Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is the spoiler when it comes to the promotions of 850 servicemen and women, some of whom have just served their country valiantly in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Why, you ask? It would seem that years ago there was an agreement between Sen. Craig and the Air Force to station eight C-130 aircraft at a National Guard base in Idaho and only four have been delivered. The question here is this; how can anyone deny our service men and women promotions so deserved because of politics?

Washington DC has become the Mecca (sorry for the inference) for political attachment. What I mean by that is everything comes with a price tag whether or not it happens to be related to the issue or not. The promotion of 850 service men & women gets attached to whether the Idaho Air National Guard gets their promised C-130 aircraft. $10 million for a research station at the South Poll and $3.3 million to fix a leaky dam in Vermont attached to a bill created to establish funding for the humanitarian aid needed directly after the major fighting was finished after Operation Iraqi Freedom. The list goes on and on and do you know why? Modern day politics.

It has become status quo to take a legitimate idea for a proposed bill and hold it hostage by "attaching” unrelated bills to it. It is the typical "one hand washing the other” tactic that most all the legislators employ. But this tactic, and some legislators call it a tool, is many times employed at the expense of good and legitimate pieces of legislation. Let’s take the 850 military promotions for example. Here we have a group of men and women who, when called upon to put their lives in harms way did so without reservation. They did it because it was their duty and they responded to the call with professionalism. It brings to mind the tome "Duty, Honor, Country.” But these brave men and women return home to their bases and their loved ones only to find that the promotions that they so justly deserve are being held hostage because of a political battle between the good Senator from Idaho and the Pentagon, a political battle that has nothing to do with the honor of military promotion.

Regular readers will note that I am positioned just a bit right of center when it comes to my political beliefs but the one thing that I truly believe in is expecting the best from our elected officials at all times regardless of what political party they are affiliated with. If we are to nurture and protect our country, then we can accept nothing less from those we elect. The practice of attaching strings or holding a piece of legislation hostage is not what we elected our legislators to do. Furthermore, it cannot be believed that the framers of our Constitution would have supported this type of tactic.

Perhaps it is time that we charge ourselves with the task of taking a very in-depth look at how the internal processes of our Congress work. Perhaps it is time that we expose each and every political figure, be they representative, senator, president or especially lobbyist, for their narcissistic practices of quelling the good in a particular piece of legislation by holding it hostage for their own political gain. Perhaps Congress should have to examine each piece of legislation separately so that we can all see who is voting yeah or nay. It would make it much easier to extract restitution from them come election time when we see how they vote on any given issue exclusively. It would be much easier to see who these legislators really are when we, the electorate, can more clearly see the types of bills they present and the responsibility that they wield.

It shouldn’t be that the greed of others or their positions as generated by self-absorption taints the good our elected officials can do. It should be that good things can come to pass in Washington DC because they should come to pass, without the blackmailing tactics of attaching pork bills to good legislation. It is time that we, the American people, demanded better from our legislators in Washington. If we don’t demand that they stop this practice you can bet as much as you want that they won’t do it on their own. Perhaps we should get a lobbyist to act on our part to make this a reality. Oh, wait, that’s right, our representatives ARE our lobbyists. Never mind.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.