Republican Rep. Capito (WV-02) takes credit for bolting a locked door

I know we often make fun of lawyers in this country ("What do you call a smiling, sober, courteous person at a bar association convention? The caterer."). On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for the value of training in law for political leadership.

The Clintons (Bill, Yale; Hillary, Yale), Barack Obama (Harvard), John Edwards (UNC), Harry Reid (George Washington U.), and Alan Mollohan (WVU) all have law degrees.

Then we have our Republican mis-leadership. There's George Bush with an Master's in Business Administration. That's the same degree that Duke Cunningham and Jeff Skilling have. There's Rep. Shelley Moore Capito with a Master's in Career Counseling. That's the same degree as... well, actually, no one comes to mind.

Bush and Capito share a mis-understanding of the law, too. Whereas Bush missed the week in high school civics class about constitutional checks and balances, after six years in Congress Rep. Capito still hasn't figured out the basic mechanics of when a law is needed.

Case in point: Rep. Capito is crowing about her success in using an obscure legislative maneuver to outlaw something that is already illegal!

West Virginia Democrats had no problem getting it right (emphasis mine):

West Virginia’s other two congressmen—Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall—voted against the measure. Rahall says he opposed the amendment because the program already includes ID requirements and toughening up the standard would be burdensome to many rural and elderly citizens and raise privacy concerns. Mollohan’s office said the amendment was "nothing but political chicanery."

You know, it's hard to counter the negative stereotypes the rest of the country has of West Virginia. Rep. Capito isn't helping any. They noticed up in New York, too: Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens) said "It's all demagoguery." As Albor Ruiz of the New York Daily News put it:

While the fate of 12 million people, thousands of families and the future of the nation's economy wait for Congress to do its job on immigration reform, some of its members would rather play games.

[snip]

"Loopholes in current law, like this housing assistance loophole for illegal immigrants, act as a magnet and invite people to enter our country illegally," Capito is quoted as saying. "We should not be rewarding those who have come here illegally by awarding them taxpayer-funded services intended for law-abiding citizens."

Wow! Is she tough! She's cracking down and closing loopholes! No "illegal" will take advantage of taxpayers on her watch!

Not to rain on her party, but there is one small problem: What loophole is she talking about? Undocumented immigrants already are ineligible for housing vouchers. Under current law, all recipients of assistance are required to be citizens or to prove their lawful immigration status.

Capito can do all the chest-thumping she wants, but there is nothing to crack down on.

Here in West Virginia, the coverage is a mixed bag. Tom Searls article reads like a Capito press release. Yet, he did prominently mention his inability to get a quote from Rahall or Mollohan. Loopy Kercheval's opinion piece does include quotes from Rahall and Mollohan but it distorts the issue even worse than Capito did.

Capito should be called out for immigration race-baiting and class warfare. Her arguments are full of lies and distortion. Here's a just a few ways her actions are deceitful:

1. The HUD reform is benign at best and an assault on poor people at worst. It is already illegal for illegal residents to get section-8 benefits. As Rahall noted, her additional ID requirements create an additional burden on those who can least afford it.

If this legislative action has any effect it will be to make it harder for those who are entitled to the benefits to get them. This is an assault on poor people. Republicans like Bush and Capito believe that government cannot help people--this is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy as they make it more difficult for the government to help those who most need help.

2. She provides no evidence whatsoever that there is a problem with Section-8 housing that needs "reform". The one statistic she quotes in support of this bill has nothing to do with Section-8 housing.

You can be sure if she had any examples of illegal residents receiving Section 8 housing she would have mentioned them. As Mollohan said, this is "nothing but political chicanery." It is a waste of time, money, and resources.

3. In her floor statement she repeatedly says the tax dollars paying for Section 8 housing come from hard-working Americans. That's a misleading statement. Tax dollars are paid by not only by hard-working Americans but also by legal immigrants and illegal immigrants who reside and pay taxes in this country.

She knows this. She's using misleading inflammatory rhetoric to score cheap political points. Rep. Joe Crowley is absolutely right, "It's all demagoguery."

This is yet another example of Bush-Capito style mis-leadership. There's a reason why 75% of West Virginians feel that the country is headed on the wrong-track. Passing do-nothing legislation doesn't help.

West Virginia need leaders who put their energy into solving the many difficult, significant problems that we face--ending the occupation of Iraq, providing universal health care, and providing social and economic justice for all of us, not just the wealthy few.

It's time for Bush and Capito to leave office. We can do better.

•  here's a tip

  I could really use a better Representative! Are you willing to help me out?

  We've got a strong Dem. candidate this cycle, W.Va.  State Sen. John Unger, with a real chance of beating Capito. Please make a contribution to help defeat Rep. Capito.

  by wvablue on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 12:42:50 PM PDT

•  one point of clarification

  Of course, there's nothing wrong with getting an MBA (or a master's in education, for that matter). Some of my best friend's have MBAs. I'm all for people pursuing college and graduate education whatever their field of interest.

  In fact, in researching this diary I found out West Virginia Gov. Manchin has an MBA. The difference compared to Bush-Capito is: Manchin has put his graduate education to beneficial use as a very effective Gov. of W.Va.

  Manchin obviously believes that government can solve problems for the good of individuals--not just serve corporations and the wealthy few.

  by wvablue on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 12:44:41 PM PDT

  •  wow, you've got just as much attention on

    Swing State Project, which is sad becuase this site has about one hundred times as many people on it as SSP. This site's grown increasingly frustrating, no pays attention to election diaries, thousands of readers flock to a few diaries and most are nver looked at, and most of the sites new readers jsut skip over election diaries in order to look at mroe stupid issue diaries. If you're not a bigtime poster whose been here awhile and gotten a bunch of rec'd list diaries, it's extremely difficult to get a lot of attention for you your hard written posts. sorry for the lack of attention or reasonable discussion.

    by ArkDem14 on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 05:28:30 PM PDT

    •  You are right...

      There was a time when this site was devoted to helping elect Democrats. At least, that's memory of what 2004-2006 was like.

      Now, not so much. Anything with an election handle sinks fast. Even a bigtime poster like my West Virginia Blue buddy Carnacki can't get diaries about WV-02 on to the recommended list. I would give up completely except that every extra eyeball helps.

      Thank you for your comment and rec!

      by wvablue on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 09:57:32 PM PDT

•  I don't think that illegals should get

  Section 8. I don't see anything wrong with making public housing recipients prove their citizenship. Finally I have issues with the whole idea of section 8. I wouldn't want to live next to section 8 housing myself.

  by jiacinto on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 06:15:12 PM PDT