To the Editor:
The Iraqi government will surely have disintegrated in the several days between this letter being received and published. The invasion of Iraq by the U.S. in 2003 is no doubt one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the history of our country.
Nine-term congressman Frank LoBiondo has been a frequent critic of the Democrats and President Obama on climate change, the Federal Reserve, the General Motors and Chrysler bailout, to name just a few. However, LoBiondo supported the Democrats, and bucked a Republican president and his own party at a crucial turning point in the war in Iraq. Unbeknownst to most voters, LoBiondo did not support the George W. Bush/General Patraeus Troop Surge, and said so in a speech on the floor of the House in early 2007. LoBiondo missed the actual vote on the “Surge” in order to attend his father-in-law’s funeral. The Republican led strategy worked.
Unfortunately in the three-election cycles since, LoBiondo has vehemently denied siding with the Democrats. LoBiondo rarely debates his opponents and he has never been responsive to this particular letter writer and critic (who coincidentally, was his unfunded Democratic 2010 opponent and, at the time, questioned LoBiondo’s truthfulness on the issue of the Surge).
In five months we elect a congressman. It’s high time the incumbent clears up any leftover confusion from previous campaigns. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington actively supports Bill Hughes Jr., and as such, Hughes is in a strong position to insist that LoBiondo agree to debates. Direct engagement between candidates is one way the old issue of the Bush Surge, and the subsequent Obama withdrawal, gets voted on this year by the average engaged citizen in the 2nd district.
Editor’s Note: Gary Stein is an Independent running for Congress against Lobiondo.
