Randy Kuhl shows some guts
I don’t know how we missed this — since it happened in September — but Kuhl deserves a lot of credit for it:
19 Representatives Urge Direct Diplomatic Dialogue With Iran
On Sept. 29, 19 representatives signed a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to “open up direct diplomatic channels with Iran.†While acknowledging “the inflammatory rhetoric of President Ahmadinejad,†the letter, originated by Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), points out that nearly 26 years of not having formal diplomatic dialogue with Iran “has not yielded positive results.†Its strongest paragraph argues, “there are seldom occasions in history where a great country should fear dialogue with a potential adversary. On the contrary, dialogue is needed to explain clearly the compelling nature of America’s objectives in the Middle East. More than 25 years of isolating Iran has moved us farther from, not closer to, achieving these goals.â€
The letter’s signers, in addition to Gilchrest, were Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), John Duncan (R-TN), Phil English (R-PA), Gil Gutknecht (R-MN), Hinchey, Walter Jones (R-NC), Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Jim Leach (R-IA), John Olver (D-MA), Butch Otter (R-ID), Ron Paul (R-TX), David Price (D-NC), Joe Schwarz (R-MI), and Vic Snyder (D-AR).
Good for Randy… gotta wonder where Reynolds, Slaughter and Walsh stand on this issue though… Can’t expect every congressperson to sign onto all of these statements though
[...] This is the big one for me: he cosigned a letter written by Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md) asking Bush to resume diplomatic relations with Iran. The other seven [...]
[...] pointed out before, Randy Kuhl, for all of his faults, does believe that the U.S. should have diplomatic relationships with both Syria and Iran. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: “I disagree with the president about [...]
[...] We even Praised Randy Kuhl for urging dialogue with Iran. He came out against the stop-loss,The Democratic Majority starting pushing needed legislation though Congress giving the opportunity our local Congressional Representatives put their vote where their mouth isn’t. Tom Reynolds voted against an increase in the minimum wage (Walsh for it), while John “Randy” Kuhl voted against funding stem cell research. Heck, Randy even gets promoted to Deputy minority whip position. [...]