Friday, December 08, 2006

ROY BLUNT PLAYS IN THE GUTTER

The congressman from southwest Missouri, recently elected whip of his now-minority party, was part of the culture of kicking-back in D.C. This year, when Republicans ruled Congress and Blunt was majority whip, the workweek started Tuesday afternoon and ended Thursday afternoon.

No more, says incoming Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.); he pledges a workweek that will start at 6:30 p.m. Monday and end about 2 p.m. Friday.

As this Washington Post story makes clear, Blunt views the increased work schedule as something that can by played to partisan advantage:
"They've got a lot more freshmen then we do," he said of the Democrats. "That schedule will make it incredibly difficult for those freshmen to establish themselves in their districts. So we're all for it."
Blunt helped create the shorter workweek because it allowed Republican lawmakers to shirk their duties and spend more time at home, campaigning and raising money. Now he wants freshmen Democrats to work longer hours because it'll keep them far from home and give the GOP the chance to exploit their absence. In both cases, Blunt shows how much he's forgotten and how much he's changed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So true

But nobody wanted to support a real candidate against Blunt

So deal with it

I know it is to bad!

Anonymous said...

I agree. We need people who want to work at running the country, not people who work at campaigning for the next election.

Ken said...

It shows how much he's forgotten and how much he's changed, but it also shows what he's never learned and that is we want people dedicated to running the country and not running to the next lobbyist handout party.