The folks on the news desk forwarded me an e-mail today from a local resident. He raises a pretty interesting point.
I recently interviewed local Congressman Todd Platts, who told me he disapproves of the people shouting about proposed health care changes at public meetings, and he believes differences of opinion on the issue should be voiced in a "mannerly, respectful way."
Yet Platts, like his fellow Republicans, voted against a House resolution rebuking U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson for his now famous (infamous?) shout of "You lie!" during President Obama's address on health care.
Yeah, you could argue that it's contradictory. But I'm willing to cut Platts some slack on this one.
To use an analogy, I could honestly say that I disapprove of a colleague's snide comment to another co-worker during an office meeting. Yet I could still believe the colleague who made the comment doesn't deserve an official letter of reprimand from the boss -- particularly if he already apologized, as Wilson has done repeatedly.
So what do you think? Am I being too lenient? Feel free to weigh in with comments.
I've just researched the roll call vote on the House Resolution voted on today to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson for his disrespectful behavior in last weeks Presidential Address to a joint session of Congress. It appears that Congressman Todd Platts voted against the measure. I would suggest that this appears to fly in the face of the comments you attributed to him in the recent (August 30th) article entitled "Right Ideas, debatable tactics." In that article you stated "he said he disagrees with the tactics of many people who have recently been demonstrating against President Barack Obama's proposed policies. When people shout aggressively during public meetings...he doesn't believe it's the best way for those people to express their concern." You also attributed this statement to Representative Platts: "He believes that when people express their opposition they should do so in a mannerly, respectful way." Would it not be responsible journalism to show the YDR readers the manifest hypocrisy of these words when compared to Congressman Platts vote in the U.S. House of Representatives today?
Surely any resident of the 19th Congressional district who watched the President enter the Capitol prior to the address had to see Congressman Platts straightforward efforts to gladhand the President and to engage him in a brief interchange of pleasantries. Now, less than one week removed from the national stage, the Congressman has voted nay in a vote to admonish one of his fellow Congressmen for what can be described, at best , boorish and at worst, dishonorable behavior. I would think that most readers would determine that this newspaper has a responsibility to confront Representative Platts with this apparent act of hypocrisy and expect our elected official to explain his position so that voters can evaluate for themselves if these are the actions they would expect from their elected Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives.
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