Thank you, Rep. Tom Emmer, for your common sense and for your courage.
As a newly elected Republican representative of our U.S. Congressional District, the Sixth, you kept your word. When you said you would represent all the residents of the Sixth District, you did just that. You spoke up, despite political risks, for the right and honorable course – the crucial necessity of full funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Emmer had the guts to criticize right-wing extremists and U.S. House Majority leader John Boehner, who all too often cowardly caters to those extremists whose only goal seems to be to cripple, shut down and kill anything to do with the government. It makes you wonder why those fools even bothered to get elected. Why become a member of a government you so much despise?
The usual suspects, the Tea Party naysayers, once again pulled their same old tiresome stunt. They stalled and refused to approve funding for homeland security, holding that funding hostage to their mania against President Obama’s executive action regarding undocumented immigrants. It was a repeat of the despicable nonsense they perpetrated when they refused to fund the government because of ObamaCare. That effort was led by the Tea Party’s darling and that ultimate do-nothing, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Here is what newcomer Emmer said to his peers two weeks ago, in the midst of the stupid stalemate:
“I am disappointed many of my colleagues chose to put the security of Americans at stake and waste time by playing politics…Congress has a solemn responsibility. As a body, we should never hold America’s safety hostage simply for political gamesmanship. With the recent terror threats to the Mall of America hitting so close to home and the potential need for natural-disaster relief in Minnesota during the winter months, it’s imperative we approve the funding of DHS needs and stop playing political games.”
Thank you, Rep. Emmer. A dyed-in-the-wool Democrat couldn’t have said it better.
Emmer then told his colleagues to unlink the DHS funding provision from the controversial immigration issue and then vote solely for or against DHS funding. Fortunately, that is what they did. Reason and sanity prevailed over the endlessly wasteful and dangerous Tea Party games, and the DHS bill passed March 3 in the U.S. House on a vote of 257-167.
Emmer, like many of his congressional counterparts, vigorously opposes the president’s executive orders regarding undocumented foreigners. That is understandable because the issue of undocumented people living in this country is definitely a complicated problem that has no easy solutions, and nobody thus far, including the president, has all the answers. Which is all the more reason the Republican-dominated House and Senate should start – at long last – working on the problem, perhaps even cooperating with the president toward that goal. Whoa, don’t faint! After all, miracles do happen every once in a while.
It is so refreshing, after enduring so many years of the “celebrity” do-nothing Rep. Michele Bachmann to have a representative, finally, who seems to be rational and reasonable. If Bachmann were still in office, you can be assured she would have hunkered down with the Tea Party obstructionists and defied funding the DHS while making all kinds of shrill and silly noises to attract attention.
At least so far, Emmer seems to be that rarity – an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness, rational and reasonable Republican from Minnesota on the national scene. We can only hope he keeps challenging radical right-wingers in the House. If he and others call their bluff and disassociate themselves from Tea Party clowns, there is a good chance – with rationality and sanity restored – that a new-and-improved Republican Party could win the White House in two years.
