Bringing home the bacon and the votes -- June 26, 2014 column

By MARSHA MERCER

It’s a simple strategy for a congressional hopeful: Tie the weight of what’s wrong with Washington around an incumbent’s neck and watch him or her sink.  

Sometimes the mere threat of being cursed as a Washington insider prompts veteran members of Congress to fold their tents. Other times, the strategy confirms the conventional wisdom that voters want to send the Old Guard, and even the Middle-Aged Guard, packing.  

Witness Rep. Eric Cantor’s demise in Virginia’s 7^th congressional district Republican primary. Winner Dave Brat is a college professor and local tea party favorite unencumbered by legislative experience or a voting record.  

Cantor, first elected in 2000, could have played up his experience and given people a reason to vote for him again. But that would have meant acknowledging that Washington does some things right, an anathema to Republicans these days.

People prize experience in other fields:  surgeons who know their way around the body, hairdressers who can wield scissors, pitchers who throw strikes. Why not legislators who can get laws passed and, yes, bring home the bacon? It’s only pork when it goes elsewhere.

We want the federally funded roads and bridges that make our commutes and our kids’ school bus rides safer. Could I see a show of hands of those willing to sacrifice the current economic boost of their nearby military base for the delayed pleasure of debt reduction? I thought so.

It has dawned on some incumbents that they make a fatal mistake when they fail to defend – and even tout -- their Washington experience. It’s smart to make a virtue of necessity.

And the strategy may be especially appealing in the South, which has long believed in electing candidates young and keeping them in Washington. The practice has paid dividends in many, many federal facilities with high-paying jobs.    

On Tuesday, Sen. Thad Cochran, 76, won the Republican primary runoff for Senate in Mississippi by focusing on what he and Washington had done and could yet do for Mississippi.

Cochran went to Congress in 1973, the same year his opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, was born. McDaniel argued the courtly Cochran had stayed in Washington too long.

After Cochran narrowly won the primary and faced a runoff just three weeks later, he started talking about the billions of federal dollars he has brought his state for highways, bridges, education, research facilities and to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.  McDaniel, a tea party favorite, would cut the very programs Mississippi relies on, Cochran warned.   

Cochran made his pitch not just to Republicans but also to independents and Democrats, particularly black voters, in the open runoff, increasing turnout by 66,000 votes over the primary. Cochran won with 51 percent of the vote to McDaniel’s 49 percent.

In Louisiana, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a vulnerable Democrat first elected in 1996, isn’t shy about telling voters about the bacon she’s brought home. She’s proud of getting an additional $3 billion in federal funds for her state after Hurricane Katrina and of her role as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which she casts as an asset for the state’s 300,000 oil and gas workers.

“The voters over 18 years have established great clout in Washington,” Landrieu says in a campaign ad. “It doesn’t belong to me; it belongs to them.” The people of Louisiana “sit at the head of the table with the gavel,” she says, adding, “The state has clout that it should really think carefully about before giving up.”

Landrieu told The Washington Post: “People may be mad at Washington, but I think they look at me and they say, ‘You know, she’s an exception, she’s actually been able to produce major pieces of legislation…she doesn’t vote with the Democratic Party all the time.’”

In Virginia, freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, who faces Republican Ed Gillespie in November, is also trying to turn his Washington experience into a plus.

Former Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia told a forum in Charlottesville June 20 that Virginia needs Mark Warner’s seniority – especially after the loss of Cantor.

“Seniority helps this state,” said John Warner, who served in the Senate for three decades. “That should be the factor that people should consider in the voting box.”  

(c) 2014 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Why applauding, kissing and hugging Gabby Giffords isn't enough -- Jan. 26, 2012 column

By MARSHA MERCER

The outpouring of respect, empathy and, yes, love for Gabrielle Giffords on Capitol Hill was heartfelt, inspirational – and inadequate.

The congresswoman from Arizona who was critically wounded a year ago by a would-be assassin rightly received thunderous applause, hugs and kisses Tuesday at the State of the Union address and a teary farewell Wednesday when she resigned from the House.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, called Giffords “the brightest star among us, the brightest star Congress has ever seen,” and Republican Eric Cantor, the majority leader, said he spoke for all his colleagues when he said, “We are inspired, hopeful and blessed for all the incredible progress Gabby has made in her recovery.”

On Jan. 8, 2011, Giffords was holding “Congress on Your Corner,” a meet-and-greet event, in Tucson when a gunman opened fire, killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl who just wanted to meet her congresswoman, and wounding Giffords and 12 others.

The horrific attack stunned the nation and Congress. There’s nothing like having a colleague shot in the head at close range on a Saturday morning back home to focus the mind of even the most cynical member of Congress. Every House member and senator knew he or she could have been the target. Ordinary citizens knew we could have been exercising our civic right at the wrong time.

Watching Giffords now, we marvel at how far she’s come, and we know that the unspeakable could happen to any of us or to our loved ones. We too could struggle to speak clearly, to walk haltingly and to cope with a right arm that doesn’t work the way it used to. Any of us.

Giffords is one of those rare and luminous elected officials who rose above the political fray. As an obscure Democratic House member, she had a reputation for working across party lines and, old fashioned as it sounds, for wanting to do what was right for her constituents and the country.

