Apr 17 2008
Carter, Hamby Spend the Night Blowing Hot Air
On the economy, for example, Carter said that the United States is going through hard times because of the “callous spending” of the Bush administration and its policies on Iraq.
“Folks, Virginia Foxx has been in George Bush’s pocket this whole time,” he said.
Carter is correct on the spending. The Bush Administration and the Republican Congress for most of that time have spent us into oblivion and we’re feeling all kinds of repercussions from it. The problem with Carter making this an issue is that the two Democratic Presidential candidates have been running around this country proposing hundreds of billions of dollars in even more spending. Are we to believe that Roy Carter is going to oppose that?
I see he also threw in the old “rubber stamp” jab at Foxx. Would Carter also have us believe that if a Democrat wins the White House this year and he were to be in Congress he and the rest of the Democrats would not also vote in lock step with the Democratic President?
“My experience in local government gives me experience in getting things done,” Hamby said before the debate.
Later, she told the audience that as an Iredell commissioner, she cast the sole vote against raising the Confederate flag over the county government building. That vote, and “doing the right thing,” cost her a re-election bid in 1994, she said.
Feel however you want about the Confederate Flag. It’s not an important issue to me, but it apparently was to Hamby’s constituents or she wouldn’t have lost. She can claim a principled stance on that issue and that’s probably legitimate, but the fact of the matter is she lost reelection for not representing her electorate. That’s why we call these people representatives. The voters don’t keep them if they aren’t doing their will.
On immigration, both said they support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
“We cannot fence people out of the greatness of our nation,” Carter said. “We have a moral obligation as human beings to do the right thing.”
I agree Roy. We do have a moral obligation to do the right thing. That is why I don’t support rewarding law breaking and encouraging it further. People who come here illegally have broken our immigration laws (hence the illegal status, try to keep up). We don’t hand criminals the very thing they so coveted that drove them to break the law. Do we allow bank robbers to keep a small bit of their stolen cash after we arrest them?
Hamby said that the United States was built on immigration.
“Well folks, if there are any people here who are not descendants of immigrants, let me know,” she said.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with illegal immigration.
A second debate between Carter and Hamby will take place April 28 in Boone, sponsored by the College Democrats at Appalachian State University.
Hopefully, the second debate will be more productive, but I’m not holding my breath. Of course, it’s really the hosts and moderators of these debates that are to blame. Nobody ever asks these people any hard questions.
I think that Foxx could loose in November because she has lost sight of the people she is supposed to be representing. She has let down our party, and frankly- she can be hateful and unprofessional. I listened to her town hall meeting and she was flat out rude to several of the callers. (Plus she didn’t even know the meaning of “imminent domain”). I don’t think we should be pulling out from Iraq, but I certainly do not like Foxx’s ideas on the war either– She is an extremist and it’s too bad there isn’t someone sensible running against her in our Republican primary. This will be the first time in 13 years that I will be voting for a Democrat in more than one race. sigh.
I was at the debate too, and while I can’t vote in the DEM primary because of my registration I thought Carter really made some great points. He didn’t seem to me to be partisan at all really, and he wasn’t a polished politician, but really seems to care about local folks–I think he had a great point on the economy, especially the spending that Foxx and Bush have both let get out of control.
“I listened to her town hall meeting and she was flat out rude to several of the callers. (Plus she didn’t even know the meaning of “imminent domain”).”
I only caught about an hour of the town hall. Virginia never said anything that struck me as rude, and although she was often forceful in what she said, she was always polite about it.
By the way, it’s ‘eminent domain.’
I had the same impression of that “townhall’ thing.
I got a laugh about her eminent domain mishap also. Then she gave no details, like how those strict constructionist right-wing judges, she likes to tout, consider strip malls and wal-marts as necessary to the people as roads and airports (see Kelo v New Haven).
Then she told one constituent (who was concerned about the $trillion price tag that comes with her war), to leave the country if she disagreed with Foxx…”there are other places you can live.” And THIS is coming from an elected member of congress!!
Dingo, you are wrong about the judges. The judges that ruled in favor of Kelo were the most left wing judges on the court: Ginsburg, Souter, Stevens, Breyer, and Kennedy. If the strict constructionist judges that Foxx supports had the majority on the Supreme Court that ruling would have gone the other way.
Kennedy (Reagan), Souter (H. Bush), and Stevens (Ford).
Republicans should vote for McCain b/c he will appoint conservatives to the Court?
Reagan wanted Bork first. He was forced to go with Kennedy because the Democratic Senate and a handful of RINOs voted Bork down.
As far as Souter and Stevens, they most certainly aren’t constructionist judges, but we were talking about the type of judges Foxx supports, not those of Bush and Ford.