A post at "Down with Tyranny", Howie Klein's blog, researched and written by AB and put in context by Howie, has made me quite sad.
http://www.downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/...
The piece describes some of Cathy McMorris' life - her family and what they did, her schooling at a wildly conservative Christian school, her immersion in the family business of Republican politics in Washington State and then her direct inclusion in Republican leadership in Washington D.C. It talks extensively about McMorris' role in helping to cover up two GOP pedophile scandals, one in Washington State, the other in the House of Representatives.
Through it we see that McMorris doesn't seem to stand for anything; there is no issue that she fights for because she has lived with the consequences, like special needs for children with a disability or an awareness of transportation needs. No thing in particular seems to matter for her. She has pretty much stood for whatever the men around her have stood for. That is what made me sad. She hasn't ever been on her own.
She spent her last two years of High School in an all-white Christian school, then went to an unaccredited Christian bible college and then to Pensacola Christian College in Florida. Here's AB's description of PCC:
PCC denounces Bob Jones University as too squishy. PCC is for real Christians. Christians who don't smoke, don't drink, don't dance, don't listen to most music, don't watch most tv, don't use the Internet, don't see movies, and don't touch each other on pain of immediate expulsion.
So she really didn't get much of a formal education outside of an Executive MBA from the University of Washington in 2002, which allows people working in full-time jobs to take classes part-time.
Nor did she make up for it by getting an informal education. She didn't knock around Europe for a summer with a friend or try to build a business. Until this August, she didn't marry. She hasn't yet been a parent. Outside of working on the family farm and fruit stand and then four years working at McDonald's, she has had no other job besides campaign aide, legislative aide or legislator.
Her Dad, Wayne McMorris was a legislator. Like her Dad, Cathy is apparently personable. And the Republican Party simply parted the waters for her so she never had to work hard to get the next job. She was working as an aide to a family ally in the State Legislature when she was 20 years old. So she didn't struggle with trying to find a job or defining what really mattered to her enough to work for it. I doubt she had the luxury of having her own opinions or preferences about much.
McMorris was handed the opportunity to run in the 7th LD in eastern Washington when the man she was working for, Bob Morton, went on to represent the 7th LD as State Senator. She served as the Representative for the 7th for 10 years and then served as Republican Leader in the House from 2002 to 2004. Her mentor and friend in the Washington State legislator was Jim West. West, very much like Mark Foley, was a mostly out gay man, who was also a pedophile. In talking about the Mark Foley scandal and its similarity to the Jim West situation, McMorris' role in the leadership of the Republican Party in both cases, AB says:
This isn't the first time the Republican leadership has been caught in a pedophile cover-up. Two years ago this very situation exploded in eastern Washington when it came out that his Republican colleagues had twiddled their fingers for 15 years while out of control sexual predator Jim West used his political clout to hunt down boys right in there front of them.
McMorris was then handed the opportunity to run as the Republican in 2004 in the 5th CD when George Nethercutt was "asked" to run against Patty Murray. She won over Don Barbieri and went straight from there into Republican leadership in Congress. Cathy is the Freshman Class representative on the Steering Committee and is on the Republican Whip Team. She has voted with the Bush Administration 98% of the time. She is intimately tied in with the gang of Republican leaders responsible for Mark Foley's on-going pedophilia and the subsequent cover-up, for the Abramoff scandal and the K Street Project, for the rubber-stamping of everything that the Bush Administration has asked for. As a result, again from the "Down with Tyranny" article:
The metastasizing incompetence and criminality of the GOP nationwide has forced the traditionally ultra-conservative 5th District to re-evaluate its affectionate and protective feelings about Cathy McMorris the person, against the reprehensible deeds of Congresswoman McMorris, gang member.
Defend eastern Washington family values. Clean up Congress. Elect a Representative with integrity who can think for himself. Support Peter Goldmark.
I think it's sad that Cathy McMorris has never even tried to find her own voice separate from the men whose interests she serves. She doesn't belong in Congress, continuing to serve these men who have led this country so astray. As the previous quote says, support Peter Goldmark, a man who knows his neighbors and their needs and will genuinely represent the interests of his constiuents.
http://www.votepetergoldmark.com