The Latest "Mikey '08 For Congress" Blather

Boy, that Mike Fitzpatrick sure refuses to go away, doesn’t he?

You remember Mikey, don’t you? Used to be the U.S. House 8th District congressional representative from PA? Came up with the brilliant idea of trying to get New York City to lower its reservoir capacity by one inch in response to the flooding in Bucks County, including Yardley borough? Totally copped out on embryonic stem cell research (including here)? Supported Bushco’s Social Security “privatization”? Voted for a conference report to drill in the ANWR?

And don’t get me started on Iraq.

Well, he wrote a Guest Opinion that was published in the Bucks County Courier Times last Monday, and I’ll let him make his case (and keep your crying towel handy, by the way). And if you guessed that he was going to find a way to take a shot at Patrick Murphy somehow, then I’ll give you a commemorative clump of dirt from Shady Brook Farm in Lower Makefield, PA, the location of some of the biggest campaign billboards supporting Mikey (or any other politician) that I’d ever seen.

As a public servant for 12 years, I lived by two cardinal rules: always respond to constituents in a direct manner, and never let partisanship get in the way of the right decision.

Though I will give Mikey a little credit for responding to me in a reasonably prompt way when I contacted him about legislation (never mind the fact that he almost always voted in opposition to what I asked), that to me is negated by the deception of his campaign mailers, including this particularly odious one from the last election.

And how someone who voted to loosen ethics rules under the guise of supporting Homeland Security legislation (as bald faced an act of partisanship as anything ever seen, which “newbie” Mikey performed in fealty to then-House speaker Tom DeLay…sooo nice to refer to these people in the past tense) can lecture anyone about partisanship is something I cannot imagine.

In January, I took a step away from the public eye out of respect for the citizens and the system.

See, other politicians lose elections, but not Mikey. No, he ever so gracefully chose to deny us of his glorious presence “out of respect for the citizens and the system.”

Sometimes I wonder what universe this man lives in, but then, upon further consideration, I find myself not wanting to know after all.

However, I am speaking out because I believe the aforementioned cardinal rules were broken by officials representing Joe Shellenberger on the local level and in Washington.

This link to The Pennsylvania Progressive gives you some background on the situation with Joe Shellenberger and the Tullytown council, which is a legitimate issue (I don’t want to get too far ahead at this point, though; I’ll let Mikey drone on about it).

Most readers of the Courier Times are familiar with Joe’s story. He is a hard-working guy from Lower Bucks County who honored the call to serve our nation in the Air Force Reserves in Afghanistan. When not at a job earning a living for his family or fulfilling his reserve requirements, Joe spends a considerable amount of time as a Tullytown Borough councilman. Since he wanted to continue his participation in local government while overseas, he sought the council’s approval.

Unfortunately, the majority members of the Tullytown council voted to prevent Joe from voting on issues while on duty in Afghanistan. I believe they violated two cardinal rules: not responding in a direct manner, and letting politics get in the way of a good decision.

I can’t really comment on that because, despite some Google searches, I couldn’t find anything online except for the Pennsylvania Progressive post about this. However, based on that, it seems as if the decision to disallow Shellenberger’s voting from Afghanistan was made by lame-duck Tullytown Town Council president Beth Pirolli (I say lame duck because she was voted off the board by four votes yesterday – apparently, there were issues with the development of the Levittown Shopping Center property and running up a big tab at Hooters one night and billing the borough for it; never a good thing to do).

Joe will be the first to tell you he is not on the front lines, but serves a critical support role that enables him to be in predictable communication with his family, friends and others at home. Joe has made it clear to the council members that he has the green light from his military superiors to participate in borough matters from his Afghanistan base – via phone and Email.

I don’t know how someone in government can cast a secure vote via Email; maybe if there was some kind of a secure domain set up somewhere for Shellenberger to vote, that could be worked out. However, that would entail a lot of billable hours for a web developer and/or LAN IT person, and I’m wondering if the borough would really want to pay for that for the sake of one person.

Also, I don’t know how anyone can have “predictable communication” from Afghanistan, at least in such a manner so it could be timed for the town council meetings. But I guess Mikey believes that a Sherpa Yak herd is always available for Shellenberger to be transported to a secure site where he can use the PC of a tribal elder in the event that our military decides to block more online forms of communication.

The council members denying Joe the right to vote claim that allowing elected officials to cast their votes remotely is a slippery slope. One suggested that (if this is allowed) elected officials would never have to attend council meetings! I have found that such excessive claims usually occur in politics when someone knows his or her facts are wrong.

