Free Republic

Election 2004 Disabled vet vote in play for 2004 Democrats court the group after GOP leaders balk at expanding benefits for them. By SARA FRITZ Published September 27, 2003 WASHINGTON - As the 2004 election year approaches, Democrats are making a strong bid for the support of a traditional GOP constituency: disabled military veterans. Democrats in Congress seized an opportunity to appeal to veterans recently after the Bush administration indicated it does not support a proposed improvement in disability benefits. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told members of Congress that he will ask President Bush to veto the measure if...

On April 11, at the Bethesda naval hospital, George W. and Laura Bush looked on as Master Gunnery Sgt. Guadalupe Donogean, a Mexican wounded in Iraq, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. Some 37,000 noncitizens, most of them Hispanic, serve in the U.S. military; Congress is speeding through legislation to make it easier for them to become citizens, and two non- citizens killed in Iraq were granted citizenship posthumously. "It was a very profound moment," Bush said outside the hospital. "We were both honored to witness this." Many Democrats fear that the vision of Bush landing on the aircraft...