Chris Murphy at Elim Park
I just attended the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce lunch at Elim Park. It was nice to see some other town officials there... Matt Hall, Elizabeth Esty, Greg Florio and Mike Cruess were there. And of course, Congressman Chris Murphy.
Ignoring for a moment what he said... I thought he had a pretty good delivery... he made a good presentation. He touched on a number of topics, then fielded questions.
Topics covered included:
Iraq - I'm pretty sure he didn't explicitly say it, but I'm almost positive he recently voted in the minority to defund the war... and he emphasized that it was not a vote taken lightly.
Healthcare - he said a few times that the current Congress doesn't have the will to do much on healthcare, as this discussion would likely be superceded by the Presidential race. (Go Ron Paul!)
Unfunded liabilities - he touched on my weak spot and said almost everything I wanted to hear him say... talking about his vote for the "pay-go" system, which was basically a vote for a balanced budget. That's definitely the right attitude. My only concern was that he was talking about the $9trillion debt... and that fails to acknowledge all the future unfunded liabilites (another $50trillion or so), such as social security and medicare. But while I think those are extremely important issues... he does seem to be on the right track here.
Ethics reform - he's helping to lead the charge here. It was nice to hear him say that the ethics problems in Congress were bipartisan (Delay-R, Ney-R, Jefferson-D, etc.) This topic was probably the only one where I felt at a loss in what he said... John Lesky (Chamber of Commerce, Goverment Relations Chair) asked Murphy about Congressman Murtha's recent headlines. Chris didn't seem to be current on Murtha's recent alleged threat to a Republican Congressman (CNN.com). That was unfortunate in my opinion. I think he should've been more aware of it, but that's me. I'll give him a pass on it this time, but I really hope that if he makes ethics his forte... he holds Ds and Rs equally to account.
Anyway... the lunch was nice. Having the Congressman speak in Cheshire was nice. And it's a beautiful day... so I'm gonna end this post right here.
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
21 comments:
Paygo without budget cuts is a recipe for huge tax hikes, how can you support Ron Paul and endorse that at the same time?
Are you that easily bedazzled by the slick Mr. Murphy
He has yet to get his feet wet. Wait. He has to listen and learn. It's a big pool.Time will tell.
are you kidding, he's jumped face first into the pool with the sharks
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/010107.php
Murphy is so concerned about ethics he helped set up a PAC run by a former tobacco lobbyist
If this is "leading the charge" on ethics reform please tell me what retreat sounds like Tim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Murphy_(politician)#2008_campaign
2008 campaign
During his race against Johnson, Murphy frequently criticised her fundraising strategy of building a huge warchest from special interest donors. However, on May 7, 2007 the Hartford Courant reported Murphy had held 11 fundraising events in the first quarter of the year, amassing over $419,000 in donations including approximately $260,000 from individuals and $160,000 from political action committees[6] Murphy's colleague, John Larson said the purpose of the fundraising was "You want to stop people from running against you". Nonetheless, Danbury Republican State Senator David Capiello has announced he will challenge Murphy in 2008. [7] On May 17, 2007, Murphy appeared on the Chaz & AJ show on WPLR radio and said "I'll pander to any special interest group besides Yankee fans"
[edit] Congressional career
As a member of Congress, Murphy said that reform of the lobbying system would be a top priority[8] On May 24, 2007, he was absent when an important vote on a major lobbying reform bill was held [9]
8:08... I strongly support Ron Paul and have for years.
As for pay-go... Murphy didn't get into the details of cutting spending vs. raising taxes... so I just gave him a pass.
8:55 As for the "leading the charge" comment... that was more about what he said (I think he said he had taken a "leadership role"). I then tried to politely note the seeming disparity between his words and his actions (not leading the charge against Murtha).
re: "I'll pander to any special interest group besides Yankee fans"
... He was joking, right?
As for the other citations here... first I've heard of them. I'll try to take a peek sometime.
8:39... I read a great quote recently... something along the lines of...
"Most people go to Washington vowing to clean up the cesspool. Then when they get there, they decide they were mistaken... and they're now enjoying the hot tub." lol.
