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December 08, 2005
Where's our senator?
Those war protesters arrested this week at U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg’s Concord office have a point. Gregg is a hard man to get a hold of. The protesters have been trying in vain for months to hear from him on the Iraq war. They’re not alone. Gregg has been stiffing the Monitor’s editorial board for years, and he seldom makes himself available to the public to answer questions and explain himself.
Obviously he doesn’t have to talk to his constituents. He won the last two elections by a landslide over token opposition from the Democratic Party. He’s busy, too, as the point man in the Senate for the Bush budget. And he’s a senator, not a congressman, meaning he answers not to a particular district but – theoretically at least – to the whole state.
So why isn’t Gregg more responsive to the public? Guessing at motives is a bad idea, but I do think his hiding out hurts his reputation. I interviewed him several times earlier in his political life. While I see him as somewhat remote from human concerns, he does have a solid, consistent philosophy of government, and he has remained true to it for at least three decades. He can defend it vigorously, too. And he can articulate his views with both clarity and the nuance that comes only with long experience.
He’d help himself by holding a string of town meetings, by meeting with the Monitor’s editors and – yes – by sitting down with those war critics and telling them why he thinks they’re wrong.
In fact, he owes it to us.
Posted by Mike Pride at December 8, 2005 01:05 PM
Comments
..and he rarely comes on talk radio. I think we had him on The Exchange once...two years ago and haven't been able to get him since!
Posted by: Tai Freligh at December 9, 2005 10:23 AM