My Face-to-Face Encounter with Frank "Robo Republican" Wolf

I asked if Congressman Wolf ever visits this office, and was advised that it was very, very rare, only if "passing through."  I explained that I had been on a conference call with him a few weeks before, had submitted a question, but had not been called.  I asked the "Constituent Services Assistant" if she knew his position on retroactive immunity for phone companies, and she was totally clueless as to what this issue was.  Another person in the office was conversant, but did not know his position, and so I filled out a contact and information form for submittal to their D.C. office (Note: I had already called that office on this, but no one ever called me back despite assurances they would).  As I went to the door to leave, a Toyota SUV pulled up,and, lo and behold, out stepped the Congressman, who held the door for me to leave, upon which I said "that's all right, I wanted to speak to you about something important anyway."

So I asked his position on retroactive immunity.  He said he favored it, and then launched into the following of what I call Republican RoboThink:

   1.   "After the attack, when everyone was fleeing the Capitol, I stayed. Then I went to donate blood, but the Red Cross wouldn't take it because I had just come back from a trip to Africa.  So then I went to the Pentagon."

  2.  "Did you know that 30 people from this District were killed on 9/11?  I went to funerals.  What do I tell the parents if I don't protect the phone companies?  Don't you know they were not allowed to monitor international calls?"

  3. "I was undecided until a couple of weeks ago.  Then, in a closed session, I heard some stuff from the FBI that made me realize we must give all the authority the President asks for."  I think that's called "fear mongering, Congressman.  The people in this district are not on your side on this issue."

  4.  "Oh, the lawyers just want to be able to sue the phone companies."  Sorry, I responded, the ACLU is not in this for the profit, they are in this to protect Constitutional privacy concerns.  Do you not support the Rule of Law?

  5.  "What about abuses?" I asked.  "What about the massive abuses of the FBI regarding those special letters which they used to investigate people who had nothing to do with terrorism?"   His answer:  "Since the Democrats took over, there has been no oversight of the FBI!!"

It was at this point that I could see he wanted  to leave, but I exercised my Constitutional prerogative of "blocking your Congressman's exit" and continued....

  6.  Once again, the Congressman emphasized this as a requirement of 9/11.  "Didn't you know," I asked,"that AT&T was asked to start listining in to conversations just a few weeks after President Bush was elected?"  "Well," he said, "I would oppose that."  Right.  Then I asked why doesn't he invite the people who know about these intrusions to testify.  No answer.

He is he is the senior Republican on the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.  I would think he could work that in somehow.

  7.  Translators.  I said that I doubted the government could do much with such interceptions as their policy is, for example, to fire Arabic translators if they are gay.  Ah, he said, I am trying to get retired Iraqi military people to come to the U.S. as translators.  I won't hold my breath on that one.

  8.  Then I tried to present a "fair and balanced" approach by telling him how much I was opposed to the Senators Webb and Feinstein's amendment which would allow the FISA Court (since they have nothing better to do) to determine if a company did this monitoring "in good faith," in which case they're off the hook.  This set him off, as if I had mentioned yet another  Republican Talking Point which he had forgotten - Good Faith.  Yes, that's "the main thing...don't penalize them for good faith."  I explained that their good faith patriotic duty did not prevent them from disconnecting the phone service from the FBI when they did not pay their bills.  No response.

I decided, ok, he could go now.  He summarized: "Well,we're on different sides of the page," to which I said "Yes, and so are the vast majority of people in your district."  I asked, naively, if he would keep an open mind on the subject, to which he automatically responded "I always do."

End of story.  As far as I'm concerned, another Robo Republican.  No original thought needed.  No responsiveness to one's constituents.  No upholding of that quaint old document, the Constitution.

NOTE:  As I'm sure most of you know, Judy Feder and Mike Turner are facing off in the June 3 Virginia primary to oppose Frank Wolf in the November General Election.  Judy is one of the top fundraisers of those challenging incumbents in the country.  I am strongly supporting Judy Feder. Nothing Frank Wolf said changed my view.  

(Crossposted at DailyKos)

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