An update on Jeff's post from earlier this week:
Congressman Vern Ehlers was one of 182 members of Congress who voted to oppose standing up to President Bush's plan to escalate the war in Iraq. Congressman Fred Upton of St. Joseph was one of 17 Republicans to join almost every Democrat in supporting the non-binding resolution, but Ehlers just didn't have the gumption to say yes.
A full text of Ehlers's speech to the House can be found here.
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2 comments:
Yup - Vern finally decided that he could indeed stand afterall. Earlier reports from his office claimed that he would not make a speech on this Resolution.
I personally know of dozens and dozens of his constituents who contacted Ehler's office in support of this bill. I know of hundreds of folks who have contacted Ehler's office in opposition to the war and Bush's failed policies.
Yet Vern represented himself. He did not voice the concerns of his constituents. In my experience, he does not consider you to be a constituent of his, unless you think as he does. In fact, you will notice in examining the text of his speech, he did not mention his constituency at all.
You mentioned the idea of Ehlers breaking with his constituents. While the Third is pretty conservative, but Kerry did get 41% here, only seven points below what he got nationally. So I bet the numbers you mentioned in your previous post aren't that different from what people are thinking in this area.
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