Paving The Way For Patrick

These letters appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times this morning (along with J.D.’s Cold War cartoon reminiscences).

I am writing to express my satisfaction with the election of Patrick Murphy as our congressman. Murphy won because he worked hard (he even got up early the day after Election Day to meet commuters at a train station) and is a man of strong principle. I am confident that those same qualities will make him an excellent congressman.

The voters of the 8th district should be proud of their decision to elect the first Iraq war veteran to Congress. It will be good to finally have someone in Congress who brings a firsthand perspective on the implications of our foreign policy. Congressman-elect Murphy will serve the 8th district well.

Robert Casile
Bristol Borough

The juvenile whining over Mike Fitzpatrick’s loss and Patrick Murphy voting to support Rep. Murtha is evidence of very selective memories.

In his first vote in Congress Fitzpatrick voted to allow Tom DeLay to keep his majority leader post if DeLay was indicted. Three of DeLay’s aides had already been indicted. The old rule that prohibited an indicted congressman from holding leadership positions had been voted for by Congress in 1993. At that time, they were focused on the wrongdoings of Democrats. In the heat of criticism, this new rule was quickly dropped. However, Fitzpatrick also voted to turn the ethics committee into a black hole. The other new rule requires a majority vote by the ethics committee which was not previously necessary to initiate an investigation of any member of the house.

Fitzpatrick barely won Bucks County. The voters in the district’s part of Philadelphia and Montgomery County were written off by the campaign because the Republicans expected a full partisan vote in Bucks. He got from the disenfranchised what he gave them. In Bucks, his own people voted against him. Take notice, the sun is still rising every morning.

Susan Gibbons
Bristol Township

According to Matt Browner Hamlin of the great blog My Left Nutmeg, Patrick will be assigned to the House Armed Services Committee (makes sense). I don’t know of any other committee assignments yet.