One of two things is going on with Halvorson. Either she has given up on Washington, having used up her political capital supporting legislation like cap and trade, that is either disastrous for the economy or dead on arrival in the senate, or she's hiding, clutching to her Pelosi issued cheat sheet, hoping the storm blows over, terrified at being found out as fraud, just another Illinois pay to play stooge. Assuming the congresswoman to be a capable and intelligent steward of democracy, I'm going to go with the former. She has been MIA in her district since the congressional break. While half of the 435 members of the house have scheduled townhalls, (noting Jo Bonner (R-AL) with 19 different meetings over five days) she has yet to show any interest in meeting with her constituents. I've personally telephoned her office in Joliet and her DC office every other day since the break and have been put on an email and phone list every time, using the exact same information each time without anyone from her office noticing that I've signed up previously. Today someone from her office again refused to speak about her schedule except to say that she would hold a tele-conference style town hall on Sept third, five days before the house reconvenes. But perhaps the most telling thing is that her pre election website is still up and running, complete with her stance on health care...
Small businesses should be able to bargain collectively for lower premiums on their employee health benefits. We must strengthen Medicare by allowing the Federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prescription drug prices. We also need to make sure insurance companies hold up their end of the bargain.
Sounds like someone in favor of squeezing the most out of the current system without trashing it completely for a state run option resulting in increased costs, rationing, and substandard care. Seems reasonable.
Her energy policies are the vague partisan pandering one would expect, would it not be for the famous video of her talking about voting against a carbon tax, even going so far as to proclaim that she "knows how to stand up to Obama" after working with him in the Illinois senate. We all know how that story ended
Like her flip on cap and trade, she'll no doubt change her stance and vote for what ever bill comes out of the house, and attempt to ride the President's popularity to reelection in 2010. But it's all for naught. The chances of her returning to Washington grow smaller every day. She knows it and seems to be prepared to turn her back on her constituents and go down with the ship.
And still her campaign website,http://www.debbiehalvorson.com/ remains online, standing testament to the contrast between what she says in her district and what she does in Washington to all who dare to click. Or maybe she just doesn't wanna give up the domain name.
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