I'm livid. West Virginia's second district has a true coward of a representative.
As any regular reader of dKos knows, in the big House this week (no, not the Big House Former W.Va. Gov. Arch A. Moore spent time in), the House of Representatives, they debated a simply word resolution that expresses (1) support for the troops and (2) disapproval of sending any more troops to Iraq.
How did Republican Shelley Moore Capito choose to spend her five minutes in the limelight? She took the cowardly route, distorting what the resolution is about, hiding behind the troops and generally trying to bamboozle her way out of a tough vote.
"My opposition lies not in what this resolution says, but in what I fear it is intended to do — and that is to lay the foundation to begin cutting funding from our troops as they fight the radical jihadists who want to destroy our nation," she said in a statement from the House floor.
The Huntington News nailed it best in their editorial, "Capito Has Her Cake, Eats It, Too, and Then Some",
When it comes to Iraq, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito is engaging in the kind of artful dodging that made her father a legend. Somehow, though, she just isn't as smooth as the old man. If she has aspirations for statewide office, she's going to have to treat the public with more respect than to think we can't see through malarkey when it is flaunted in our faces.
Capito sliced it about as thinly as one can in a floor speech during in the House of Representatives yesterday as she made "clear" that, while she still opposes President Bush's new surge of troops in Iraq, she cannot vote for a House resolution that says...exactly what she believes.
The whole editorial is worth a read... here's their closing:
So we are left with a Congresswoman who was given credit for having the courage of her convictions, even to the point of standing up to the man who got her elected, only to now see her slink away and hope nobody notices.
But of course we do notice such blatant hypocrisy and cowardice. In the future, when Congresswoman Capito backpedals furiously like this again, we hope she will tip us off by wearing a bright yellow dress.
No matter what her attire, we noticed.
What happened Shelley Moore Capito? Are you feeling too much pressure from "The Team" to vote your conscience? Or, are you counting on George Bush rewarding your "nay" vote with a pardon for your dad?
We deserve better. The troops deserve better.
Cross-posted at West Virginia Blue