Archive for November, 2009

How Could He Promise Change

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

I have been reading “The Audacity to Win” a book by David Plouffe about the campaign of Barack Obama.  It is a firsthand account about the speeches, news conferences and messages he delivered. 

This brought back his passionate promise of “change you can believe in”. 

Before making the change promise candidate Obama should have recalled what former Secretary of State George P. Shultz said about Washington.  Shultz said, “Nothing ever gets settled in this town.  A seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me.  And so that’s the atmosphere in which you administer”.

How could he promise change when he had no way to know how the real Washington works?  Obama left Washington almost immediately after being sworn in as United States Senator to begin his campaign for President. 

A thoughtful explanation about “Why Obama Isn’t Changing Washington” was offered yesterday by Fred Barnes in The Wall Street Journal.

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Capito Leads the Way

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

West Virginia’s lone Republican in Congress, Shelley Moore Capito, held a sit down meeting with Lisa Jackson Administrator of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). 

Sometime ago Capito requested the “face to face” meeting to express concern about the impact delayed coal mining permits are having on West Virginia jobs, local economies and the future.

In a Washington controlled by Democrats such a meeting exhibits the influence Capito has developed.  It’s hard to believe the Democrats in the West Virginia delegation were not in Jackson’s office months ago.

Let me be clear the other Members of Congress from our State are working on this issue but in varying degrees.  Maybe the delegation should look for a legislative solution. 

Coal miners and coal dependent communities may want Capito as their representative in Congress when redistricting starts after the 2010 census.  One thing for certain our State needs to keep her in Washington.

While writing about our delegation in Congress I was pleased to see in Saturday’s Gazette-Mail Steve Roberts who leads the WV Chamber of Commerce reads phillipsbillboard.   He is promoting an idea I urged in September, that our delegation should play hardball by telling the Obama folks they have no plans to further support healthcare reform – until EPA stops the war on West Virginia.

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