CMR’s Legislative Hypocrisy

Dear Group,

In McMorris Rodgers we have a Representative in Congress who seems to have lost her voice. “Donald Trump was elected President” is her stock phrase when asked about her support for the leader of her Party. She is all about falling in line in order to advance the agenda. Instead of standing up for what she claims to believe, the values she claims to support, it is all about her “leadership” position in the Party. The disconnect is nowhere more apparent than in her stance on DACA.

Below is a quote from an excellent article in The Inlander by Daniel Walters, one of several articles of his concerning McMorris Rodgers, all of which are well worth the time to click and read [the bold is mine]:

One by one, the DACA students told their stories that evening. One says she didn’t know she wasn’t an American citizen until she applied for college. Another lost his legal status because of a clerical error.

As McMorris Rodgers listens, according to several attendees, tears well up in her eyes.

…”I have personally observed a journey of compassion and heart-shifting in Cathy,” McAuley [a church engagement director for Youth For Christ] says. “I can state that unequivocally.”

At the DACA meeting, some of the pastors and DACA students push McMorris Rodgers to take a stronger stance beyond words uttered in private. Sponsor a bill. Let one go to the floor. Give a passionate speech.

She doesn’t bite, attendees say. She talks about the political limitations. She says she doesn’t want to push a bill that Trump would veto.

The sentiment of the last sentence was also on display at the Green Bluff mini town hall on May 29th. There she mentioned the discharge petition signed by all but one Democrat and twenty-three Republicans, a discharge petition to bring DACA to the House floor against the wishes of Republican leadership. McMorris Rodgers carefully avoids any mention she has not signed it. She said “we” are working on a compromise, not saying “we” probably means just Republicans. Finally, “I don’t believe the President will sign it without a path forward on the wall.” Asked if she would prefer a stand alone DACA bill, she answered, “I would have to look at it.” Really, Cathy? You have tears in your eyes listening to Dreamers tell their stories and you don’t know if you personally would prefer a stand alone bill? Suddenly you’re all about the practical details of legislation, not your values, not your heart. You don’t want to push a bill that doesn’t have a chance of passage? You prefer to use your “leadership” position to work behind the scenes in the dark, not make waves. The more I ponder that sentiment the more angry it makes me. 

You, McMorris Rodgers, say you don’t want to “push a bill” your President would veto. May I remind you that Barrack Obama was also “your President?” Do you wish to deny that accolade to a man who actually won the popular vote? While Barrack Obama was the duly elected President, “our” President, how many bills did you vote for, in your “leadership” position, that had no chance of passage in the Senate and, if they did, would certainly have faced a veto?

How many times did you vote for your “Balanced Budget Amendment,” knowing full well it had zero chance of passage, knowing it was pure political theater?

How many times during your period of “leadership” did you vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act knowing the bill was dead on arrival?

How many times did you vote for bills constructed around the bogus term “Partial Birth Abortion?”

How many times did you vote to support gag rules concerning information about abortion while you spoke out of the other side of your mouth about the importance of ‘free speech?”

How many times did you vote to please the NRA, making a joke out of locally issued Concealed Carry Weapons Permits.  How do you justify pushing a bill (co-sponsoring it) to remove silencers from weapons regulations that have been in existence since 1934?

And now you have the unmitigated gall to tell us that you don’t want to “push a bill the President would veto?” You are so enamored of the ways in which THIS president can advance Republican goals that you refuse to notice, much less speak out against, the manifest horror of his bullying, pandering to white supremacists, scapegoating of immigrants, name-calling, and demeaning of the judiciary? Why can you not consider any legislation to curb this man’s autocratic tendencies? How can you stand by and listen to him demean mainstream media, media that actually still funds investigative research instead of thinly veiled propaganda?

Spare me, McMorris Rodgers. Hypocrisy is not a leadership skill. You may shed a genuine tear over the plight of the Dreamers, but you have too much fealty to your rotting Party to stand up and actually offer the Dreamers any help unless you can extract money for Trump’s wall and avoid the threat of their becoming real citizens and able to cast a vote.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry