Congressman No

The man is consistent, I’ll say that much for him.

Some Galveston officials aren’t too pleased with their Congressional representative, Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, for voting against the $22.8 billion disaster recovery aid package on Wednesday.

“That’s sad. That’s bad,” said City manager Steve LeBlanc.

“I find it very distressing,” said Councilwoman Karen Mahoney, who represents the West End of the island, where damage was extreme. “He’s voting against aid for the region that he represents? I don’t find that very representative.”

Depends on who you think he’s representing. Or, more accurately, what he’s representing. I don’t think there’s any question about that.

Thought experiment: Would Paul have voted No if he had a general election opponent who had the wherewithal to bash him for the next month in TV ads over it? I think he probably would have regardless. But it would have been fun to watch him defend himself for it. Maybe next cycle.

By the way, to go off on a tangent for a minute, I got a press release in my Inbox saying that the Log Cabin Republicans are endorsing Ron Paul for re-election in CD14. He’s the only Texan to get an endorsement from them; they recommended a total of only 33 candidates for Congress and Senate nationwide. The release is reproduced beneath the fold.

UPDATE: The story in the paper reminds me of this:

“In several disasters that have befallen my Gulf Coast district, my constituents have told me many times that they prefer to rebuild and recover without the help of federal agencies like FEMA, which so often impose their own bureaucratic solutions on the owners of private property,” Paul wrote in a 2005 column.

Paul voted against government assistance for victims of Hurricane Katrina and later told the Washington Post he had no regrets.

“Is bailing out people that chose to live on the coastline a proper function of the federal government?” Paul said. “Why do people in Arizona have to be robbed in order to support the people on the coast?”

Like I said, consistent. Wrong, in my opinion, but consistent.

Log Cabin Republicans has endorsed 33 candidates for the U.S. House & Senate. The list includes 27 incumbent House members running for re-election, 3 challengers running for House seats, and 3 Senators up for re-election.

“Log Cabin is proud to stand with these candidates as we work to build an inclusive Republican Party and a better America,” said Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon.

“These candidates represent the future of our Party,” said Sammon. “There’s a growing number of Republican members of Congress who are standing up for basic fairness for gay and lesbian families. These Republican political leaders share the inclusive vision that is necessary to restore our Congressional majorities.”

Log Cabin’s National Board approved these endorsements this week. There may be additional endorsements announced before the election. Log Cabin endorsed the following candidates:

U.S. House of Representatives

Judy Biggert (R-IL)

Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)*

John Campbell (R-CA)

David Cappiello (R-CT) – challenger

Mike Castle (R-DE)

Charles Dent (R-PA)

Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

David Dreier (R-CA)

Phil English (R-PA)

Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)

Jim Gerlach (R-PA)

Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) – challenger

Mark Kirk (R-IL)*

Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI)

Randy Kuhl (R-NY)

Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)

John McHugh (R-NY)

Candice Miller (R-MI)

Ron Paul (R-TX)

Todd Platts (R-PA)

Jon Porter (R-NV)

David Reichert (R-WA)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)*

Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Christopher Shays (R-CT)*

Steve Stivers (R-OH) – open

Pat Tiberi (R-OH)

Greg Walden (R-OR)

U.S. Senate

Susan Collins (R-ME)*

John Sununu (R-NH)

Gordon Smith (R-OR)*

An asterisk (*) indicates that Log Cabin already endorsed the candidate in May.

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