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My congressman, Tim Johnson (IL-I5), is forced by circumstance to masquerade as a somewhat independent, somewhat moderate Republican because an important part of his district includes Urbana and Champaign, home of the University of Illinois. While this is, in my opinion, one of the most redneck Big 10 campus settlements, the university still exercises a liberalizing impact on civic life that Johnson cannot ignore. Virtually a straight party-line voter over the years, he has occasionally been permitted by GOP leaders to break party ranks on votes that might have a symbolic importance to the university community but whose outcome was not in doubt. I'm not exactly sure what Johnson's motive is for leading an effort in the House to defund Libya military operations, but disingenuous grandstanding must be high on the bulleted list of possibilities. If you review Johnson's voting record, you can see that he's not been reluctant to vote for war funding during his first decade in Washington. I suppose he's trolling for some Tea Party cred. Oddly, any number of liberals and independents might be expected to strongly support Johnson's effort, but for different reasons than are motivating him.
One thing of which I am certain: if the current President were a Republican, we wouldn't be hearing a peep about Libya out of "The Honorable Timothy V. Johnson."
Mr. Paperclip! (Remember that one?)
ReplyDeleteDan Walker in Paul Powell designer shoes.
"Dan": yes, thanks for revealing to out-of-state readers that one of Mr. Johnson's early lawmaking techniques in the Illinois legislature was to rig his voting button with a paperclip to vote in favor of all Republican-sponsored measures even when it was inconvenient for him to attend the session. I happened to see the guy doing a mall walk in Urbana last week, outfitted in dingy workout shorts. The guy looks like something out of Re-Animator.
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