She now is a beacon of hope for the 1.7 million Americans a year who suffer traumatic brain injuries.

Medical experts say Giffords has been lucky. She has received America’s finest health care – from intensive care to rehabilitation. As a federal employee wounded on the job, she has coverage for rehabilitation services for as long as necessary.

Many other traumatic brain injury patients are not so fortunate. Much depends on what kind of insurance someone has, if any, where one lives, what medical facilities and even whether family advocates are nearby, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.

The bottom line is that while Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance plans cover brain surgery and intensive care, insurers tend to skimp on rehabilitation programs, which affect a patient’s quality of life, USA Today reported in March.

Hundreds of thousands of patients who lack coverage are discharged each year from hospitals to nursing homes or to languish in their beds during critical early months when their brains are more receptive to healing, USA reported.

The military’s treatment of brain injuries also has been criticized, but ProPublica, a non-profit investigative news organization, recently quoted a neurological surgeon who said military care of brain injuries is “a hundred times better than what goes on in the civilian sector.”

Gabby Giffords wants to change that. She believes anyone who has suffered a brain injury should have access to the same high quality care she has been fortunate to receive.

And so, members of Congress can applaud, hug and kiss Giffords all they want, but it’s not enough.

To support Giffords’ struggle in a meaningful way, lawmakers should endorse, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act, also derisively known as ObamaCare. The law says some rehabilitation services must be included in essential benefit packages that go into effect in 2014 for Medicaid and companies participating in insurance exchanges.

The Obama administration has said it’ll leave details of those packages to the states, but to honor Gabby Giffords, the packages should specifically cover rehabilitation for traumatic brain injuries. It’s the right thing to do.

© 2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

In God we trust -- Congress? Not so much -- Nov. 3, 2011 column

By MARSHA MERCER

The numbers are stunning to everyone, it seems, except Congress.

Fourteen million Americans are still jobless. The ranks of the poorest of the poor have grown to record levels, with 20.5 million Americans living below 50 percent of the poverty line.

And what does Congress do? It, um, steps up to the plate and strikes out.
On Oct. 26, the House voted 416 to 3 to mint commemorative baseball coins.

Rep. Richard Hanna, R-NY, who calls himself “the congressman from Cooperstown,” introduced the measure. If the Senate goes along, sales of the coins will support the National Baseball Hall of Fame there.

Thank goodness, the coins will have “In God We Trust” on them – as all American money does.

The House is mightily concerned that some people – that means you, Mister President – don’t know “In God We Trust” is the national motto. More on that in a minute.

First, another number Congress evidently is in denial about. Only 9 percent of American adults approve of the job Congress is doing – the worst performance rating in the history of CBS-New York Times polls.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The day after the 2010 elections delivered the House to the Republicans, the new Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., set higher accountability standards he called the Cantor Rule.

Each day, Cantor said, he’d ask himself: “Are my efforts addressing job creation and the economy; are they reducing spending; and are they shrinking the size of the federal government while increasing and protecting liberty? If not, why am I doing it? Why are WE doing it?”

And yet, the House voted 396 to 6 Tuesday to reaffirm “In God We Trust” as our official motto and to encourage “public display of the motto in all public buildings, schools and other government institutions.”

Cantor didn’t comment, but sponsor, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., said it was necessary because, “Unfortunately, there are a number of public officials who forget what the national motto is, whether intentionally or unintentionally.”

He was referring to Obama who, in a speech last year to students in Jakarta, Indonesia, said, “In the United States, our motto is `E Pluribus Unum,’ out of many, one.”

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson proposed the Latin phrase for the motto on the Great Shield of the United States in 1776. E pluribus unum is a wonderful concept, speaking to the challenge of forging one, unified country from many different peoples.

Congress and President Dwight Eisenhower made “In God We Trust” the official motto in 1956.

Forbes, who founded the congressional Prayer Caucus, wrote Obama a letter, informing the president of his motto mistake and scolding him for failing to acknowledge God as the source of the rights in the Declaration of Independence.

“Omitting the word Creator once was a mistake; but twice establishes a pattern,” Forbes wrote. Forty-one members of the Prayer Caucus, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., now a presidential contender, joined in signing the letter.

Forbes then introduced the “In God We Trust” resolution. Not that it was needed. Congress has reaffirmed the motto repeatedly over the years.

Nobody is against the motto, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, said during House debate.

“Why have my Republican friends returned to an irrelevant agenda? Irrelevant because it does nothing. It simply restates existing law that no one has questioned. Why are we debating nonbinding resolutions about the national motto?” Nadler asked.

The short answer is that Republicans want to make Obama a one-term president. Democrats could hardly let Republicans out-do them on trust in God. And so the House showed overwhelming bipartisanship on a meaningless bill.

Obama meanwhile keeps pushing for his jobs bill. He gets knocked for his travels, but at least he has a bill.

On Wednesday, Obama stood near the structurally deficient Key Bridge in Washington to talk about infrastructure jobs. Nationwide, one in four bridges in the country is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.

“In the House of Representatives, what have you guys been debating?” Obama said. “You’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball. You had legislation reaffirming that `In God We Trust’ is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work,” he said.

I agree. Our national motto wasn’t at risk; our bridges are. I want to see people at work, making the bridges safe.

c) 2011 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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