The Joe Pitts Saga And Other Inky Funnies

Yep, it’s time for Philadelphia’s conservative newspaper of record to weigh in on our local congressional candidates (here – they already did so concerning New Jersey about a week ago, noted here)…

Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach in the 6th District, covering Chester, Montgomery and Berks Counties, outlasted a spirited challenge two years ago - and seems the better for it.

Always a thoughtful lawmaker dating back to his years as a state senator and state representative, Gerlach, 53, seeks a middle ground in the GOP caucus. It means he's strong on the environment, transit and other infrastructure investments, but in step with the Bush administration's tax cuts and other core Republican policies of limited government. A measure of his success is support from labor as well as business interests.

Former business executive Bob Roggio has made politics a second career and avocation, but he still may be to the left of this district on a range of issues. If JIM GERLACH can maintain his independence, he's best for the 6th District.

Gerlach voted against congressional oversight of CIA interrogations and requiring warrants for FISA-related wiretapping in this country (noted here), which is odious enough, but he also caved on a 2005 bill to provide $5 billion in subsidies to energy companies (I realize, though, that the time to punish Gerlach for that was the last election cycle, not this one).

And it should be noted that Gerlach benefitted greatly from the 2002 congressional redistricting scam that led his first opponent, Dem Dan Wofford, to refer to PA-06 as a “pterodactyl” when the district was created because of its ridiculous looking shape; as this 2002 Inquirer story tells us…

Drawn with Gerlach in mind, the Sixth represents gerrymandering at its most blatant. The district extends from City Avenue in Bala Cynwyd through Chester County all the way out to Reading and Kutztown. It's suburban, exurban, rural and Pennsylvania Dutch all in one, an elongated patchwork of communities with little in common.

However, I grudgingly have to note that Gerlach’s brand of Republicanism plays well for the majority of his constituents, or it seems to so far (socially conservative when he feels he needs to be that way with a feint towards moderation on occasion).

Despite that, I should tell you that I contacted the Bob Roggio campaign to get an idea of how much coverage the Inquirer actually gave him; I’ll let you know if and when I get a response.

And this leads us to the Inky’s next endorsement…

By the same token, longtime Republican incumbent JOSEPH R. PITTS, 69, has long mirrored his 16th District in Chester and Lancaster Counties. The former teacher reaches across the aisle to promote human-rights issues, but can be counted in the GOP fold on fiscal and social issues. His Democratic challenger, building contractor Bruce Slater, 52, is mounting a spirited campaign. He should be encouraged to try again.

Ye Gods…

Well, with that, the Inky has now forced me to do something that I put off doing because I realize what a gargantuan task it truly is, and that is to assemble all of the particularly awful “No” votes by Joe Pitts throughout the entire 110th Congress (I will no doubt be popping the Ibuprofen like crazy; I expect to encounter a smorgasbord of screwups).

(And believe it or not, these aren’t all of his bad votes, but merely the bad ones where he’s out on a limb with maybe one or two other Repugs – or Tim Holden, though it’s hard to tell that Holden is a Dem as you read some of these.)

Here we go, my fellow prisoners (better put on your hip waders)…

Voted No against ending the secret earmarking of spending items and tax breaks (here).

Voted against raising the minimum wage for the first time since 1997 (also opposed implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations) (here).

Voted against repealing tax breaks designed to spur extraction of fossil fuels and use the savings of $14 billion over 10 years to open a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve for funding renewable fuels and energy efficiencies (here).

Voted against sending to the Senate nine appropriations bills that the 109th Congress left unfinished (here).

Voted against the Employee Free Choice Act, along with Gerlach (here).

Voted against a special advisory panel on global warming, against a bill to authorize $125 million in grants to cities for developing alternate water sources, and against authorizing $1.8 billion over five years in grants to upgrade city sewage systems that combine wastewater and storm runoff in the same conduits (here).

Voted in favor of Dubya’s efforts to hide the presidential archives, against a bill that would require agencies to be more responsive to requests filed under the 1967 Freedom of Information Act, against whistle-blower protections to civil servants, national security workers, government employees and contractors; and he opposed tightening federal contractor rules to eliminate more “sole source” awards (here).

