Romney should embrace Romneycare
Re: “Conservatives irked at Romney health care comment,” Aug. 8
The late, great Will Rogers said it best:”I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons.”I wish presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would study Rogers more.
Over the years, the former Massachusetts governor has touted health care reform as his crowning accomplishment in the Bay State. In 2009, he appeared on nearly every major TV talk show and urged President Obama to adopt “Romneycare” as the health care model for the nation.
Ever since Obama agreed to do that, and conservatives in the Republican Party went nuclear, Romney’s been backpedaling. Not exactly what Will Rogers had in mind.
Last week, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul defended her boss when asked about an ad featuring Joe Soptic, a steel worker who was laid off when Bain Capital, Romney’s old company, shuttered his plant. Tragically, but not unpredictably, Mr. Soptic’s wife died of cancer after he lost his health benefits.
“If [they] had been in Massachusetts, under Gov. Romney’s health care plan,” Saul told FOX News, “they would have had health care.”Before Saul could finish her last sentence, the likes of Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter viciously attacked her. Coulter went so far as to publicly demand that she be fired.
Too bad those GOP attack dogs don’t respect what the former governor accomplished in Massachusetts.That crowning achievement in his career proved to be a model for the nation.
So stand tall, Mr. Romney.Dogs love people, not politicians.Why, I’ll bet even first pet Bo would like you, although your media critics like Ingraham, Limbaugh and Coulter never will.
Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach, Calif.
Political demonstrations on Metro should not be allowed
Thursday morning around 9:15, I was in a Red Line Metro train going from the Grosvenor station to Washington, D.C. A large group of black youth under the direction of some adults waited on the Grosvenor platform and entered the train in the last seconds before it left the station.
Once the doors closed, the youths spread out in the car and started yelling slogans against Mitt Romney at the top of their lungs. The yelling lasted the whole time until the train reached the Medical Center station, where the group left the train and apparently waited for the next one. This loud and aggressive behavior was clearly designed to intimidate passengers riding to work. It was scary and caused me heart palpitations since I suffer from atrial fibrillation.
If this kind of thing is going to be the reality before the presidential elections, the Transit Police need to protect passengers from such political aggression.
Margaret Young
Washington
Fairfax residents stuck paying more for water
It is indeed a sad day for the 120,000 Fairfax County customers of the city of Falls Church’s municipal water system, who will continue to pay nearly 50 percent higher water rates to the city and have absolutely no recourse but to pay up.
Millionsof dollars in ratepayer revenues will now be spent on litigation over the December 2012 Fairfax County water ordinance, as well as lobbying the Virginia General Assembly to overturn the Virginia law that permits the ordinance.
Kirk Randall
McLean
