On November 7th, Democrat Nancy Boyda was elected to represent the 2nd District in Kansas. Last Thursday she appeared on TV with two other newly elected Democrats - Heath Shuler (former Tennessee Volunteer and Washington Redskins quarterback) from North Carolina and Patrick Murphy from Pennsylvania. They were answering questions from Charles Gibson regarding the Illegal War Monger-in-Chief's proposed troop surge in Iraq.
While Shuler and Murphy spoke like they at have at least some semblance of a clue, Boyda's comments revealed one of two possibilities: She is either hopelessly ignorant about our Constitution and its defining role in our government, or she is actually a loyal neocon foot soldier who simply pretended to be a Democrat just to get elected and now figures she can insult her constituents with impunity.
Whatever the reason, this woman has no business representing her local Girl Scout troop, much less Kansas' Second District in Congress. If I lived there, I would be demanding that she be recalled immediately.
Here is the exchange:
Gibson: Would you vote in favor of money to support another 20,000 to 40,000 troops in Iraq?
Boyda: I think we're going to vote to support what the commander in chief and head of military asks to do. At least, I am certainly going to vote to support it.
Gibson: If he wants the surge, he'll get it.
Boyda: Yes.... He is the commander in chief, Charlie. We don't get that choice. Congress doesn't make that decision.
Gibson: But the polls would indicate, and indeed, so many voters when they came out of the ballot box, said, "We're voting because we want something done about the war and we want the troops home."
Boyda: They should have thought about that before they voted for President Bush not once, but twice.
Here is the video.
Here are her phone numbers:
D.C. Office: (202) 225-6601
Topeka, KS Office: (785) 234-8111
Pittsburg, KS Office: (620) 231-3011.
Here is her D.C. mailing address:
Representative Nancy Boyda
1711 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
When I first got wind of this yesterday (Sunday 1/7/07) and tried to leave her a message in DC, the voice mail box was full, there was no answer at either of her local offices, and I could not locate an email address or form to contact her. So I wrote the following letter, which went out with today's mail:
Representative Boyda:
Your response to Charles Gibson, regarding the people voting to have something done about the war and bring our troops home, is the most ignorant, insulting public comment I have ever heard from an elected representative of the people.
Your admonition that the people you are supposed to be representing "should have thought about that before they voted for President Bush not once, but twice" reveals a pathetic lack of qualification for the position to which you were elected.
You are there to act on the will of the people, Ms. Boyda, not to in effect tell us we are stuck with whatever George W. Bush wants to do because we were dumb enough to vote for him twice.
If you would take a few minutes to actually read the Constitution you have now sworn to protect and defend, you would learn that the ultimate responsibility for sending us to war actually does rest with Congress and not the President, and that "Commander-in-Chief" refers only to the military in matters of war, as opposed to the ill-informed, all-encompassing view the president can do whatever he wants regardless of the will of the people simply because he is president. You would also learn that without a Constitutional Amendment, the resolution with which Congress granted George W. Bush the power to invade Iraq as he saw fit is completely worthless and illegal.
If you vote to continue supporting George W. Bush's illegal war of choice, you are not only ignoring the will of the people who elected you, but you are also adding your name to the long list of accomplices and enablers of the most corrupt presidential administration in American history.
Wake up or step down, Ms. Boyda.
This newly elected Democratic Congress needs to be reminded who they're working for. They need to understand in no uncertain terms that if they refuse to honor their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and if they refuse to act on the will of the people who voted them into office, their stay in Washington will be a very short one.
These unprecedented times require that the volume of our righteous indignation be raised to unprecedented levels, and converted into unprecedented action.