Mother Jones: VFW vs. Tea Party Patriots

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/tea-party-vfw-congress-election-candidates

They've made it through Tarawa, Chosin, Khe Sanh, Desert Storm, and a whole lot more. But the Veterans of Foreign Wars are waging a new battle for survival this year: They're fending off a mutiny by tea partiers.

The tea party movement enjoys strong backing from some armed forces vets, and many of its best-known congressional challengers have military bonafides. But none can boast of an endorsement from the 2.2 million-strong VFW, the nation's largest advocacy group for combat veterans. As the march toward Election Day continues, the group's PAC (which has a seperate leadership) is spurning tea party candidates—including at least one who's a card-carrying VFW member—to endorse establishment politicians from both parties. As a result, the interest group is facing a mutiny within its ranks, one that goes all the way to the top. And angry VFW members might defect to newer vets' groups dedicated to right-wing causes. "I'm calling it the VFW's version of the tea party, in a way," says one military blogger and disenchanted member of the organization. "It is apparent that they have gone so far off track at the national level, just like our elected officials, that they've lost touch with who really matters—local guys."

From Hernando County, Florida, to Windsor, Connecticut, plenty of the VFW's 8,000-plus local posts are happy to host tea party meetings for the dozens of GOP vets vying for House and Senate seats next month. But when the group's political action committee released its latest slate of endorsements (PDF), none of those hopefuls made the cut. Not Joe Miller, the Sarah Palin-approved ex-soldier who's already dispatched sitting Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the state's GOP nomination. Not Ilario Pantano, an outspoken conservative former Marine and VFW member running for the House in North Carolina. And not Allen West, the Islam-criticizing Army vet who's challenging a two-term Democratic congressman in a South Florida district. In all, at least 11 GOP tea party candidates (see a list below) with solid military credentials have been passed over by the VFW, even as it's endorsed incumbents like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, and Jesse Jackson Jr. (The VFW's also proven friendly to incumbent conservatives like John McCain, Chuck Grassley, and Joe "You Lie!" Wilson.)

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