Larry Gillespie – 9/26/06

This page was last updated on September 26, 2006.

What’s Hart done for us?; Larry Gillespie; Beaver County Times; September 26, 2006.

In his last letter, Mr. Gillespie bashed Sen. Santorum’s involvement in the Terri Schiavo case because he claimed Ms. Schiavo wasn’t a PA resident. In my critique I noted Ms. Schiavo was born, raised, and married in PA. Mr. Gillespie’s facts in this letter are equally impressive.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I’m just curious about what U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart has done for her district in the three terms that she has been our representative. I believe that the $250,000 for a brownfield study and also renaming the Route 60 corridor are the two most memorable items.

“In contrast, a member of Congress from Alaska can get $550 million for a bridge to service 47 people. I look at her district and see no new bridges.”

[RWC] It looks like Mr. Gillespie performs the same quality of research as the Times. Why do I write that? First, the bridge to which Mr. Gillespie refers was to cost about $230 million, not $550 million. Second, funding for the “bridge to nowhere” was axed over 10 months ago in November 2005. FYI, about $230 million for another Alaska bridge was axed at the same time.

Regarding seeing “no new bridges,” what new bridges do we need and why should the federal government pay for them?

(Note: Construction on the Veterans Memorial Bridge across the Beaver River is to begin in 2008, but I believe it’s a state-funded project.)

“The people of her district can do better. Anyone who is proud of the fact that they’ve voted better than 95 percent of the time for President Bush’s policies needs to be replaced.”

[RWC] This is the “rubberstamp” argument again! As I’ve written before, I love the “rubber stamp” criticism when a Republican tends to vote for proposals put forth by a Republican president or other Republicans. They have the same basic beliefs so what should we expect? Is it rubber-stamping when a Democrat supports Democrat presidents and other Democrats? Are the Democrats in the General Assembly rubber stamps for Gov. Rendell?

That said, I don’t know how accurate the 95% figure is. The only relevant Google hits I got came from an interview of Ms. Hart’s opponent (Jason Altmire) and a letter to the editor from an Altmire campaign volunteer.

As we’ve seen with Santorum bashing letters, Mr. Gillespie doesn’t tell us why we should vote for Ms. Hart’s opponent.