Voted against a bill authorizing $7.3 billion over four years mainly for grants to protect mass-transit and inter-city rail and bus systems from terrorist attacks (here).

After the Repugs vilified Nancy Pelosi for a trip to Syria, Pitts took the same trip (here).

Voted against a bill that would spend $562 million over six years to make the Small Business Administration more responsive to companies harmed by natural disasters; also opposed a bill empowering shareholders of publicly traded companies to conduct nonbinding votes approving or disapproving of top executives' compensation (here).

Voted against expanding the federal law against hate crimes to include offenses based on sexual orientation, gender or disability; also opposed a five-year renewal of the Head Start antipoverty program for children of ages 3 to 5 and the Early Head Start program for infants, toddlers and pregnant women (here).

Voted against a bill that granted civil-service job safeguards to the 170,000 DHS employees (here).

Voted against another minimum wage bill, this to raise it from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over 26 months; also against a bill to give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general tools for prosecuting energy firms suspected of charging "unconscionably excessive" wholesale or retail prices; also against a bill to repeal a USA Patriot Act provision used by the administration to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation (here).

Voted against a bill that restored civil-service job protections and tightened security at U.S. chemical plants (here).

Voted in favor of a proposal to strip an Interior Department appropriations bill (HR 2643) of a nonbinding call for regulations to limit the emissions that help cause global warming; also voted for easing a proposed EPA rule that all smokestack industries install the best available antipollution technology when upgrading units (here).

Voted against granting limited union rights to police, firefighters, corrections officers and other public-safety personnel in all states (here).

Voted against a bill providing incentives for renewable energy sources and conservation; the bill also required electric utilities to use more renewable energy to generate power – also opposed a bill raising taxes on oil companies by $16 billion (along with Gerlach - here)

Voted against a bill to provide $2.2 billion between 2008 and 2012 for housing for American Indians living on tribal grounds (here).

Opposed renewing a program that provides taxpayer backing to help the insurance industry meet the catastrophic costs of any future terrorist attacks; the bill expanded the program to cover nuclear and chemical attacks (also voted against a bill that included $16 billion for improving airports and $13 billion for revamping traffic-control technology – the bill codifies a passengers' bill of rights, increased levies including fuel taxes on corporate aircraft, and required the FAA to renegotiate its labor contract with air-traffic controllers – here).

Opposed renewing SCHIP and the National Flood Insurance Program and expanding it by raising overall coverage limits and adding coverage for such categories as windstorm damage and business interruption (here).

Voted against a bill extending U.S. criminal jurisdiction to all of the government's private contractors overseas, not just those working for the military (can you say, “Blackwater,” boys and girls…here).

Opposed a bill that would establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help local and state agencies build or restore 1.5 million units over 10 years for families in need (by the way, Pancake Joe is referred to as a “moderate” in the linked Inky story; way too damn funny – here).

Voted against SCHIP (again) and a bill that would set tougher railroad safety standards, including a 12-hour maximum workday for train and signal personnel (here).

Voted against SCHIP for a THIRD TIME (here).

Voted against a bill expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance and extending the program to include workers in service industries and some government employees (here).

Voted against the veto override of a bill authorizing $23.2 billion over 15 years for more than 900 Army Corps of Engineers water projects for purposes such as flood control, coastal protection, storm recovery and navigation; also, in essence, voted in favor of workplace discrimination (here).

Voted against a bill to increase federal regulation of the lending practices now devastating the U.S. housing market (the bill, in part, would have curbed subprime lending and required states to license all types of mortgage providers); also voted against overriding a veto of a bill appropriating $606 billion in 2008 for the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services (here).

Voted against raising vehicle mileage standards 40 percent over 12 years and requiring utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources (here).

Voted against a bill that would raise vehicle mileage requirements by 40 percent by 2020; boost residential and industrial energy-efficiency standards; phase out the incandescent light bulbs now used in most U.S. homes; and increase production of ethanol and other biofuels sixfold by 2022 (here).

