If filibustering his own proposal was not proof enough that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) is a world-class buffoon, consider this instead.
Spencer Ackerman of "Danger Room" is reporting that, on November 14th, 2012, McConnell wrote to Elizabeth King, the Pentagon’s congressional liaison, about a matter that he had been alerted to by a constituent earlier.
In a letter acquired by "Danger Room", McConnell writes "I am writing on behalf of a constituent who has contacted me regarding Guantanamo Bay prisoners receiving Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. I would appreciate your review and response to my constituent’s concerns."
As the aforementioned constituent notes in his own letter, however, the source of this rumor was an article written on "The Duffel Blog", a military-focused parody news website in the same style as "The Onion".
In the article, a fake Pentagon spokesperson is quoted saying "By allowing the detainees to use the Department of Veterans Affairs, we hope to completely crush their souls with bureaucracy."
McConnell's office explained the mix-up as careful attention to constituents.
"The senator’s office had a request from a constituent asking us to inquire about an issue. Our office forwarded the constituent’s question to the Defense Department," said a spokesman.
What McConnell's office might not understand is that this actually demonstrates a severe lack of concern for the constituents. Instead of reading the article for themselves and then writing back to said constituent with corrections, it was forwarded to the Defense Department without a thought.
Either that, or McConnell failed to check the source of the material out of anticipation for having something juicy to attack the current administrator for. Either way, it reflects poorly, especially for someone that is supposed to serve as an example for the rest of the Senatorial G.O.P.
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