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Thursday, 04 October 2007 |
Congress needs to get its act together
by JAMISON DORAN
News Editor
When you elect someone into Congress, you usually think they’re actually going to do something while in office.
Wow, what a novel idea.
Lately it seems representatives, on both sides of the political aisle mind you, would rather spend their
time and our money debating the comments that a select few are making in the media.
I’m sorry, but I expect so much more from my Congress, especially my fellow Democrats who were
elected last November on the platform that they were going to get things done and work together with
their Republican counterparts.
While I guess that has happened to some extent, lately it seems like they’d much rather spend their
time bickering over ridiculous newspaper ads and radio talk show hosts instead of actually doing their
job.
Two weeks ago, Republicans publicly condemned the ad in The New York Times by MoveOn.org, an
anti-war organization.
The ad did a not-so-original pun about Gen. David Petraeus. The ad said, “Gen. Petraeus or Gen.
Betray Us” (like I said, not all that clever). This was ahead of his hearing laying out the progress (or
lack there of) in Iraq.
However, the Republicans in Congress bashed MoveOn.org, the Democrats and The New York Times
for the ad on the floor of Congress.
Even as someone who is a Democrat and as someone who is extremely against the war, I found the
ad tasteless and stupid.
Gen. Petraeus didn’t get us into that mess and there weren’t any indications that he wasn’t going to be
truthful in his testimony. By most accounts, he is very well liked.
Because of how stupid I felt the ad was I didn’t think it deserved the attention it got in the media or
especially by our elected representatives in Congress.
In addition to this attention, it even got a vote in the House.
Yes, that’s right, our House of Representatives decided this warranted a vote.
In case you were wondering, the House voted 341-79 to condemn the ad.
As if this didn’t waste enough time, Rush Limbaugh had to open his big, dumb mouth and call soldiers
who go to the media and talk about negative things in Iraq “phony soldiers” while talking to a caller on
his radio program.
Thanks to the 24-hour news networks and various talking heads/political pundits, this comment has
been making the rounds for days.
I am not a Limbaugh fan and find the vast majority of his comments dumb and unfounded – the latest
comment is no exception.
Last week, several Democrats released statements condemning the comments Limbaugh made.
While this was still unnecessary since I know very few rational people who actually listen to anything
Limbaugh says, at least it wasn’t on the floor of the Senate or the House.
Well that all changed on Monday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided it was in his best
interest to condemn the remarks on the floor of the Senate.
I’m so glad to see my Democrats are using their time in office wisely.
Is it so much to ask that our Congressional representatives actually represent the people?
I guarantee most people in this country could care less about MoveOn.org’s ad or Limbaugh’s
comments.
People in this country care about the war, affordable healthcare, taxes, affordable education, among so
many other pressing and important issues.
We don’t need our representatives to spend their time arguing and debating over whether or not what is
said in the media is appropriate or not. We’re certainly smart enough to make our own decisions about
that.
That’s why I urge you to let your elected officials know how you feel about them wasting their time. Let
them know whether or not you find it acceptable, especially when there are so many other things on
their plate.
Remember, they’re here to represent you.
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You need to get your facts straight, Limbaugh was only calling people like Macbeth (or whatever his name is) who never served in Iraq (and was kicked out of military) and lie about "war crimes" they saw committed phony soldiers. (I'm not an English scholar but I think pretending to be something you're not makes you a "phony" I think you should publish an apology for slandering Limbaugh.
Graham Shaw