Behind closed doors, California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez has proposed removing Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords from the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) until she recovers from injuries sustained after being shot in the head on Jan. 8 in Tucson, The Daily Caller has learned.
The proposal sparked an outrage, according to those in the room — including from those in Sanchez’s own party.
“It’s not appropriate,” Texas Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes told The Daily Caller, adding that there was outrage among some members in the room when Sanchez made the suggestion. “It’s bad for morale during her recovery period.”
Reyes and Rep. Adam Smith of California put up most of the fight against Sanchez, and helped squash the idea.
“From a woman who memorialized her cat, you’d think she’d show a little more compassion for a woman shot in the face,” said one GOP aide, referring to Sanchez’s 2010 Christmas card that paid tribute to her late cat, Gretzky.
*Closed Captioning for the Humor Impaired: sarcasm
H/T Memeorandum
Cross posted at LCR.
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At first glance, Rep. Sanchez's action disgust me. Upon further consideration however, here are my thoughts. Her memorialization of her cat was on her own time, and her own dime, and really none of my business. As for calling for Gabby's removal, I ask this, is it necessary for the well being of the nation and the continuation of the nation's business, to fill Rep. Gabby's seat on the committee? If the answer to this is ,"Yes" then Sanchez's move, while distasteful, is totally appropriate and the representative's recovery is not germane to the issue at hand. I suspect however,that filling the seat is not vital to the continuation of the committee's vital work, and therefore inappropriate. What is not inappropriate is an honest and frank discussion on if the suggestion is a good idea or needful, despite Sanchez's poor taste and timing.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing that one temporary vacancy on a Congressional committee is going to severely harm their ability to get anything done or the nation's business.
ReplyDeletePlus, there have been other legislators ill or impaired and I don't remember calls for them to have been removed from their committees.
I suspect that Sanchez was looking to change the balance of power in the committee somehow.
I just thought the line about the cat was funny!