Congressman Guinta Hides His Identity

What on Earth? Now, I've heard everything. Republican congressman Frank Guinta is pretending that he isn't our congressman. Why is Guinta doing that? Read on and be amazed.

People don't like Congress. No, that's an understatement. People loathe Congress. Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein (7/25/12) notes, "this is not just a bad congress or even a pretty bad congress, I think the case can, should and
probably must be made that this is one of the worst congresses we have ever had in this country. . ."

Klein continues, "Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado put together
this handy graph that shows this particular Congress is less popular than the
IRS, the airline industry, lawyers, less popular than Richard Nixon during
Watergate, than the banks, (than) the oil and gas industry, than BP during the
Gulf oil spill, than Paris Hilton. This Congress is less popular than communism
and Hugo Chavez."

What has Congress done to make the public so angry? Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute (7/25/12) comments in a conversation with Klein.
"Mitch McConnell, the (Republican) Senate minority leader . . . not only
said famously 'my number one goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term president,' but basically made it clear after the midterm elections that, of course, we were not going to cooperate with the Democrats."

Well, has the impasse created by the Republicans in Congress created problems?

Klein notes, "Do you remember the debt ceiling debacle last year when
Republicans took the country to the brink of default for the first time? That
wasn't just an ugly political fight. That had real world consequences. . . We
just learned this week, by the way, that the debt ceiling fight has so far cost
U.S. taxpayers $1.3 billion in extra borrowing costs also. So, thank you 112th
Congress for that, too."

Here is another example of the problems produced by Republican gridlock. Congress must pass 12 annual appropriations bills by October 1 to keep the government funded. This Congress passed exactly zero appropriations bills on time in 2011.

Klein comments. "This not normal. This is not how it is supposed to work. This
Congress has not only been historically unproductive, it has taken steps that
have directly harmed the country, that have directly harmed our economic
recovery."

What does all this have to do with Congressman Frank Guinta pretending not to be our congressman? Let me drop the other shoe. Congress is now so (deservedly) despised by voters that Guinta wants the public to think that he is the challenger in the 1st Congressional District, not the incumbent, so they won't
blame him. To further trick voters, Guinta refers to his opponent as
Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. Shea-Porter is a former member of Congress,and so can be referred to by the honorific title congresswoman, but in no way is she currently a sitting member of Congress.

The long and the short of it is that Guinta thinks voters are so ignorant and
ill-informed that if he calls Shea-Porter "congresswoman" and himself
the challenger, they will think she is in Congress and take out their anger by
voting against her.

Guinta's  deception has gained national attention. The Concord Monitor writes (8/3/12), "In 2012, Republican Frank Guinta seized a spot in Washington from then Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. And though this time around he's the incumbent and she's the challenger, voters wouldn't know it from phone recordings used by his campaign."

The national journal Politico (8/5/12) supplies the words used in the recording. "'Hi. This is Frank Guinta, candidate for Congress, running against Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter,' the congressman says in a robocall to voters. 'I'm running to end the broken culture in Washington.'"

This scam would almost be funny if it weren't so sleazy. Adults stand up and take
responsibility for what they have done. Children run and hide. Apparently, we
are sending children, like Guinta, to Congress, who do bad things and then try
to avoid blame by pointing at others. We can do better than that.