Kuhl wearing Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” flightsuit?
So, I want to be able to trust my congresspeople. I want to have at least a decent feeling that they’re more about the people they represent than their careers. And I don’t want to have to read between the lines all the time to figure out where they stand on issues, especially if they talk a good game but vote differently. I definitely don’t want to have to spend time looking up their voting records– I’d rather be spending more time with my beautiful family.
But when I read the Elmira Star-Gazette article that Exile found, about Kuhl’s trip to Iraq, a couple things jumped out at me:
1) Bob Van Wicklin, Kuhl’s spokesman, said:
“The only way to get a true feel for what’s going on there is to get out there and put his boots on the ground.”
Now this is a funny thing to say about a man who has never wore the uniform and had a 9 year draft deferment during Vietnam. Kuhl voted against all bills to do with military retirees and vets up until the last couple months, probably because he realized he’s in the run of his life against “Fighting Dem” Eric Massa. Even with that, the DAV (Disabled American Vets) gives him an anemic 25% rating. I’m sorry, but you gotta do better than taking taxpayer’s money for a political junket to Iraq to prove you “support the troops”.
2) Van Wicklin went on to say:
When he returns, Kuhl will set up a series of meetings with the news media to report on his impressions
So, why a “series” of meetings? Wouldn’t one be enough to report back on what he found out? So, let me see if I got this right– Kuhl wants to have only one (1) debate, and make it only 1/2 hour long, on a small radio station in the Southern Tier. But he wants to hold “a series” of meetings to announce, what? “Iraq is doing great, don’t mind the mess, vote for me?”
I’d be interested in finding out who the other congresscritters are on this junket and how endangered THEY are, since this smells an awful lot more like politics than anything else.
To me, though, this little nugget made my day. Again, from Van Wicklin:
“As a congressman, oversight is one of the most important parts of the job”
HAHAHAHA! You’re kidding me, right? This, about the most RubberStamping-est congress in history, about one of the most RubberStamp-happy congresscritters in DC? He voted according to the current administration’s wishes 93% of the time, is working with others in the Republican leadership to make the administration’s illegal wiretapping LEGAL, and OVERSIGHT is “one of the most important parts of the job”?
Buddy, come on, how dumb do you think we are?
Related posts:
This is way off topic, but I wanted to raise this and didn’t think a larger post was appropriate.
Have Rochester bloggers considered blogging at the DCCC website? Others seem to be doing it for a number of congressional campaigns. We could certainly raise some visibility there for Eric Massa and other candidates.
The above post was great by the way.
Thanks! We’ve done some blogging at other progressive websites and have talked about expanding that. The DCCC is an interesting idea– we’ll look into it.
[...] Uh-oh.ÂÂ If those vets are counting on him to “fight for fair and proper treatment”, shouldn’t they take a look at his record?ÂÂ Some have, and as we’ve noted before, the Disabled American Vets rate him an anemic 25%. [...]
[...] 2. The DIA? Well, it’s going to be a step up from having to say unintelligent stuff like this. [...]