Congress needs more people like Slaughter

The Buffalo News - With Congress’ approval rating near all-time lows, here’s an opportunity to recognize a woman who does not fit the unpopular mold: Rep. Louise M. Slaughter.

Who in your storybooks looks like your picture of today’s member of the House or Senate? Scrooge? Hamlet? Humpty Dumpty?

No image fits better than the one the senator or House member has built for himself or herself.

It is of a frightened politician grubbing for campaign money, huddling with lobbyists against the public interest and putting his name on press releases concerning empty gestures.

Theirs is largely a culture of evasion. They do little real creative legislating. Instead, they slap their names on bills they never expect to pass, or ride on somebody else’ barge, or just float with the tide.

Agree with her or not, Slaughter — the Democrat who represents the district strung from Rochester, Niagara Falls and into downtown Buffalo — is none of those things.

On the eve of the Senate’s 60-39 passage of its version of the health insurance reform bill, Slaughter volunteered that the bill was so bad the Senate ought to scrap it and start over. Read more.