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Making laws just takes too much work

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn at a Town Hall Meeting in Clarksville, TN
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn at a Town Hall Meeting in Clarksville, TN

Rarely are legislative issues black and white or cut and dried. They most often involve a lot of gray areas. That is why old politicians – you know, the real statesmen in days of old – often said that making legislation was like making sausage: the process is always messy but the results are good.

Too often, lawmakers today want to deal in absolutes. They don’t want to take the time to work through the issues. They want to find the hot button and go with it.

Tennessee’s Seventh District U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn has gotten her panties all in a wad over government raids on Gibson Guitar factories, warehouses and offices in Nashville and Memphis. That indeed is a complex issue and I won’t even begin to attempt to sort it out.

The problem for the darling Ms. Blackburn is that she voted for legislation on which the raids were based. No wait, she voted against it. But, then she voted for it. She was against it before she was for it. Oh my goodness, what is a hardliner to do!

It seems that Ms. Blackburn first opposed the 2008 bill. Then, she sided with the majority in overriding a veto by then-President George W. Bush. I know it is hard to believe that she voted against the W. But, she did vote with the majority.

That law, which W tried to veto and Congress, with Blackburn voting in the majority, pushed through expanded the trade law, which Gibson is suspected of violating. I know, that involves an expansion of government and Blackburn was in favor of it. It is difficult to understand.

Blackburn didn’t protest the expansion of the trade law when she first opposed the legislation. Instead, she focused on the “special interest giveaway that further expands the federal deficit” through large farm subsidies.

The difficulty that faces Ms. Blackburn is that there are multiple issues involved in legislation. You can’t evaluate everything against your list of hot buttons. Sometimes you actually have to read the proposal. Sometime you have to get back in your district and talk to people – you know, the folks that vote and work and pay taxes.

Maybe Ms. Blackburn could have talked with Gibson executives before she voted for the legislation not after they were raided. But, that would not have been an opportunity to make headlines. And, that sounds too much like making sausage. It is just too much work for a poor little ole congresswoman.

Frank White
Frank Whitehttp://www.mediaworksdesign.com/
Frank White is a native of east Tennessee and reveres the hills and nature of the Cumberland Plateau and east Tennessee. He enjoys backpacking, canoeing and flyfishing. He and his wife, Natalie, have been Clarksville residents since 1979. Frank is the owner of MediaWorks, a design and printing company in Clarksville, TN. He earned a BS in mass communications and political science from Middle Tennessee State University and a master of arts in journalism from the Indiana University School of Journalism at Bloomington. He is a distinguished military graduate from ROTC at Indiana University and is retired from the U.S. Army Reserve having also served in the Tennessee Army National Guard. He served with the U.S. Army VII Corps in Operation Desert Storm. Frank is a passionate follower of Christ and seeks to mentor others in exploring the endless depths of grace.
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