Yesterday, I wrote about Kelly Ayotte’s risky (and disconcerting) decision to sign Mark Udall’s letter to Congress, urging a love-fest, where members sit in a bi-partisan "boy-girl-boy-girl" fashion at the upcoming SOTU speech.
Well, the bad news just keeps coming in.
As I was writing, Kelly had just come back from a weekend jaunt to Afghanistan, courtesy of "Earmark-Mitch’s Co-Opt Travel Tours". Seems the Senior Senator took a few freshly-minted freshman Senators (not just any freshmen – Marco Rubio, Kelly, Pat Toomey, and Ron Johnson) out for a spin in his hot convertible, giving them a taste of what can happen when you get in line and stay with "Uncle Mitch". Imagine the starry-eyed look when these Senators were picked up by a Limo at their dorms, by an upper-classman no less, then whisked off in a private Leadership-jet across planet Earth; pretty heady stuff. But do you think Kelly was thinking about New Hampshire when she was wined and dined over Europe? Big smiles all the way, I’m sure.
From day one, Kelly’s been getting the glamour treatment, courtesy of her other uncle, John. Seems the old boys in the Senate want to make sure they keep the Judd Gregg vote alive and in-pocket – and they have all the tools necessary (power, planes, influence, red-carpet) to keep her ooh-ing and ahh-ing for 6 years.
Notable quote from Trent Lott: "We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples…As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”
We cannot spite Kelly for going to Afghanistan, and, being the wife of a veteran, it’s great that she got to see some of the troops (probably even some from NH, which was certainly a treat for them). Ultimately, how she votes on issues will be how she is judged, but after she signed the bi-partisan "Neville’s pledge" last week, she is starting to worry us – and she hasn’t even really gotten started yet.
Kelly, please don’t forget why you are there, what you campaigned on, and who put you there. As a public servant, your number-one mission is the benefit and protection of the State of New Hampshire. Our country is falling, and it can’t get back up without people like Jim DeMint – and we don’t trust Uncle Mitch or Uncle John.
Keep it straight, and fly right….Can you hear us? We are watching.
Always open to hearing from you on this or any other issues…
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