McHugh Watch

The Washington Post reports this morning that the Iraq Debate in the House will begin today. The House resumes business at 12:30 this afternoon at which time the resolution will be introduced. Congressmen are already lining up for the best times to speak. According to the Post:

Although the order of speakers has not yet been set, Democrats and Republicans are vying for the most desired slots at a time when attention in Washington will focus on the House. Lawmakers from the West Coast do not want to speak early in the morning, when their constituents are asleep; those from the East do not want to appear at 11:25 p.m. And nearly everyone wants to talk in time to make the evening news and beat the daily newspapers’ deadlines.

Seeing that he has considerable seniority (a point pressed by him during the last campaigns) Mr. McHugh will have a good slot if he chooses. So the questions are: 1) will he speak and 2) will he speak at a time that will give him the maximum coverage. All 435 representatives are going to be given 5 minutes of time.
Opinion:

He needs to take full responsibility for getting us into this war. It’s not good enough to say the if he knew then what he knows now, that he would not have voted to authorize Bush to go to war. That’s acceptable for us in the general public who accepted the deception that was foisted upon us but not acceptable for those who had access to information and, most importantly, had the ability and the obligation to seek out information. Continue Reading »

What a difference an election makes. H. Res 861, declaring support for the Iraq War, guised as support for the War on Terror was a blatant political ploy prior to the November 2006 election. It was purposefully crafted by the Republican majority to “corner” Democrats into opposing the “War on Terror” by continuing to equate the War on Iraq with our national security interests.

It backfired and the Republican majority was soundly placed back in minority status. If history is repeated, they will remain there for at least the next ten years. The American public is figuring out their use of language – not to communicate, but to deceive.

H. Res 861, passed the House on June 16, 2006 declared the following: Continue Reading »

As noted in prior posts, next week the House will vote on a Resolution stating opposition to Bush’s escalation of the war. Reports also have it that the Republican alternative will also be debated and come to a vote.

Mr. McHugh has submitted a bill, HR 775 that he calls the Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq, 2007. Like the vast majority of his bills, it has no cosponsors.

It does not oppose the escalation and, in fact, funds it to the tune of $50 Billion, albeit for only 4 months. After that, he proposes that the remaining funding be appropriated upon the President certifying that progress on certain performance measures is being made. The performance standards are:

a. A commander and 2 deputy commanders are to be appointed for the Iraqi forces in Baghdad and “provision” for three more Iraqi Army brigades and “additional” Iraqi police forces. (In the US Army a Brigade is 1500-3000 soldiers, the definition is unknown for the Iraqi forces).

b. Passage of a oil revenue sharing law that will allow for oil revenue to be shared by all citizens.

Unclear what exactly this is. Does he mean each Iraqi gets a dividend check from the oil revenue, much like Alaskans do now?

c. Reformed de-baathification: allowing former Baathists, i.e. those of Saddam Hussein’s party to enter the “critical” sectors of political and economic life.

I suppose that’s not so bad. We did it with rocketeer Wernher von Braun, an SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) and his engineers who rained down V2 rockets on London and oversaw V2 production at Peenemünde and the concentration camp at Mittelbau-Dora (Mittelwerk) where 20,000+ died in slave labor producing the V2.

d. Disarming Militias

e. Economic development with the Iraqi Government providing 10 billion for reconstruction and an “effective jobs creation program”

f. Constitutional reform: a committee composed of members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives are to put forward amendments to their constitution.

The vast majority of Article 137 that he cites in the bill was never seen by the Iraqi people prior to voting on it.

Bottom line:  His President gets a free pass disguised as accountability. All the President has to do is certify that “progress” is being made, and more funds are appropriated. After all the deception, 65% of Americans don’t trust the President, why does he?

In the end, this bill does nothing. The silence of co-sponsors is deafening. Not even his colleagues want anything to do with it.

This bill is not a solution, this is an immunization. Dollars to donuts he’ll vote against the Resolution opposing the escalation and use this bill as cover.

As noted below, an resolution opposing the escalation in Iraq is coming to the House floor next week. It will be crafted in open meetings of the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. Each Representative will be given five minutes to speak. Mr. McHugh is on the Armed Services committee so we should hear from him during the open meeting of that committee. Hear a full report on NPR or here.

The Watertown Times have noticed us. For those of you with a subscription click here for the link. The text is below:

Ex-opponent of lawmaker founds ‘McHugh Watch’

By JUDE SEYMOUR
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, February 06, 2007

In political discourse, Dr. Robert J. Johnson argues, it is rarely reality that is proffered, but carefully tailored perceptions of reality.

“One of the most incredibly frustrating things about running against John is that he has this perception of supporting things that he opposes, and opposing things that he supports,” said Dr. Johnson, a thoracic surgeon who has twice campaigned unsuccessfully against Republican congressman John M. McHugh. “He is able to use the language in such a vague manner as to create a perception for the groups he’s addressing.”

Dr. Johnson, Sackets Harbor, has founded McHugh Watch, a blog that he says will contrast the perception of the congressman with his voting record.

“This isn’t something antagonistic. It’s to inform the people of how he’s representing us,” said Dr. Johnson. “What I’m trying to get people to do is separate facts from opinion. Draw what conclusions you want. But if you know the facts, you usually come to the right decisions.”

Brynn A. Barnett, Mr. McHugh’s spokeswoman, said the congressman will not monitor the site.

“Frankly, he couldn’t care less,” she said. Continue Reading »

It was just reported on NPR that the House is going to take up the Iraq War Resolution next week. In an almost unprecedented move, each Representative is going to be given 5 minutes to speak. That’s a little less than a 40 hour debate. It’s that important.

As the Plattsburgh Press-Republican notes, Mr. McHugh should be an expert on Iraq, having traveled there so often. We are looking forward to a definitive statement on the war from our Representative – and there will be a vote.

We need to congratulate our congressman on voting for HR 2: The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 along with 317 other Representatives from both parties. It raises the minimum wage throughout the US to $7.25 in two years, and on the way there to $5.85 in 60 days after enactment and $6.55 in a year. This bill can only be good for New York, since our state minimum wage is $7.15. It will certainly make New York more competitive with other states whose minimum wage remains at the federal minimum of $5.15.

The minimum wage has not been raised since 1997. It was mandated by HR 3448 that was passed by both Houses (enrolled) on 8/2/1996, presented to the President on 8/8/1996 and signed by President Clinton on 8/20/1996.

The real question is why did he not act earlier? He had every opportunity to back the very same bill in the 109th Congress, HR 2429 and decided not to. Continue Reading »

This past December, Mr. McHugh proudly announced that he was elected by his Republican colleagues to serve on the House Republican Steering Committee. By his own description the Steering committee “is responsible for making assignments to standing committees for the 110th Congress, … [and] naming Republicans to Committee Ranking Member positions.”

The Republican Steering Committee has now found it appropriate (no pun in intended) to appoint Jerry Lewis(R-Calif) as ranking member of the powerful Appropriations Committee even though he is under investigation by the FBI for steering millions in appropriation contracts to staffers, friends, and family in return for campaign contributions. Reportedly there were a number of Republican members who were quite worried if the leadership had learned the lessons of the November elections. Continue Reading »