Friday, July 03, 2009
Editorial: Perriello stands tall
Climate change vote was a matter of national security, not politics.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, DAlbemarle County, who has already been the target of hostile campaign ads after his surprise victory over Virgil Goode last year, is bracing for more.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is preparing to target House Democrats in swing districts who voted for the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation -- and Perriello fits the bill.
The NRCC sounds ready to unleash the attack ads, whatever the price.
"There's a reason why over 40 Democrats in swing districts voted against this," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. "They realized that voting for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's bill wasn't worth the price of millions of dollars in TV ads that would be required to put up what will ultimately be a futile defense of this vote. The question is: What were the others thinking?"
Perriello had a ready answer to that last question: "If I have to choose between national security and re-election, for me that's easy. It's national security," he told Politico. "I can deal with losing re-election. I can't deal with being a coward."
That's a good answer, and one the NRCC should think long and hard about before attempting to turn this issue to partisan advantage.
As a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told Politico, the fact that 40 swing Democrats voted against the bill may resonate less forcefully than the fact that only eight Republicans voted in favor of it. "Republicans have shown time and time again that they don't offer solutions; they're just saying no, whether it's the economic recovery bill or the green-jobs bill," said Jennifer Crider.
A principled stand will beat obstructionism almost every time.
