Recently, the Roanoke Tea Party (RTP) rated the three candidates running for election to the U.S. House of Representatives for Virginia’s 6th Congressional District. In the resulting voter guide, the RTP chose not to endorse any candidate, but had some harsh words for the popular incumbent Republican, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, rating him a “Failure with Some Hope of Redemption”:
Representative Bob Goodlatte has consistently opposed the Obama Administration’s initiatives. However, during the Bush Administration, Goodlatte’s record was inconsistent with several examples of going along with Bush Era initiatives that were politically expedient but Constitutionally and/or fiscally questionable. Upholding an Oath is critical to us and we cannot excuse the examples in which he has violated his Oath of Office to support the Constitution of the United States.
Goodlatte is well versed on issues, generally responsive to contact from voters and consistently shows up in DC for votes. We urge Representative Goodlatte to begin taking the Oath of Office more seriously. He needs to support and defend the Constitution of the United States with all of his votes, no matter what side of the aisle the legislation comes from. He showed some courage when he voted against Bush’s initial TARP bill and we urge him to take more of a leadership role in defense of the Constitution of the United States.
While acknowledging that Rep. Goodlatte has many positive attributes (not the least of which is his almost single-handed effort to derail an overpriced renovation of Roanoke’s Poff Federal Building), the RTP’s rating stems from, among other issues, Rep. Goodlatte’s support for the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (which was also supported by Tea Party favorite Virgil Goode). The best rating issued by the RTP, “He Understands the Constitution and Seems Ready to Uphold the Oath of Office,” went to Libertarian Stuart Bain (who is also a member of the RTP).
While Rep. Goodlatte is expected to be reelected in a landslide, the RTP’s rating brings up an interesting question: heretofore, the primary focus of the Tea Party movement has been fiscal/scope of government issues. As a result, it does not appear that the Tea Party movement has developed a unified position on foreign policy and national security issues. Once many Tea Party-backed candidates are elected this November and are faced with a plethora of these issues, what will the Tea Party’s foreign/national security policy look like? Will it emulate Rep. Ron Paul’s relative isolationism or will it reflect the mainstream conservative foreign policy views of FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey?
Conservatives have long been lukewarm in their support of the Patriot Act, but in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, almost everyone agreed that law enforcement agencies needed more tools in their arsenal to curtail the risk of terrorist attacks. Opposing the Patriot Act and perhaps even the Military Commissions Act is easy–almost a decade after the initial attacks–yet how should we protect the constitutionally protected rights of American citizens while also ensuring their safety from those wishing to do us harm? This is one major issue that the Tea Party movement will have to address very soon.
