A Personal Political Journey

I grew up in North Carolina in a family of “Yellow Dog Democrats.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it meant that we would vote for a yellow dog as long as he was the Democrat nominee. I remained a Democrat until the 1980 presidential election. When Jimmy Carter took office, he looked the nation in the eye and said, “I’ll never lie to you, and you can depend on it.” I realized he had just told his first lie and his presidency was only minutes old.

When he ran for re-election, I didn’t vote Republican, I voted for the third party candidate, John Anderson. After Reagan had been in office for a year, I drank the kool aid and  made the big switch. I was working as the Director of Congressional Affairs for a wealthy political action committee. It was a very heady time for me. I rubbed elbows with the shakers and movers and was privy to the inner workings of the highest levels of our political system. I controlled nearly a million dollars (1982 dollars) that I could dole out to candidates and causes as I saw fit. I had a false sense of self importance that had few limits. My ego was such that I felt completely comfortable when I called Secretary of the Interior James Watt an asshole to his face. At a dinner party, Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan and I nearly came to blows because he didn’t like a comment I made. Over drinks in a private club in DC, I told Attorney General Ed Meese to fuck off when he tried to talk me into giving him my Rolex watch. Then Vice President George H.W. Bush was sitting at the table and laughed uproariously.

By 1985, I was thoroughly disgusted with the corruption I had both witnessed and been a part of. I washed money through my political action committee for both Democrats and Republicans in order to circumvent the campaign finance laws. I was asked for and paid what essentially were bribes by members who fortunately no longer serve in Congress.

By and large, with few exceptions, Congress does not give a good goddamn about the people who elect them. Politics is not about the people and the issues. It is about the acquisition and maintenance of power and, ultimately, money. No politician ever left Washington poorer than when he arrived. A case in point: Bill Clinton grew up without a pot to piss in, has never had a private sector job, and is a multimillionaire.

After I got out of politics and trained as a chef, I operated a highly successful catering business in DC. Many of my clients were former political allies, so I still had an inside track. And I continued to vote Republican. I voted for George W. not once, but twice. Technically, I’m still a registered Republican. However, a person can’t stay stupid his entire life. The Republican Party has sold this country to the highest bidder. It should come clean and rename itself RepubliCorp, because that is what it has become. One only has to look at some of the major legislation passed in the last thirty years to realize that we live in a political climate that is pro big business and anti-consumer. The economic mess we currently find ourselves in is a direct result of the policies of eight years of a corrupt Bush/Cheney administration. Our country had a surplus when they took office and a $9,000,000,000,000.00 deficit when they left.

And it very definitely was a corrupt administration. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the trillion dollar war in Iraq was the Halliburton Corporation, Dick Cheney’s former company. Information is now surfacing that Halliburton may also be largely responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill, the single greatest manmade disaster in history. I voted for these son-of-a-bitches, and I admit my culpability. I knew they were corrupt bastards when I voted for them, but at the time it was in my self interest to see that they were elected. I didn’t want to give up my powerful contacts. I will carry the regret that I feel for the rest of my days. We are now coming to the end of the most expensive and nasty mid-term election in history, and we have some very serious decisions to make.

The Fighting 9th

The decision of which candidate for Congress to choose in the 9th District race should be a no-brainer. But because of the national hysteria created by outside interests and the upstart Tea Party, we are on the verge of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Forget Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Cap and Trade, and Obama Care. They have absolutely nothing to do with what’s at stake for us in the 9th District. What we have to decide is who is going to do the best job for us.

On the one hand we have 14 term Congressman Rick Boucher. In his 28 years in Congress, Boucher has brought hundreds of millions of federal dollars to the District, which have been used to repair the infrastructure, build wastewater treatment facilities, provide clean drinking water for thousands of homes, assist dozens of police and fire departments, and make SW Virginia one of the most wired rural areas in the country. Boucher has had a major role in creating tens of thousands of jobs that offer options beyond just the coal industry. They include telecommunications, technology, and the medical field. These are good-paying jobs with high growth potential. Veterans are seeing an expansion of medical care through the establishment of regional facilities. In 2006, the esteemed Library Journal chose him as politician of the year. Congress.org ranks Boucher as the 10th most powerful member of the House. The Almanac of American Politics, which gives liberal/conservative rankings to House members based on their votes, ranks Boucher squarely in the middle. In the national press, Boucher is usually referred to as a conservative democrat. The ultra-conservative National Rifle Association gives Boucher an A+ rating.

On the other hand we have Morgan Griffith. DOH…

I don’t care that Morgan Griffith doesn’t live in the District, even though the one foot outside the line he claims is a huge distance because his entire career in politics has been focused on Salem and Roanoke. The needs and concerns of Salem and Roanoke are vastly different from the needs and concerns of SW Virginia. Though Griffith claims otherwise, there is no guarantee that redistricting will bring him into the District. The lines could just as easily be redrawn to bring Lynchburg into the 9th. I don’t care about that.

Neither is my decision made by the fact that losing Boucher would cost us valuable seniority on House Committees that are extremely important to SW Virginia. Griffith as a freshman Congressman would be assigned to insignificant committees with no seniority and no power. I don’t care about that either.

Neither do I care that Griffith doesn’t seem to have much of a legislative program to offer. All we hear is his rap, “If ya wanna change Congress, ya gotta change Congressmen.” Maybe he should change his name to Biggie MG, Original Gangsta.

What I do care about is that in a recent interview on WJLS, Griffith stated that the politician he most identifies with is Ken Cuccinelli, which makes him BATSHIT CRAZY in my book. Virginia does not need to launch a new political embarrassment onto the national stage.

People, don’t be stupid. On Tuesday, vote to re-elect one of the best in the nation. Vote for Rick.