From The Hill:
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) planned to show off the work of a company from his district when he arranged a photo op with a special Army Humvee in front of the Rayburn Building yesterday. What he got instead was a partisan food fight.
Hayworth appeared with officials from Tempe, Ariz.-based ArmorWorks, which just received a contract to supply the Army with 1,500 armor kits for the all-terrain vehicle. To illustrate the need, Hayworth told of his trip to Iraq a month ago, when he witnessed an Arizona guardsman fashioning armor himself out of scrap metal.
But some on hand were quick to criticize the event. A broadcast reporter asked his cameraman if he had gotten a shot of Hayworth behind the gun of the Humvee, to which the cameraman replied, "Of this guy who never served a day in the service? Yeah, I got it."
Then, apparently to Hayworth's complete surprise, Armed Services Committee, members Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), took over the podium. "Are you guys trying to score some points politically, or what?" asked Hayworth as he leaned in. "I'll be here to watch."
And watch he did, from only five feet away.
A release distributed by Meehan's staff quoted him as saying, "This is outrageous. We're standing next to an armored Humvee here in Washington when it should be in Iraq or Afghanistan."
But when pressed, Meehan backed off that assertion, saying he didn't demand that "this particular vehicle" be in Iraq, only that 12,000 such vehicles are needed over there.
Taking back the microphone, Hayworth said, "We all want to support our troops, but in full disclosure, I'm sure [Meehan] doesn't mind if I point this out: When it came time to vote $87 billion for the troops, Marty voted no, and the man he's supporting for president, Senator [John] Kerry [D-Mass.], voted no."
To top it off, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, showed up and immediately coined a new word. He cautioned that with servicemen overseas, we should not "particize" the issue.
Wow. What exactly did this Representative do wrong to draw the ire of his Democratic counterpart and a media cameraman? He dared to help the troops despite having not served in the military?
I really don't see what all the fuss was about. This congressmen did what all congressmen should be doing. He observed a problem some soldiers from his state were having in Iraq and sought to fix it. Along the way, he was able to throw some work to a company in his state which will likely have a positive impact on the economy there.
So what exactly then is Marty Meehan's problem? There are plenty of issues in Washington deserving of criticism. There's no need to criticize a congressmen who's doing his job just because he's from a different political party.