Mr Congressman...

Jordan Golson to Barney Frank (D, MA 4th):

Though I disagree with the Congressman on most issues, I do strongly agree with his position on the Schiavo case. It is not the Government's place to get
involved in a personal family issue. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jordan Golson

Barney Frank to Jordan Golson:

Dear Friend:

I appreciate your words of support for my actions in the Schiavo
case. I did not mean to express any opinion as I believe you
understand on whether or not her feeding tube should be removed,
but rather to stress the entirely inappropriate nature of Congress
making this decision as opposed to the courts. Whatever mix of
ideological, religious and political consideration drove this
decision, the very fact that it was such a mix illustrates the wisdom
of the separation of powers whereby Congress makes general
policy but the courts decide specific cases. I know as a fact that
virtually none of my colleagues have the kind of information about
Ms. Schiavo's wishes, her medical condition, her relations with her
husband, etc. on which to make a decision. And I think it is a very
dangerous notion that when there is sufficient political clout,
Congress will step in and cancel decisions such as this. That is
why I was one of those taking the lead in opposing this.

BARNEY FRANK

Gosh, that sounds exactly like my argument all along. What is the world coming to where I agree with Barney Frank?

Bush and the Republican leadership are on thin, thin ice with myself and the libertarian-leaning wing of the Republican party and this is support they should not be taking for granted.

The Republicans are allowing the religious extremists on the right to do for the Republicans what the Deaniacs did for the Democratic party: pull them way too far to the extreme alienating their moderate supporters. The Dems lost big this past election and the Republicans will next time if they don't shape up.

It is an outrage that we have a deficit this large when Republicans have control of both houses of Congress and the our handling of immigration issues are horrific as well.

What happened to the Contract with America? It has been broken and the American people stomped on by the power-hungry Republican Congressional Leadership. A refresher on the "Contract":

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

* FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
* SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
* THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
* FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
* FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
* SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
* SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
* EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Read the rest and see how much of it is still in need of implementation today. Appalling.

If Republicans want to strengthen gains made in 2000-2004, we must start with these three issues:

Get government off the people's back (including things like the Schiavo case)

Fix the deficit

Do something about illegal immigration

Then we must go back to the Contract with America and start to implement these excellent ideas that have been so woefully ignored in recent years. The American People "signed" this contract in 1994 but the Republicans in Congress have not lived up to their end of the bargain.