So true. Some people (i.e. Ron Paul) are never influenced by special interests... others are.
Once you stop representing the people to the gov't and begin representing the gov't to the people... it's time to go.
Raising $2K/day from special interest groups and hiring a lobbyist to run your own PAC isn;t a joke
I'm damned pleased to have Chris as my rep. He's been doing a great job and there's evidence of real leadership to come. Go search the congressional record at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html or view his voting history if you're curious.
Also, responding to 8:55:00, Chris is on the Yea tally for lobby reform H.R. 2316. May 24th.. http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=415&chamber=H&congress=1101
As promised he voted for the reforms...
He missed the vote for final passage of the bill and only 13 members didn;t bother to vote
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll420.xml
"Lobbying Transparency Act", oh, blow it off. Maybe he was out helping John Murtha slap around Republican worried about pork .
So far Chris Murphy is OK. I have to say though if the war is still going on for the 08' elections, and with Bush I think it still will be, the Republicans are going to take a bath!
7:08 "oh, blow it off." - Ok. You're doing this on purpose. You're well aware that he was there that day voting for the Lobbying Transparency Act. You're pointing to roll 420 on the 24th which followed a series of votes on the same day for the same damned bill and he was there for those.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll416.xml
To say he blew it off after he was there working on it all day is just plain wrong. You went through the series of votes on the Lobbying Transparency Act, ignored all the earlier ones from the same day, and called him absent. I'm assuming that was an honest mistake on your part?
is that the John Kerry explaination "I voted for it before I decided not to vote at all"?
Murphy is all image, no substance. Want to lay odds he moves to Farmington or Avon to prepare for his statewide race right after the '08 election?
10:45:00 - http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/obtuse
what's obtuse about telling the world you are an ethics champion and then missing votes on the very subject?
CH if you just want to go through life as an enabler to this political opportunist, well it's a free country, knock yourself out
Mind explaining this story, by the way ?
Democrats hide pet projects from voters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_go_co/congress_pet_projects
To ch:
Don’t get too upset about some of the people criticizing Chris Murphy on this blog. There is a lot of jealousy by some here that Chris Murphy is only thirty-three years old and is a United States Congressman.
Many of these critics spend their time taking senior citizens on field trips to the north end of Cheshire and putting signs on telephone poles.
Many of those people putting up the signs also thought Nancy Johnson was Satan's mistress. Hope they are happy with their out of town empty suit
Chris Murphy does not have an honest bone in his body. He spoke in the district about ethics reform on a Monday and on Tuesday in Washington voted to cover-up Jack Murthas ethics violations.
He will not spend the anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in Danbury or Waterbury or New Britain - He will spend it with 1400 "K" Street Lawyers in the heart of Jack Abramhoff country.
Chris Murphy is a sell out.
http://tripjack.blogspot.com/
Ok, let me get this straight:
Chris Murphy is leading the ethics reform by hiring tabacco and oil lobbyists to build a new PAC. And fellow dem Murtha should be exempted from ethics requirements. And Murphy voted for ethics reform before he didn't vote for it. But earmarks are ok, when added by dems. Now, exactly which direction is Murhpy trying to lead ethics reform?
Iraq - we should stop funds and undercut our troops, instead of solving the problem? Cindy Sheehan will be proud!
We should solve unfunded liabilities by making sure we tax enough to pay for spending (no need to control spending then). Except of course, we should ignore Social Insecurity.
And healthcare, well, let's forget about it... people need to focus on politics instead.
Now that's leadership....
To ch:
Don’t get too upset about some of the people criticizing Chris Murphy on this blog. There is a lot of jealousy by some here that Chris Murphy is only thirty-three years old and is a United States Congressman.
Actually, that would explain a lot. When there's substance behind it, I encourage taking any politician to task, but some of the comments here appear to be fueled by something other than an earnest desire to ensure that our rep is working towards positive change.
If you dislike him so much the answer is very easy, run for Congress and beat him, go for it.
beating Murphy I could do
beating every PAC in DC and the Hartford Courant at the same time might be a bigger challenge
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