The Toledo Blade Kicks His Ass Again
Oxley the operator
Maybe U.S. Rep. Michael G. Oxley should just abandon any pretense and hang a sign outside his congressional office: "Special-interest legislation and political favors my specialty. Inquire about favorable rates."
No one should doubt that the congressman from Findlay is good at what he does. But the political wheeling and dealing he has raised to an art form during 22 years in Washington can hardly be called good for the country or his constituents.
The unabashedly quid pro quo fund-raising mechanism Mr. Oxley has assembled over 11 terms in the U.S. House was described last week in troubling detail in a three-day series in The Blade by Dave Murray and Joe Mahr.
But Mike Oxley replies with his
own letter to the Blade
Fortunately, most of the other published letters about the series written about Oxley weren't so whinerish...
Unfortunately, this letter made the most sense:
While I applaud The Blade's johnny-come-lately scrutiny of Rep. Michael Oxley and his propensity for feathering his own nest as well as that of the Republican Party at the expense of the country and his middle-class constituents, I have to wonder why you did it.
Mr. Oxley is a Republican in a gerrymandered Republican district, which means he is a "lifer," as are approximately 80-85 percent of all members of the House. Since the manufacturing of "safe" districts occurs on both sides of the aisle across the country, there is no ignominy there.
Mr. Oxley has been a puppet of every Republican administration and a corporate lackey for over 15 years. Do you think that the people in his district are unaware of this? Of course they know. But he's a Republican and that's all that matters in this district. Again, that is not unique, since there are a large number of congressional districts across the country where party affiliation is the most important factor when election time comes around.
The majority of donations to Mr. Oxley's campaign, and later his PAC war chest, have always come from outside his district. Do you think that, since he's in a safe district, his constituents didn't know that his collection of, and spending of, millions of dollars for the purpose of acquiring political power was occurring? Again, nothing new.
Most politicians in Washington do the same thing. Unfortunately we aren't all as lucky as the Toledo area. The majority of Americans don't have a representative as good and as straightforward as Marcy Kaptur.
Since he can't be unelected and he can't be shamed, and the people in his district don't seem to care what he does in Washington (as long as he's a Republican), what did you hope to accomplish?