Pro-Bush Front Group Vets For Freedom Announces Support For Cornyn

The first in what is likely to be a long line of pro-Bush front groups has come out in support of John Cornyn against Rick Noriega:

As the largest Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans organization in America, Vets for Freedom is proud to announce its support of John Cornyn for United States Senate in Texas. Senator Cornyn is and always has been a strong supporter of America’s Armed Forces. As a first-term Senator who is highly active in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Cornyn has proven time and time again his unwavering dedication to protecting our nation, defending those who risk their lives for our freedom, and supporting all who have ever worn the uniform.

While the first line makes it sound like Vets for Freedom is as tame as the elderly men sitting at the bar of your local VFW Post (except for the occasional Saturday night bar brawl), it is anything but.

Vets for Freedom (and Vets For Freedom Action Fund, an IRS 527) are a Republican front group managed by GOP-affiliated PR, media, legal, and political consultants including none other than ex-White House spokesman Taylor Gross.

Their primary goal? To defeat candidates who advocate ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq (in our lifetime).

Their Texas State Captain, Knox Nunnally, has ties to Vinson & Elkins (attorneys for Enron) through his dad, Knox D. Nunnally, a V&E Partner (and Bush contributor) who was one of the key members of the defense team for Firestone in all of the SUV rollover cases litigated some years back.

Here is what Nunnally has to say:

“Senator Cornyn understands that the fight we are currently undertaking in Iraq is essential to our success in the global fight against Islamic extremism. He recognizes and acknowledges the success of our current military strategy implemented by General Petraeus, and has been a steadfast source of support of all the men and women who are winning the Global War on Terror. Our country needs more dedicated people like John in Washington.”

Evidently, Nunnally thinks that “steadfast support” equals voting against benefits for veterans such as himself.

For what it’s worth, some of Vets for Freedom’s other Texas connections include national board member and San Antonio attorney Thad Coakley. Coakley happens to have the distinction of prosecuting the first contested court martial for a soldier refusing the anthrax vaccine in the Department of Defense. Now, of course, the federal courts are requiring the military to reconsider these cases.

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