I’ve been recovering from knee surgery, which is apparently going to take the rest of my life. In the meantime, my family has banned me from the blogosphere. They are worried about what the painkillers might write in my absence.
However, they said nothing about my writing an email to my senator, Richard Burr (R-NC), who is up for reelection. I told him I thought he owed it to his constituents to say where he stands on the head of the ticket, Donald J. Trump for president.
After all, Senator Burr is the chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence so ought to be able to opine learnedly on whether Trump is fit to be president. He ought to be able to tell us if Trump is correct in saying President Obama is a Kenyan, socialist, muslim mole, whether he and Secretary Clinton are co-founders of ISIS, whether the upcoming election is rigged, whether Vladimir Putin is taking Trump’s advice to hack the State Department in search of Hillary’s emails so as to spill the beans and tilt the election to Trump.
Lots of other Republican senators have given us their take on their party’s presidential candidate. Susan Collins, (R-ME) thinks he is unfit and won’t vote for him. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) endorsed Trump until he started talking. Now he has unendorsed him. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) says she is voting for Trump, but won’t endorse him. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has offered a similarly tortured straddle.
One is reminded the attitude of the God of the book of Revelation to such wishy-washy types. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
If Senator Burr is able to have strong opinions on Russia, radical Islamic terrorism, Obamacare, No Child Left Behind, the budget and deficits, who better to give us some help in deciding whether Trump is a threat to the country or just what we need, whether his views are backed up by the work of the NSA, CIA and Homeland Security or a bunch of loony blather.
Therefore I was delighted to find a reply to my query in my mailbox. Alas, my hopes for a bold, decisive and informed view from the senior senator of the great state of North Carolina were soon dashed. After thanking me for my query, here’s what Burr had to say.
“Due to Senate ethics rules, I am prohibited from commenting on political campaigns or the 2016 presidential race in official correspondence.”
This is sure going to come as a big surprise to all the other office holders who spend hours every day doing little more than commenting on Trump and Clinton. Either Burr has got this entirely wrong or he’d better let all the rest of his colleagues know they are behaving unethically.
Or maybe since Trump is now trailing Hillary by 9 points in the latest North Carolina polling and Burr is trailing his Democratic opponent by 2 points, he has decided he will be damned if he says anything in favor of Trump by the independents (whose votes may decide the race) or damned by the base of his own party if he says anything against Trump. As a result, we are represented by a Senator who is standing mute on who’s fit to be president of the United States.
Perhaps realizing how lame this sounds, Burr concluded his non-reply to my query by saying, “I understand the views of many who feel that members of Congress are not adequately representing them. Please know that listening to and working for the people of North Carolina is my main priority.”
Sure it is, that and not saying anything that would interfere with getting reelected. Like having an opinion on the standard bearer of the party he represents. Richard Burr – me first, party second, country third. And mum’s the word.