Sunday, March 21, 2010
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Vote reveals a team player
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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@roanoke.com
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Dan Casey
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Read Dan's blog
Last week's events revealed something else to admire about Roanoke's affable nine-term congressman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte.
It's not that the Holyoke, Mass., native has Yankee roots, something he and I share.
It's not the hard work he's done in Congress to help clean up our national forests. (But plenty of Democrats in this region admire the Republican congressman for that.)
It's not even the concern both of us share for all that high-speed commuter traffic on the Roanoke Valley portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
It's this: On Tuesday, in a House floor vote that fell largely along party lines, Goodlatte had the political courage to vote with the Democrats, rather than with his fellow Republicans.
You may wonder what this issue was all about.
Was it that bill on health care reform that President Obama is pushing? The one that will -- depending on who's talking -- either cover 30 million uninsured people or plunge our nation into a socialist abyss?
No. Goodlatte would never vote for that one.
Instead, it concerned one of my favorite sporting subjects: the University of Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team.
In case you haven't heard, my alma mater tied Duke for the regular-season ACC title and is playing on in March Madness. Tuesday night, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., sponsored a resolution congratulating the team for making the NCAA tournament.
Normally nobody in Congress objects to such pieces of feel-good legislation.
They are dumb and meaningless and make you wonder why Congress even bothers. State legislatures waste their time and taxpayers' money on such garbage as well.
Anyway, someone apparently forgot to inform Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., to let this resolution ride.
So Campbell rose in a snit to challenge it -- because last year another Democrat prevented a vote on a similar one he had sponsored for the national championship men's volleyball team at the University of California, Irvine.
You know tensions are real high in Washington when our congressional representatives are fighting over whether to congratulate college sports teams in one another's districts.
Then Campbell starting dissing Maryland, and what he called its 8 percent basketball player graduation rate, the lowest of all the teams in the NCAA tournament.
Which doesn't seem so bad to a columnist who spent eight years pursuing a four-year degree there.
Before Campbell's diatribe was over, he was leading a charge of House Republicans against the resolution. But it safely passed, 237-132 with 19 abstentions.
Out of 178 House Republicans, 130 voted with Campbell. So did two Democrats.
Not our congressman. Not Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County. Even though, according to The Washington Post, he's voted with the Republican majority 95 percent of the time in the House of Representatives current term.
Goodlatte was one of the 42 GOP reps who voted with the Democrats. Six Republicans did not vote.
Our man Goodlatte stood firm, risked party dishonor, and wouldn't allow his arm to be twisted.
He did this even though the Terps recently beat Virginia Tech in a Cassell Coliseum nail-biter Feb. 27.
With Congress nearly gridlocked over health care reform, Goodlatte doesn't believe in playing games, spokeswoman Kathryn Rexrode said.
"Congressman Goodlatte voted in support of the measure simply as a gesture of good sportsmanship despite the fact that these resolutions are often withheld until a team wins a national championship or the like," she said.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Albemarle County, voted for the resolution, too.
But that doesn't really register on this Terp fan's scorecard because they are Democrats. They didn't buck their party or any bigwigs in it.
If you find it bizarre that Congress would spend time and money on such nonsense, I understand.
Nonetheless it's satisfying to see evidence the 6th District's representative has principles.
That he isn't bulldozed by his partisan colleagues on everything.
So congratulations, Bob! Thanks for sticking up for us Maryland fans in your district.
We eagerly await further signs of your political independence.
Go Terps!
Dan Casey's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
