Democrats form veterans’ council

By Rick Maze
Times staff writer

In a war over votes in the November elections, Democrats launched an assault Wednesday with the announcement of a veterans’ advisory council and a new Web site to show support for veterans and military families.

The Democratic National Committee also announced a new Fighting Democrats Web site, which will provide links to Democrats who are military veterans and running for Congress.

“America’s veterans and military families share many of the core values of the Democratic Party, including a commitment to service and a profound belief that every American who works hard should have the opportunity to succeed,” said Howard Dean, the DNC chairman.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy and retired Army Reserve Col. Don Fowler are co-chairmen of the new Democratic National Veterans and Military Families Council, which will have 28 other members who are veterans or military spouses.

Kennedy, who retired in 2000 after 31 years of service, was the first Army woman to reach the three-star rank but she became well-known in 1999 for another reason: making a sexual harassment complaint against another general officer for an incident three years earlier. Since her retirement, Kennedy has worked on the fringes of the Democratic Party, supporting many candidates and causes while declining to run for office herself.

Fowler, a former head of the DNC, spent 31 years in the military, mostly in the reserves, before his retirement in 1987.

Other council members include retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, the former head of U.S. Central Command; retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Preston Taylor, who was an assistant secretary for veterans’ affairs during the Clinton administration; and several veterans who were involved in the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Democrats, sensing the Republican Party has been weakened on national security issues by the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war, have launched several efforts to get more attention for their ideas about military and veterans programs. But it has not been easy.

On March 29, Democrat leaders in Congress staged an event to show how they were fighting on behalf of troops and veterans, while the Bush administration was not. The White House rearranged a major speech on Iraq by President Bush to be held at the same time a few blocks away, and Republicans in Congress launched a counterattack on Democrats.

“Being tough on national security requires a lot more than election-year political posturing,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who won his seat by defeating disabled Vietnam War veteran and former VA chief Sen. Max Cleland in a campaign where Chambliss painted Cleland as being weak on national security.

“President Bush and the Republican majority in Congress have been aggressively working to provide our law enforcement, military and intelligence communities the necessary tools to prevent and disrupt future terrorist attacks, and America is safer today because of these efforts.”

Dean said Democrats have a better plan, if they can just get the word out to voters. “We want to send a clear message to our troops, we stand with you while you are serving and we’ll stand with you when your service is done,” he said.

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