‘Meet the Candidate’s Night

WILLIAMSPORT -- The Williamsport Tea Party hosted a “Meet the Candidates” event at the Community Arts Center in downtown Williamsport on Monday night.

Invited to speak where U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Dimock, and Republicans Tom Marino, Malcolm Derk  and and Dr. David Madeira R, all candidates for U.S. House of Representatives 10th Congressional District.

Local radio personality Ken Sawyer served as moderator and Keith Eck, Williamsport Tea Party president, offered opening remarks.

All candidates were in attendance with the exception of Carney. That did not set well with Lee Fessler, vice president of the hosting Tea Party. “Representative Carney never responded and never had the decency to say ‘No.” Fessler said.

Against a backdrop of a very large U.S. Constitution and in front of a crowd of more than 100 citizens, candidates answered questions on topics ranging from the new immigration law in Arizona to their stand on abortion and term limits.

Predictably, all responses were conservative and mostly along Republican Party lines.

There were no surprises, at least for me, until while answering a question about support for legislation on term limits, Marino, unlike his opponents, indicated his preference for a five-term limit. I was probably not alone in thinking that five terms sounded like a career and just enough time in Washington to become comfortably entrenched. It’s also 80 dog years (a traditional measure of political longevity that indicates you need to go) and hardly sounds like the traditional definition of term limits.

Listening became difficult after the first hour, basically, because I’ve heard it all before. This ain’t my first rodeo.

Candidates promise. People hope they’re telling the truth. “Sounds just like what we need.” they say.

“The Contract with America.”

“Change we can believe in.”

“A chicken in every pot”

Then the train wreck.

I have no reason to believe these men are not sincere. But, just once, instead of the tedious, gratuitous, answers to voters’ questions, I wish someone would honestly say “Look, the political machine that controls Washington won’t let me do anything that I’m talking to you about; they’re too busy stuffing cash in their pockets on one last gold rush before it all falls apart. But I sound pretty political up here, don’t I ?”

I’d vote for him!

Additional Images: