I know many folks out in Kos land have had questions about Cathy McMorris Rodgers since she is the shiny new face for the Republicans. Their perfect example of today's Republican woman. It's a proud time for those of us freezing in eastern Washington- our hearts are warmed and bursting with pride because our rising star has finally risen to #4 in the House leadership. It surely does make up for losing Speaker Tom Foley.
So here are a few thoughts about her from a real liberal in the conservative Spokesman Review.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers has not distinguished herself as one who makes a lot of bold, off-the-cuff statements.
Even as her profile rises, with convention speeches and appearances on the Sunday morning shows, she often conveys the sense of someone tiptoeing very carefully from word to word.
Always cautious and careful. Gotta stick tenaciously to those talking points that you have memorized.
Every once in a while I get the crazy urge to call her office- something I swore off of when her PR guy went off on me about some letters I wrote to the newspaper (just pointing out where some of campaign money came from and that she was working closely with some less than sterling folks, Tom Delay, Richard Pombo,etc, etc) - but after reading this part, my resolve to never call again has been strengthened...
Maybe debate and extemporaneous speech are just not her thing. I’ve tried on several occasions to secure interviews with the congresswomen, including this week, always without success. Once, instead of an interview, I was offered a link, through a spokesman, to a statement by House Speaker John Boehner. Another time, a week of back and forth with her spokesman produced a carefully worded statement that said less than it seemed to.
.
...if a regular columnist from the (right-wing) only newspaper in town can't get any kind of interview from her, why would anyone in her office care about a tiny thought from me?
But now she has gone bold, tweeting recently-
“Proud of the work we’ve done during the 112th Congress!”
So, what is she proud of?
Her tweet linked to a report produced by Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The report asserts: “Our record in the 112th Congress is an impressive one.”
On this list of proudness is-
The committee held 118 hearings.
and, and....
Committee members spent 569.81 hours “hard at work in our hearing rooms.” This amounts to a little more than 10 hours per committee member.
and more
The committee advanced 40 bills that were eventually signed into law, part of its year of “major legislative production.”
betcha didn't know that!
And then of course they passed aaaalll those bills to repeal Obamacare. And you know how that turned out.
I'm sure it would have taken up way too much of her bizzy schedule to have talked to a local reporter about all this proud pride stuff. But he got it all and now we know just how wonderful and proud our eastern WA star is.