Pat Meehan has a change of mind

Pat Meehan apparently has had a change of heart.

He doesn't want to shut down the government after all, despite voting over weekend with his GOP colleagues to do just that.

But in the midst of Day 1 of the ugly shutdown that has seen thousands of federal employees furloughed and "closed" signs going up at national parks from Independence Hall in Philly to Yosemite, Meehan is now changing his tune.

The Republican from the 7th District here in Delco is now now joining with three other Republicans in this region - all of whom happen to call home increasingly moderate districts - in urging their GOP brethren in the House to offer a new funding bill, a new "clean" effort to fund the government and give up the futile effort to strip funding for Obamacare.

It clearly goes against the conservative tide in the House that has led the country to the sad visage of the federal government shutting down.

But it also goes against what Meehan voted for just this past weekend. Only Charlie Dent, a Republican from Allentown, went against his party and voted against the plan put forth by the right wing of the GOP.

"I came to Washington to fix government, not shut it down," Meehan said in a statement. "At this point I believe it's time for the House to vote for a clean. short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise."

Sounds good.

It would have sounded a lot better last week, before all those people started losing their paychecks, before all those tourists were turned away from Independence Historical Park, and before the closed signs adorned the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument.

Comments

lglyspkng said…
Phil, you are putting an ugly Obama/Reid twist on Pat's vote. No Republican wanted to shut down the government. The intent of the votes over the weekend was to slow down the albatross of a law that is costing the most money and is based on lies and wishful thinking. As can be seen just in the first 24 hours of the ACA, it is not ready to fly, even if it does do what it is claimed to do. The computer system and programs cannot handle the influx of people trying to sign up and the software has already been hacked releasing personal information of over 2400 people including their SSNs. On top of that, this is a plan that is so great, those who are forcing it on us peons have exempted themselves from having to participate in it for life. Have you stopped to ask yourself why? Let's look at it in terms you may just understand. Obamacare requires the people to drink from the water fountain marked "Coloreds" while the "elites" get to drink from the one marked "whites." Do we want to go back to those times? And then for "his highness" to refuse to negotiate with American legislators while agreeing to negotiate with terrorists is an absolute disgrace. On top of it all, he wants to close open air monuments to the Greatest Generation and threaten them with arrest? What's next? Throw a blanket over the purple mountains majesty? What you are doing by making such accusations against Pat Meehan and any other Republican and conservative can only be termed slander, and let us remember what Socrates said, "When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." I thought you were a better man than that Phil. I guess I was wrong.
October 2, 2013 at 10:06 AM
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