Rep Boustany on the Cut and Run Bill

By Stanford Matthews originally posted at: Blog @ MoreWhat.com Here comes the first of another series of reviews on what politicians post at The Hill's Congress Blog at blog.thehill.com. You have to fall within blog.thehill.com's criteria for worthy commenters or your comment will not get published. But we are ok with that because, one, we're not sure we want to fit that criteria and, two, it gives us an excuse to post our comments as we see fit. Any trip we take to this particular blog in search of blog fodder starts at the most recent post and works back. When we have had our fill and found enough to post, the most recent entry gets to go first here. It's fascinating how politicians avoid talking to constituents as much as possible, refuse to engage the press or media unless stringent controls are in place and flatly dodge the media when in trouble. Rather than actually doing something to get the job done, they spend a great deal of time publishing press releases and making speeches designed to criticize others for why the work is not getting done or done correctly. Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr, MD is a case in point.

Partisan Squabbling Does Nothing to Help Our Troops (Rep. Charles Boustany) April 28th, 2007 It gives me no pleasure to vote against a bill that includes many programs I have been advocating since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. In the end, the restrictions this bill places on our men and women in uniform, and the process that was abused to buy its passage, gave me no other choice. I cannot vote for a bill that ties the hands of our troops in the field.

Everyone on the planet should know that the current majority party is the Democrats. In addition, it is also common knowledge that the Dems have spent this short majority history doing nothing but bashing and attempting to undermine the President of the United States, claiming everyone in America is for cut and run and also loading their cut and run legislation proposal with pork to get enough votes to override the President's veto pen. So GOP Rep Charles Boustany, Jr, MD, please stop putting lipstick on this pig and admit you are voting party line because you were elected in 2004, re-elected in 2006 and are quite comfortable being a rookie Congressman doing what you are told. So what have you done in the two plus years you have been in office? From his campaign website, a detailed and still vague endorsement that characterizes typical political rhetoric designed to make candidate look good without any substance. Saving your wetlands how, exactly? Working to reduce dependency on foreign oil how, exactly? Yes, you are not going to tell us. Exactly.

Nov 6, 2006 - Daily Advertiser Endorses Boustany Article published Nov 6, 2006 in The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA We endorse Boustany's candidacy When we endorsed the candidacy of Charles Boustany Jr. in October 2004 - his first campaign for public office - our support was based on his carefully crafted plan to strengthen our area and make better the lives of our people - his "Prescription for Prosperity."

We don't know how or why Rep Boustany would claim to be interested in weaning us off of oil with all the energy related business in his part of the country. But he sure has done well pushing money to the state of LA. Of the $13.2 Billion for 700 water resources projects, including flood related, $3 billion is going to his state. As said earlier about putting lipstick on the pig, a rookie Congressman explaining his reason for voting party line as other than voting party line, while he gets 3 billion for his state in water resources and flood money and looks to gain road construction money while he sits on the appropriate committee. This smells like politics, not an honest concern about which way to vote on a party split appropriations Democrat cut and run bill. And as a side note, Louisiana is reported to favor Edwards in 2008 while Boustany, understandably endorses a GOP candidate and his official choice is Giuliani. And Boustany's campaign finances as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) is about evenly split between individuals and PACs at a total near $1.5 million. Some of the money is from single issue PACs. The following is Rep Boustany's lone bill introduction that does not seem to cover those items the previously mentioned endorsement included as a reason to vote for him.

H.CON.RES.54 Title: Expressing the support of Congress for the creation of a National Hurricane Museum and Science Center in Southwest Louisiana. Sponsor: Rep Boustany, Charles W., Jr. [LA-7] (introduced 2/5/2007) Cosponsors (None) Related Bills: S.CON.RES.8 Latest Major Action: 2/7/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.

This post is not a disapproval or approval of this Congressman overall. The reason is because this was not an exhaustinve investigation but some basic research to support some commentary about his post on Congress Blog.