I am glad Gabrielle Giffords is happy with her 2007 performance representing Southern Arizona, because I wouldn't give her the same report card. (Giffords happy with work done in her district- Citizen January 10, 2008) Her comment that "we just don't have the votes" to end the war is offensive considering she and her spineless Democratic peers have not used a filibuster one time to show the people who elected them they are serious about ending the Iraq war. Quite the contrary, Giffords has not only voted continuously "for' the war funding, but has added hundreds of millions of dollars in shameful "earmarks" to support defense contractors. The term I use for that kind of representation is "Judas".
Gregory E. Sweet, President
Acquire Telecom Services, Inc.
520-320-1900
gregsweet@acquiretelecom.com
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Giffords happy with work done in her district
BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., just completed her first year in Congress as part of a new Democratic majority, and it's been a whirl of activity producing mixed results.
The war that Democrats were elected to stop has been expanded, immigration reform died a painful death and Congress has dismal approval ratings.
From her junior position, Giffords, who represents the 8th Congressional District, has been a bolt of energy.
Seven bills and amendments she introduced were signed into law. She settled a border dust-up over a checkpoint south of Green Valley, held off the Federal Emergency Management Agency from declaring Marana a flood plain and has been a force behind federal support for solar power.
"I knew I had to prove I could produce right out of the gate," Giffords said at a Tucson Citizen Editorial Board meeting Wednesday.
Her work in her district has been the most rewarding, she said.
Green Valley residents were upset with a Border Patrol plan to build a 10-acre permanent checkpoint six miles south of the retirement community. Giffords said she got a group of residents to sit down with the Border Patrol and hammer out a compromise reducing the size of the checkpoint.
FEMA's plan would grind Marana development to a standstill, but the Congresswoman managed to get the feds to hold off while Marana officials show how Interstate 10, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and berms along the Central Arizona Project canal can protect the area from flooding.
She's also gathered southern Arizona solar power experts together in a long-haul effort to improve the potential of that energy source.
"I ask community leaders to come together and take responsibility for success, rather than tell them what to do," she said.
She faces a likely Republican challenge from State Senate President Tim Bee of Tucson, who formed an exploratory committee last year to raise money.
She said she's as frustrated as her fellow Democrats over failure to restrain the Bush Administration's escalation of the war in Iraq.
Salette Latas' husband Jeff Latas ran against Giffords in the Democratic primary on the platform of ending the war. The Latases - he's a former fighter pilot and she's an Air Force air traffic controller - had a son serving in Iraq who died of leukemia this past summer.
They have both become leaders among "progressive" Democrats in Pima County and in the state. Both are frustrated that Giffords and other Democrats have not cut off funding for the war.
"Democrats need to show some backbone," Salette Latas said. "The American people sent Congress and the Senate to Washington to end the occupation of Iraq."
But the votes just aren't there in the Senate to cut off the funds for the war, Giffords said.
"It's very difficult to articulate to the American people why Democrats have a majority but can't end the war," Giffords said. "We just don't have the votes."
Paul Eckerstrom, former county Democratic Party chairman, said he also is frustrated that Democrats haven't been more confrontational with the president but doesn't blame Giffords because she represents a plurality of Republican voters.
"I can't fault her for voting with her district," Eckerstrom said. The district includes all of Cochise County, Green Valley and the eastern and northern sections of the Tucson metropolitan area. Republican Jim Kolbe held the seat for more than 20 years before Giffords.
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