Doc Hastings is demanding answers: why, oh why were the Federal Parks closed when we shut down the Federal Government?
The big news out of Congressman Doc Hastings on the matter of the shutdown has been that he has kept his mouth closed for as long as possible. Â Eventually we do see that he is interviewed in local media, and I see that he keeps some kind of half hearted standard line — “Republicans just want to talk“.
From there, we see that from the chairman perch Hastings has in the Congress, he is basically required by partisan mandate to do this. Â Hearings. Â Into the government shutdown of parks. Â Why, or why were these Parks barricaded? Â And shut down? Â With people — people who are very photogenic — bursting about to get into them. Â Retired veterans coming to see monuments honoring our veterans. Â Shut down out of these parks. Â During a… um… government shut down.
Hastings, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, charged the Obama administration has unnecessarily closed parks and barricaded parks to make the shutdown as painful and visible as possible.
“The actions of the Obama administration have sullied our great national park system,” Hastings said.
Yes, this is called “Political Grandstanding”. Â The further implications of this charge come in with a thread I’ve seen from the very start of this from Republicans — “The public will turn on Obama and the Democrats if they are seen making political points off of this” — which, in the case of this whole fiasco, the problem here is the Democrats would have to go out of their way not to do this.
Meanwhile, here’s moveon dot org. Â Apparently they ran into the office of Doc Hastings Whatever pointless exercise they feel they have to go with, I guess. Â From there we get this letter to the Yakima Herald, none of it I particularly believe…
Doc has reinvented himself as a tea party hack, tone deaf to the concerns of his district, uninterested in orderly governance
No, if this were really the case he would have been shouting from the rooftops instead of remaining as mum as possible at the outstart. Â [Update: further evidence, of sorts. Â Doc Hastings joined the assortment of “Republican Establishments” to get the Debt Ceiling raised and the looming default stopped. Â In other words, he’s secure in his position and not worried about a primary from the right.]
The comments are amusing.
Martha, if you don’t like Doc (and I am not a fan) instead of publicly whining, get someone with half a brain (D or R) to run against him. 4th district Dem’s haven’t ran a serious candidate against him in a decade….
No. Â Bluntly put, publicly whining is the only way to go. Â That and keep your distance from your minority party perch. Â Though, I would be curious to see if Hastings would retire if his party slid back into the minority.