Representative Mike Capuano is my representative to the US House. His trip to Brazil is bad news because it puts Democrats in a potentially hypocritical position. How can we be complacent when a representative takes a
$20,000 trip to Brazil with
LOBBYISTS for which the representative paid
NOT ONE CENT? We can't, and if we do then we are worse hypocrites than the Republicans.
I admittedly know little about Capuano but have to say that this first impression is not a very good one. I find myself asking how would I react if this guy was a Republican? I would react by calling him corrupt and part of the pay to play problem in Washington D.C. So how can I react less when it is my own DEMOCRATIC representative? I don't think I can. I think that fairness and coummitment to principle compel me to denounce Capuano because he clearly does not share my ideal nor his party's efforts to reform and rid the capitol of corruption.
I say all of this because of Senator Kerry's letter to the editor in today's Boston Globe. The Senator seems to suggest that because CApuano hasn't made this a habit he should be excused. I think that if Democrats try in one breath to call for reform and point to Delay as horribly corrupt but in the other breath defend the blatantly stupid decision by Capuano as an aberration we will immediately lose our edge as reformers and look like silly, partisan hacks. Representative Capuano may represent the people of his district well but in this current climate of corruption he has spectacularily failed us and for that we need to think twice about who we send to Washington in November.
Cross posted at Mass Revolution Now!.