Residents of Maryland’s First Congressional District—that’s all of us on the Eastern Shore—have an important job in 2014: voting Representative Andy Harris out of office.
Congressman Harris was one of the extremists in the House of Representatives who put politics over the common good, shut down the federal government for more than two weeks, and flirted with forcing the United States to default on payments that Congress had already authorized. He persisted in his disastrous strategy to the end, voting “no” on the bipartisan compromise that finally reopened the government and allowed breathing space for negotiations over the budget.
There are more than 28,000 federal jobs in the First Congressional District—people who work here who were affected by the shut-down. (Remember, even those “essential” employees who continued to work could not be paid during the government closure.) Many more commute from their First District homes to jobs in Washington, Baltimore and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. More First District residents work for government contractors which furloughed their employees—usually without the promise of reimbursement at the end of the shutdown. And even more First District residents are professionals, are self-employed, or work for businesses that lost revenue to the economic uncertainty created by the shutdown. And we can’t forget the First District veterans, cancer patients and so many others whose lives were complicated by Congressman Harris’ actions.
Why in the world would we re-elect a Congressman who would wreak such havoc on his own constituents? We need to keep this thought in mind until we can go to the polls next year.
So we’ve got a job to do in 2014. Let’s not shirk our job like Congressman Harris did. It’s time to bring Congressman Harris home and replace him with someone who will actually represent the people and the interests of Maryland’s First Congressional District.
John and Ellyn Vail
Tom Martin says
Editor,
I would like to commend the Vails for their measured and spot-on commentary regarding Andy Harris’ vote to push the government of United States of America into default.
If I wrote a letter to the editor, I would probably say something like…”Harris’ vote to throw the US into default would knowingly create enormous hardship for working people here and around the globe but enriching those who hold little Andy’s leash and instruct him how to vote.
Harris’ irresponsible step illuminates just one example of the disastrous effect money has on politics when a single, one-percent ass-kissing toady such as Harris could vote to incur severe economic damage on the people he represents and the government he presumes to support with his oath of office by throwing our economy into a chasm of unpredictability with total equanimity. His money comes from elsewhere, his orders come from elsewhere and the people of the 1st Congressional District are held in such contempt by Harris that he can support political actions designed, intentionally, to inflict on them real harm and injury.
Andy Harris’ actions were beneath contempt. He showed all the courage of the psychopath who was willing to put a bomb on the body of someone else to prove his point.Harris was willing to make his point by not only jeopardizing everything we have worked for over 30,40, 50 years but by deliberately throwing the economy into another round of chaos after we just recovered from that mindless administration of George W. Bush. For psychopaths (and its interesting and scary at the same time to use a word that would normally be construed as over-the-top but is no longer so!) like Harris, the American people are the enemy and we will continue to be threatened by his ilk and that of Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann, crackpots unlimited, Joe McCarthy wannabees and two-bit bigots until we send anti-democratic opportunists like him into the retirement home that sits atop the dung pile of history. You like your country? Get rid of Harris before he and his confederates actually succeed in taking it and all of us down!! We are in a mess that calls for action by men and women not toadys and gofers.
However, since the preceding letter was so succinctly done, I stay away from letters to the editor. Don’t want to go over the top!
Ron Pagano JD says
Editor,
Not only did Harris “flirt” with the idea of letting the US default on its obligations, he also voted to have it happen. Luckily, 84 of his GOP members decided to vote with reason, thereby ending the shutdown and avoiding default. Harris has little respect for the rule of law, our country and the people on the Eastern Shore. He preceded his ineffective years as Congressman, with 10 years of hatred for preserving the Shore’s greatest asset: the Chesapeake Bay. He laughably is Chair of the Committee that oversees the EPA…talk about a bizarro world! He also continues to fail the voters and communities of the Eastern Shore, as evidenced by his refusal to pass legislation for Sandy Relief, which affected many Eastern Shore communities, especially Crisfield. His lies and misrepresentations are legendary and he continues to imply that violent overthrow of the government is acceptable. He first expressed this view last February at a Town Hall meeting in Ocean City, as I watched in amazement! He stood there, straight-faced, while a Tea Party nut job talked about “spilling blood” if the latest Maryland gun bill passed. He then brought up the Athens Rebellion of 1946, as an example of why he thought violent overthrow was just dandy.
It is an embarrassment to say that I live in the District where Harris was elected. He has done nothing for the Eastern Shore, and continues to use lies, rhetoric and patriotism as his reasons for voting “Nay”, over and over again. As Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!” It seems that Harris the Scoundrel, has nothing more to rely on than that!
Patricia Carroll says
Editor,
Andy Harris is a political shill and receives money from Koch brothers. Vote him out.