Dino Rossi: Quick to pose next to veterans, slow to answer a simple war funding question.
  • Dino Rossi: Quick to pose next to veterans, slow to answer a simple war funding question.
On Monday, I put out a $33 bounty on Dino Rossi's answer to a simple question:
If you'd been a U.S. Senator in the years since 2001, would you have voted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would you have matched Democrat Patty Murray's record in voting to support their continued funding?
The reason for the bounty? I sent the above question to Rossi's campaign two weeks ago, and they've been refusing to answer me ever since. Maybe Rossi's not speaking to me because we made fun of his Will Ferrell pic, I thought. Maybe someone else can pry an answer out of him. If so, great.

Today, Josh Feit at Publicola—a site that has so far refused to explore the Ferrell-Rossi link—was given the answer to the question I began asking on July 2.

Rossi’s campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Morris tells PubliCola that Rossi would have voted for both wars.

And, Rossi would have voted to fund both wars through emergency appropriations. Which, as I've been pointing out, raises a question about Rossi's current opposition to extending unemployment insurance benefits through emergency appropriations.

Josh, picking up that line of questioning, writes:

And that brings us to the fundamental question about Rossi’s budget priorities. While Rossi supports classifying money for the troops in Afghanistan as emergency spending (thereby adding $37.1 billion to the deficit), he does not support another emergency expenditure currently being considered by the Senate—emergency unemployment benefits for workers who are struggling through long-term unemployment. Why? Because he thinks it will add to the deficit...

So, deficit spending is wrong when it comes to dealing with the recession at home, but it’s okay when it comes to fighting the war in Afghanistan?

“This is a case where you’re trying to fund the troops in the field. It should be funded. There are certain things that do qualify as an emergency for emergency funding,” Morris said.

All of which, as I've been pointing out, opens Rossi up to an attack from Democrats:

Why aren't unemployed Americans an emergency? And why isn't helping unemployed Americans at home just as urgent as helping Americans fighting foreign wars?

Check's in the mail, Josh.