I see that my local congressman, Mike Turner, OH-3, voted with the Republican majority in the House to block the bipartisan Senate action extending unemployment and the payroll tax cut by two months. Typical for Turner, he released no statement explaining his vote. His web-site, as usual, is mum.
Turner never communicates meaningfully with his constituency. As seen on his elaborate web-site, his communication is all fluff and PR. If you Google “Mike Turner Town Hall,” you’ll see reference to the August 2009 post I made, “Congressman Mike Turner Has No Plans To Participate In Any Local Town Hall Meetings,” but, you won’t see any reference to any Town Hall Meetings Turner has initiated in his ten years as congressman for OH-3.
According to Open Congress, Turner votes 90% of the time with the Republican majority. It is the apparatchik mindset that explains Turner’s failure to meaningfully communicate and instead to simply propagandize. Typical of Turner is the communication he just e-mailed to constituents on his e-mail list: Remember our Servicemembers during this Holiday Season. Amid the turmoil in Washington, Congressman Turner writes,
“As you gather with family and friends this holiday season, please take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas aside from the crowded shopping malls and exchanging of gifts….”
Thank you Reverend Turner.
What a congressman. It hardly seems in the Christmas spirit, but I can’t help thinking that it is more true now then ever what I wrote, prior to the 2008 election, “Mike Turner Is A Bum, For Our Democracy’s Sake, Let’s Throw The Bum Out.”
Well, look on the bright side. Either Mikey or Stevie will be gone soon, and both of them put the “scum” in Rushpubliscum. So there is a silver lining.
This “payroll tax cut” is a temporary reduction in the Social Security tax. Social Security is already in trouble. If the tax were totall eliminated, the SS system would become the largest welfare program. This payroll tax cut should not be continued.
As long as the politicians draw districts that pick voters for them, they are beholden to the people who draw their districts for them more than the voters who live in the district. When Turner first ran, the Republicans drew him a district that was much safer than the one Tony Hall(D) had won for years. They also put him on the committee that controls Wright Patterson. Now it looks like he has to outpoll Austria. As Mollie Ivins used to say, politicians dance with the ones who brung them. Review the details on this partisan assault on democracy, which can not be justified by “the other side would do it too” or “elections have consequences” (10 year partisan advantage that no candidate campaigns on or even discusses.)
Stan, if one side draws up “safe” districts the other side will to. That is the way it is.