Russ Pulliam of the Indianapolis Star does a profile of Mark Souder under the headline "Incumbent doesn't walk the party line."
Souder is taking some heat not so much for his own conservative record, but for daylight-saving time and the state's leasing of the Toll Road to raise highway construction money.
Where do political pundits get this stuff? Souder voted with the Republican Party about 95 percent of the time last year. The congressional-watching Web sit GovTrack rates him a "rank and file Republican." If Souder has seemed to lose his way at times, it's not because he's been abandoning the GOP; it's because the party itself, on things like No Child Left Behind and the drug-prescription plan, seems less than committed to smaller government. And certainly Republicans might lose the Indiana House because of DST and the toll road, but I haven't heard anybody mention him in connection with those state issues.
The article also contains this gem: Souder is "fundamentally an intellectuall" who "reads more than 50 books a year." Gollleee! 50 books a year, that's, wait a sec, let me try to do that math in my head, a book a week! I hate to point it out to the Intellectual Admiration Society, but Isaac Asimov practically wrote that many books.
Here, by the way, is a Washington Post database with which you can check out the voting record of all members of Congress going all the way back to 1991.
Comments
As an adjunct, having met Dr. Asimov at (of all things) a TREK convention in NYC in the mid-late 70s, I can truthfully say he had a marvelous sense of humor and wit.
I recall him proudly sporting a button that read: "Nixon is a Klingon Spy".
That alone forced me to see ALL politics AND politicians in a whole "new" light ever since.
;)
B.G.
Well, if you remember the election-year hype from 1988, Dan Quayle was supposed to be a heartthrob who'd make women all hot for the GOP. If that's their idea of beauty, no wonder Souder's their idea of brains.
If you are either a Republican in spirit or a Libertarian, whatever disagreements you may have with Mark will SHRINK TO INSIGNIFICANCE compared to those you will have with any Democrat no matter how "moderate."
It is vastly preferable to keep taking our own politicians to the woodshed than to forget ourselves and vote in some liberals who will automatically enable the radical liberal leadership to return to power.
You can't vote for either Hayhurst (OR Bayh) without voting for Kennedy, Boxer, Schumer, Biden, Kerry, Feinstein, and the rest of the radical leaders.
Steve, you can't vote for Souder without voting for the radical right who are every bit as repugnant to an independent voter like me. I don't think about Pelosi or Kennedy or Schumer any more than I think about DeLay or Lott or Frist when I think about who to vote for as my Congressman. Either way the congressional leadership is gonna suck.
This year it looks like a choice between the Party of Cut-n-Run versus the Party of F*ck 'em Young. All I really care about is health care and jobs and neither party wants to talk about either of those things because it's so much easier to treat us like we're stupid and preoccupied with homosexuals and fetal parts.