Dori: Retiring U.S. Rep. Denny Heck a politician with a soul
Dec 5, 2019, 6:07 AM
Congressman Denny Heck is a Democrat who represents Washington's 10th congressional district. (AP)
(AP)
I hate politics with such a fiery passion that it’s just hard to believe. That means that I have a lot of respect for people like Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA), who just announced that he is retiring after representing the 10th District (which comprises parts of Thurston, Pierce, and Mason Counties) in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013.
The reason? He stated, “The countless hours I have spent in the investigation of Russian election interference and the impeachment inquiry have rendered my soul weary.”
This means that he is one of the few politicians who still has a soul. You have to become a soulless human being to get to the highest level of politics. I don’t blame Denny Heck for stepping aside. Politics is an ugly business right now, especially at the national level.
Let me better explain my point. You’ve got people like Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), one of the leading figures in the impeachment of Trump. Do you want an example of how absolutely soul-dead a human being can be? Back in the 1990s in Congress, when Jerrold Nadler was upset at the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, this is what he said.
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We must not overturn an election and remove a president from office except to defend our very system of government or our constitutional liberties against a dire threat. And we must not do so without an overwhelming consensus of the American people, and of their representatives in Congress, of the absolute necessity. There must never be a narrowly-voted impeachment, or an impeachment substantially supported by one of our major political parties and largely opposed by the other.
Now today, he is leading the charge, doing exactly what he railed against 21 years ago.
That’s where I say, to succeed with any longevity at the highest level of politics, you must become a soulless human.
Some of us are consistent. I was against the impeachment of Bill Clinton because I thought it was a partisan witch-hunt. I am against the impeachment of Donald Trump for the same reason.
Maybe if these people did their jobs instead of just trying to exorcise the bile consuming their souls, policy could actually be made in this country. But instead, we just have these two warring factions. Whether it was the Republicans with Clinton or the Democrats with Trump, we just have nothing but warring factions.
Whatever happened to people who just had the courage of their convictions, and who would, after getting elected, stay unchanged through the horrible process that is politics?
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