Waxman's Partisanship on Display

Written by Elise Cooper on Monday February 22, 2010

In a recent speech, Congressman Henry Waxman launched into a rambling tirade against the GOP accusing them of partisanship and failing to work across the aisle.

Democrats claim that Republicans are partisan and fail this country, but it is those same Democrats who spread misinformation and blindly support their leader’s policies. Case in point: Congressman Henry Waxman. He spoke at my school last Friday. While he was informative about some issues, he could not help himself from digressing into a rambling tirade against Republicans.

When, asked a foreign policy question he ignored the question and immediately changed the subject to talk about his energy legislation that he claimed had no Republican support. Blaming the Republicans for “failing this country,” he stated:

It has become a partisan issue. I am still hoping we can engage the Republicans but the Republicans right now are offering a strategy of being against everything. They are against the economic policy of this administration; they are against the energy bill; they are against the health bill; they are against the bill to reform our banking system. Why are they against all of those things? Because they see the benefits in this so they will be able to become the majority in power.

When asked about President Obama’s recently appointed Muslim envoy, he responded “There has not been a special envoy appointed to the Muslim world.” Did Waxman misunderstand the question? Was he ignorant of current events? Did he outright lie to these students?

After the event I went up to him and reminded him that Rashad Hussain was the appointed envoy.  Waxman responded, “You are right.  He did appoint someone to the Muslim world to have a better relationship.”

Too bad the students were not around to hear his retraction. As a senior leader of Congress he also should have explained how Hussain, in 2004, stated that an American (Sami al-Arian) who aided a Palestinian terrorist group was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions” and was being used “to squash dissent.” No, Congressman Waxman it is not the Republicans who are partisan and fail this country.

Category: News