I don’t think such a claim is excessive at all. I can just picture a town council person now, calling up the council president and saying, “uuhh, I’ve (cough, cough) got some kind of (cough, cough, hack) bug that I think I got from a (cough) long distance plane flight or something (cough, cough, cough, hack), so can I just phone in my vote tonight on the zoning variance for the tool and die plant?”

Why not? I’ve done stuff like that :- ).

The Pennsylvania State Boroughs Association manual clearly states that voting by phone is acceptable for council members.

Hey, wait a minute, Mikey; you just mentioned something about trying to vote by Email. Why bring that up if it isn’t in the manual? Trying to pull another fast one?

With that in mind, there are few compelling arguments to support the decision made by the majority members of the Tullytown council, who collectively violated another of the cardinal rules of public service: never let partisanship get in the way of making the right decision.

I assume Shellenberger is a Republican; I can’t find any information on him online, though it does appear that all of the Tullytown Town Council members are Democrats. If I receive any information contrary to that, I will publish it.

It also appears that Joe Shellenberger is not getting the best possible representation from his congressman, Patrick Murphy. I understand that members of the Tullytown community, including Iraq war veterans, beseeched Congressman Murphy to introduce legislation to help Joe. At this stage, it seems their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

As far back as February, Murphy was made aware of this issue by several people in the community, including Joe, whom he met while touring Afghanistan as part of a U.S, House delegation. And although his office has received countless letters asking him to intercede, Murphy has yet to introduce a piece of legislation to ensure that circumstances like Joe’s are not repeated.

What is most troubling to those working on Joe’s behalf is that Murphy has a seat on the Armed Service Committee, making the introduction and passage of a bill to help Joe that much easier. Apparently, Murphy has broken one of the cardinal rules of public service by not responding to constituents in a direct manner.

I would say that not smearing former Iraq war veterans would constitute a “cardinal rule” also.

And gosh, Mikey, it sure would have been nice if you’d bothered to note the results of Shellenberger’s meeting with Patrick while they were both in Afghanistan. What did Patrick tell him?

And how many “countless” letters has Patrick received in this matter? How do you know how many were sent?

Also, I think Mikey betrays more here than he realizes. Though I know Democrats aren’t innocent by any means, how many times during this nightmare of a presidency with Dubya and the Repug congress did they decide to intervene in state or local matters when the outcome wasn’t to their liking (let’s see…Terri Schiavo, Oregon’s assisted suicide law, the medical use of marijuana, which Dubya said was up to the states in 1999)?

I guess Mikey thinks that Patrick should introduce a bill telling the Tullytown Town Council to let Joe Shellenberger vote from Afghanistan, and that’s it. Am I the only one who realizes how utterly absurd and provincial that is? How on earth is Patrick Murphy supposed to do this right and craft something like “one size fits all” legislation telling municipalities all over the country that they should allow council members serving in the military to vote? How on earth could that be enforced or stand up to a court challenge?

Murphy certainly was not forthcoming. His response – one way or another – would have eliminated any false hope held by the friends, neighbors, and countless veterans working on Joe’s behalf.

Apparently, he gave Shellenberger a response of some type in their meeting, but you’re not telling us what it was.

Let’s assume the Tullytown council has legitimate concerns about Joe voting from Afghanistan. Rather than outright denial, the members could have allowed him to vote as a councilman while a decision was being made by an independent body, such as a court or ethics board. Joe Shellenberger has given us his best effort, and our public officials should not do less.

Joe is expected to return in less than a month, but I remain disappointed that those in a position to help him meet his elective responsibilities have not done so. Until he returns safely, he will be in my prayers.

And this is as it should be, and I just want to make clear that nothing I’ve said here is intended to reflect negatively on Joe Shellenberger. I admire him and thank him for what he’s done and continues to do. It’s just that I think Mike Fitzpatrick is using this dustup to worm his way back into politics and find a way to slam Patrick Murphy for something that is a local matter only and, ultimately, not something that Patrick can address through introducing legislation.

I guess it’s a reflex with Mikey, though. He has to pop his head out of his hole and whine about something, or else he thinks we’ll forget about him (we should be so lucky).

Update 6/1/07: The Courier Times noted in a May 31st story that Patrick Murphy said he would work on legislation allowing service members to vote from overseas in the manner that Joe Shellenberger requested (link here, noted in third column).