Greg Walden, who represents Eastern Oregon in Congress, is one of the few Representatives from Cascadia who voted to continue the government shutdown and to have the US default on its debts. After Blue Oregon wrote about it, former Labor Commissioner Jack Roberts left a comment:
I think it’s fair to say that Greg knew how the vote was going to turn out before he cast his. Sort of like Obama’s vote against raising the debt ceiling when he was a senator.
Kari at Blue Oregon has some interesting things to say about what that means in terms Walden’s honesty. But I’d add that there was a major difference: The Democrats weren’t in the majority when Obama took that vote, and the minority party typically has more room to make those types of symbolic protest votes.
When Republicans whine and whine and whine and complain and whine and moan and shriek and whine about how Democrats weren’t willing to make any concessions, this puts the lie to it. When most of the votes to keep the government open had to come from the minority party, well, that’s more of a compromise than ought to have been necessary to keep the lights on. That’s meeting the Republicans more than half way by doing something that wasn’t typically the job of the minority. It meant that the GOP didn’t have to whip its caucus as much as they might otherwise, it means that Democrats might have to eat shit in some districts for blah blah debt ceiling. If the GOP wants to be in the majority, they ought to use it to fucking govern.
I’d rather hear Obama admit his vote against raising the debt ceiling was a rookie mistake. That would sound better to me than any rationalization that he or anyone else can dream up.
Eating His Words
A GOP congressman who chewed out an NPS ranger for doing her job (i.e., telling him the World War 2 Memorial was closed) has written a letter of apology to the director of the National Park Service.