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Military moms meet their congressman, and get the Adam Sandler treatment. Video here - watch Congressman Paul Hodes avoid answering their questions by insisting they are too angry for reason:
Q: Do you not believe we have an obligation to these people [Iraqis]?(Via Instapundit.)
A:Um, well, there's clearly nothing I'm going to be able to say to address how angry you feel...
Q: I'm very angry, I have a nephew that has served two tours of duty, is scheduled to go back a third time. He will be in Iraq when you cut your funds, and yes, that makes me very angry.
A: You may misunderstand my motivation, and what the impact of this will be if this is passed. There's nothing I'm going to be able to say given how angry you are...
Q: I feel very strongly that you're endangering our soldiers... If this Congress was sitting during World War II, we would be having this discussion in German right now.
Local media coverage:
CONCORD – Family members of troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan poured out their anger and frustration at U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes yesterday, punctuated by emotional exchanges that illustrated the wars' divide on the homefront.The "non-war related spending items that some said were needed to get the bill passed" total $40 billion dollars, including $25 million for spinach farmers, $74 million for peanut storage, $120M for shrimp research, $283 million in income subsidies for dairy farms, $400 million to rural counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging, $400 million in additional heating subsidies for the poor, and $1 billion to prevent or prepare for a possible bird flu epidemic.One woman stormed out of the session; several questioned Hodes' commitment to the troops while supporting a troop pullout deadline; and another woman chided the congressman's wife for picking up a pen to write down her e-mail address.
"My son will never come home," an angry Natalie Healy said of her son, Dan, who was killed in Afghanistan in June 2005. "He would be horrified and ashamed of this country for what it has done to the troops. You can take that back to Congress and tell every single one of those men and women."
Hodes last month joined a majority in the House backing an Iraq spending bill that set a timeline for a troop withdrawal and also included non-war related spending items that some said were needed to get the bill passed.
When Gerry Duncan of Nashua asked Hodes whether the bill would have passed if the non-war items weren't included, Hodes hesitated and said, "I don't know."
"I'm done," declared an angered Duncan, whose husband, Col. Richard Duncan, chief of staff of the New Hampshire Army National Guard, was injured in Afghanistan. She then walked out.
Sue Peterson of Weare, whose son Alex is a member of the 3643rd Security Force in the Army National Guard now in Iraq, said mixing money for the war with farm and other products was a disservice to the troops.
"I am so outraged and I'm trying to be calm listening to everybody," she said. But lumping everything into one bill was to "compare Alex and all the other soldiers to milk, peanuts, fish and spinach."
In fairness to Hodes, his response to his constituents is not an original thought - it's a crafted Democratic talking point, as evidenced by Nancy Pelosi's comment to the media that President Bush should 'take a deep breath and calm down' and pass their spending bill.
Related:
For non-military, former military, and family members of active troops, The Vistory PAC
For active military: Appeal for Courage
