I have had any number of conversations with Curt Weldon over the years.
He spent two decades representing Delaware County and the 7th District in Congress.
But as he grew in the job, Weldon’s view of his job changed. He firmly believed that he was doing more than just representing the constituents of the district. That often rubbed some people here in Delaware County the wrong way.
So on one of his many visits to the office, I asked him flat-out about how he viewed the job.
He never blinked.
He said that his job was in fact more than simply representing Delaware County. Weldon had increasingly been getting involved in foreign affairs, not always with the blessing of the White House.
But he never wavered in his beliefs.
So I suppose we should have been surprised this week when we learned that Weldon is in Libya, on a one-man mission to get strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi to step down.
Weldon authored an op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times, then headed for Libya.
In his piece Weldon put forth the belief that, while everyone seems to agree that Gadhafi needs to go, no one has put forth much of a plan.
“In the meantime, the people of Libya deserve more than bombs,” Weldon said.
Hard to argue with that.
I also find it fascinating that as the situation in Libya worsened over the past couple of weeks, you seemingly could not turn on your TV without seeing Joe Sestak talking about the situation on one show or another.
Sestak, the retired three-star admiral and former national security consultant with the Clinton Administration, is the guy who ended Weldon’s reign in D.C. Now neither one of them is in Congress.
Sestak beat Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination for the U.S.
Senate, but then lost to Republican Pat Toomey.
Weldon always saw himself as much a statesman as congressman.
Libya is just the latest stop for the guy who grew up in Marcus Hook. If he can convince Gadhafi to step down and end the bloodletting in Libya, he will have done Delco proud.
He spent two decades representing Delaware County and the 7th District in Congress.
But as he grew in the job, Weldon’s view of his job changed. He firmly believed that he was doing more than just representing the constituents of the district. That often rubbed some people here in Delaware County the wrong way.
So on one of his many visits to the office, I asked him flat-out about how he viewed the job.
He never blinked.
He said that his job was in fact more than simply representing Delaware County. Weldon had increasingly been getting involved in foreign affairs, not always with the blessing of the White House.
But he never wavered in his beliefs.
So I suppose we should have been surprised this week when we learned that Weldon is in Libya, on a one-man mission to get strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi to step down.
Weldon authored an op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times, then headed for Libya.
In his piece Weldon put forth the belief that, while everyone seems to agree that Gadhafi needs to go, no one has put forth much of a plan.
“In the meantime, the people of Libya deserve more than bombs,” Weldon said.
Hard to argue with that.
I also find it fascinating that as the situation in Libya worsened over the past couple of weeks, you seemingly could not turn on your TV without seeing Joe Sestak talking about the situation on one show or another.
Sestak, the retired three-star admiral and former national security consultant with the Clinton Administration, is the guy who ended Weldon’s reign in D.C. Now neither one of them is in Congress.
Sestak beat Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination for the U.S.
Senate, but then lost to Republican Pat Toomey.
Weldon always saw himself as much a statesman as congressman.
Libya is just the latest stop for the guy who grew up in Marcus Hook. If he can convince Gadhafi to step down and end the bloodletting in Libya, he will have done Delco proud.
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