GOP Senate Leader Bill Frist is trying to put special interest gambling amendment on Iraq and Afghanistan funding bill

Our soldiers are dying in a foreign quagmire - two actually - and the Republicans' top priority is putting pork on our defense bill for special interest lobbyists that have nothing to do with defense or foreign policy or anything even vaguely related.

In fact, this is the same legislation in which House Republicans earlier this year carved out special rights for horse race gambling online. Yes, the House legislation included specific language, inserted by lobbyists, to ensure that horse race gambling stays legal on the Internet. Does Senator Frist's bill include the same?

Now, how does gambling have anything to do with the defense of our country? It doesn't. But this is what our country has come to. Somhow Republicans want us to believe that handing out bennies to the religious right and to special gambling interests is actually helping us defend the homeland, when in fact, they're defending their wallets and their rich donors at the expense of our troops.

If you think gambling legislation helps us fight Al Qaeda, then please do vote Republican in the fall.