that in a conservative venue, and watch said church(es) lose their IRS non-profit status, and worse.

[demlosers]

This is what's going to happen -- Nothing. The military will ask a few questions and they will be satisfied; case closed.

In anycase, the RATS are not gonna get the vote changed. They're Losers!

[whereasandsoforth]

The whole point is to cause trouble. It doesn't matter if he broke out of prison to be there. Once he was there to vote in his legal capacity, his vote counted. This veto over-ride cannot, will not and forever shall not be invalidated by these tricks and distortions brought to you by the Democrats/socialist.

[wku man]

Oh man, why did I look at that pic? It's early, and now I've lost my appetite for Waffle House. Dang...

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Sorry about that. I guess it doesn't hurt to see this one over and over. People need to wake up. Then, to see Lacy's picture taken with Hillary and some try to say we do NOT have a coordinated effort to take us to despotic government? LOL. We're headed straight for totalitarianism.