Re: In Class of Colorful Freshmen, Meet the Most Contrarian

Without justifying what Congress has accomplished to-date, I'd still like to
think there's some middle ground where one can, yes, embrace the
Constitution (or make a good faith effort of same) without being Dr. No on
everything.

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |*
*


On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Mike Findlay <[email protected]>wrote:

> I dunno, drawing attention to the constitution and the idea of limited
> government is something worth accomplishing.  Especially when juxtaposed
> with what congress has accomplished to date.
>
> Mike F.
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Johne Cook <[email protected]>
>
> *To:* DADL (off topic) <[email protected]>
> *Sent:* Fri, April 15, 2011 10:51:21 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [DADL-OT] In Class of Colorful Freshmen, Meet the Most
> Contrarian
>
> I like his style but wonder how effective he'll actually be. It is nice to
> warm yourself with your convictions, but one has to think that the primary
> success of a political gadfly is to draw attention to himself rather than
> actually accomplish anything. (This is where my inner pragmatist wars with
> my inner idealist.)
>
> Johne Cook
> | http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |*
> *
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Mike Findlay <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> He'd get my vote.
>>
>> Mike F.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Bruce Geerdes <[email protected]>
>> *To:* DADL (off topic) <[email protected]>
>> *Sent:* Fri, April 15, 2011 9:11:51 AM
>> *Subject:* [DADL-OT] In Class of Colorful Freshmen, Meet the Most
>> Contrarian
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/us/politics/15freshman.html?_r=1&hp
>>
>> In Class of Colorful Freshmen, Meet the Most Contrarian
>> By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
>>
>> WASHINGTON —Representative Justin Amash does not believe the
>> government should subsidize public broadcasting, vehemently opposes
>> abortion rights and thinks Democrats are wrong about spending. Yet he
>> has voted against every Republican measure that conforms to those
>> views.
>>
>> Through April 12 Mr. Amash, a Republican who represents a swath of
>> southwestern Michigan, has not voted with the majority 25 percent of
>> the time, the most of any House Republican.
>>
>> Mr. Amash, 30, the youngest member of the freshman class, stands out
>> like a patchwork quilt among 86 other colorful Republican freshmen. He
>> has voted against his party on important symbolic measures, like one
>> that would strip financing from Planned Parenthood, and those most
>> minor, like a measure to amend the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission
>> Act to extend its termination date.
>>
>> He has even voted against the routine matter of approving the journal
>> of the previous day’s proceedings, because, he says, there is not
>> enough time to read it. (This is a bit like not clicking “I Agree” on
>> a hotel Wi-Fi agreement because you don’t want to read the fine
>> print.)
>>
>> On Thursday, he said, he will vote against an agreement the leaders of
>> his party hatched with Democrats to keep the government open for the
>> rest of the year.
>>
>> Often, when Mr. Amash agrees with the spirit of a measure, but not its
>> constitutional basis, he votes “present,” as he did on a bill to take
>> money from public broadcasting. If baffled colleagues seek an
>> explanation, they can find it on his Facebook page, where he
>> assiduously explains every vote.
>>
>> “I follow a set of principles, I follow the constitution,” said Mr.
>> Amash, who keeps a picture of the seating chart for his Constitutional
>> law class from the University of Michigan on his office wall. “And
>> that’s what I base my votes on. Limited government, economic freedom
>> and individual liberty.”
>>
>> He said he did not feel his defections had angered Republicans leaders
>> in the House.
>>
>> “I don’t think they’ve been annoyed by the votes,” he said during a
>> brief interview as he walked through Capitol Hill on Wednesday. “I
>> think they respect my approach, and I respect theirs as well.”
>>
>> If Mr. Amash has any dreams of rising in his chamber, he will have to
>> find a way to mimic the style of lawmakers who run contrariwise to
>> their leaders but maintain their respect, like as Representative Jeff
>> Flake of Arizona, and not that of those who are stars on Fox News but
>> not especially influential in the upper ranks of their own caucus,
>> like Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
>>
>> In some ways, Mr. Amash’s voting record reflects his time as a
>> Michigan state representative, when he was known as “Mr. No,” for his
>> proclivity for voting against the majority of legislation before him.
>> In that case, however, Mr. Amash was largely against the policies
>> underlying most of the bills, which reflected Democratic control.
>>
>> His contrarian ways sometimes made for odd alliances in Michigan,
>> where he lined up against his Republican colleagues to oppose tax
>> breaks for the film industry, and teamed up with a far-left-leaning
>> lawmaker from the Detroit area to make sure legal-defense budgets for
>> indigent criminal defendants were more uniform.
>>
>> But here in the 112th Congress, Mr. Amash says most of his no or
>> “present” votes generally reflect his lack of constitutional
>> convictions about a bill, or the fact there was not time to read it.
>> Some of the constitutional violations in the bills favored by his
>> party mates “are pretty apparent,” he said. “We review each piece of
>> legislation very carefully,” he said. (In the case of the spending
>> bill, he does not believe it cuts spending enough, in keeping with
>> other conservatives who plan to vote against the measure.)
>>
>> Here is what he had to say on Facebook about an amendment to a
>> spending bill that would take away federal dollars from Planned
>> Parenthood, on which he voted present: “While I oppose abortion
>> funding, the language, as drafted, violates my conservative approach
>> to legislating.”
>>
>> He added: “Legislation that names a specific private organization to
>> defund (rather than all organizations that engage in a particular
>> activity) is improper and arguably unconstitutional. Moreover, the
>> legislation is easily thwarted because the organization may simply
>> change its name.”
>>
>> Facebook is his preferred method of vote explanation over news
>> releases, interviews or other forms of traditional political
>> expression. “It is something I started doing in the Michigan
>> statehouse,” he said. “I use it to explain each and every vote.”
>>
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