Voted against SCHIP for a fourth time here.

This tells us how Joe is a “human rights champion” for heteros only (here).

Voted against a bill (HR 5351) to raise taxes on the five largest oil companies by $13.6 billion over 10 years and use the revenue to fund tax breaks that would spur the development of renewable fuels and promote energy efficiencies (along with Gerlach - here).

Voted against a bill (HR 1424) requiring the same level of coverage between mental and physical illnesses in group medical plans (along with Chris Smith - here).

Voted against spending $50 billion over five years for U.S. support of global programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa (he and Gerlach voted to cut out the funding entirely, but they were unsuccessful – here).

Voted against giving force of law to an eight-year-old program designed to preserve landscapes of national significance on Bureau of Land Management acreage in the West (here).

Voted in favor of cutting the federal share of Medicaid by $13 billion over five years and leave it up to the states to replace the funds or cut health services to the poor (here).

Voted against authorizing $7,500 tax credits for first-time home purchases and allowing taxpayers who do not itemize deductions to treat up to $700 of their 2008 property taxes as a federal tax deduction (here).

Voted against a GI Bill to pay post-9/11 veterans' college costs and use tax hikes on individual incomes over $500,000 and joint incomes over $1 million to pay for the program (here).

Voted against a bill authorizing the U.S. attorney general to sue OPEC under U.S. antitrust laws for monopolistic practices; also opposed a bill (HR 6049) providing $55.5 billion in tax breaks for purposes such as spurring the production of non-fossil fuels, promoting energy conservation, stimulating business activity, and helping homeowners and the working poor (here).

Voted against a bill (HR 3021) establishing a federal program that would authorize $33.2 billion in fiscal years 2009-2013 for grants to renovate and modernize public schools; also opposed as bill (HR 5540) renewing for five years a federal-state program that promotes citizen involvement in restoring the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York (here).

Voted against providing 13 additional weeks of jobless checks for those who have used up their initial allotments, or 26 more weeks in states with at least a 6 percent unemployment rate; also opposed a bill (HR 6003) to provide nearly $10 billion for Amtrak, about twice the agency's pre-2007 rate of spending, and $5 billion for state intercity projects (here).

Voted against giving oil companies a "use it or lose it" mandate to either drill on federal land they have leased or give up the right to do so; also against a bill (HR 5501) authorizing $50 billion over five years for U.S. support of international programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America (kind of strange that Pitts cast two votes against this but claims to be a leader in human rights, or something - here).

Voted against a bill empowering the FDA to regulate cigarette content, requiring disclosure of product ingredients, banning cigarette marketing to children, and requiring more prominent health warnings (this is truly sick); also opposed a bill directing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to curb "excessive speculation" in the oil-futures market; and also opposed a bill banning gender-based pay discrimination (this might have been his worst week of the entire congressional session - here)

Voted against a bill setting pro-consumer rules for credit-card firms; also opposed a bill requiring private insurers to cover mental illness and chemical addiction at the same level and cost that they cover physical ailments in the same policy (here).

And that, as they say, is that, my friends (God, do I need a drink – as far as I’m concerned, if someone makes it all the way through this list and they vote for Pitts anyway, they should lose their right to the franchise).

I should also note that I contacted the Bruce Slater campaign to determine the coverage they received from the Inquirer in the same manner as I did the Bob Roggio campaign, and I’ll let you know those findings also.

But not to worry about the Inky; at least they endorsed Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy also (the “blind squirrel funds the nut” at long last, though they stupidly endorsed the opponent of Admiral Joe in PA-07 merely because he’s a Repug and electing him would provide “balance”).

Given this rate of “success” concerning the Inquirer’s candidate endorsements for the U.S. Congress, I only have this to add…

They should be encouraged to try again.

Update 10/24/08: I was informed this morning by the Slater for Congress campaign manager that the Inquirer "did call Bruce and had a 15-20 minute discussion. The Q's were all about stuff on the website. There was no advance questionnaire, and they have never responded to any press releases or press events we ever announced."