Charlie Dent in Congress
Representing the 15th Congressional District - In the footsteps of Tad Walters
In monitoring Charles Dent, one has to be ready to accept the hackneyed phrase, the common wisdom, the decent main street follower who has been delegated by the monied class of the Lehigh Valley to be our representative. For example, his recent bold legislative initiatives include a trip to Pakistan. He met with a high ranking Pakistani military official, and claimed the following exchange, "I raised the concern that with increased radical activity in Pakistan, extremists might get hold of weapons of mass destruction," Congressman Dent said. "I was reasonably assured by Gen. Kidwai that would be nearly impossible, and that the military employs numerous safeguards."
Can you imagine the General sweating under this comprehensive command of the facts and understanding of the situation in Pakistan? This is the type of question that could be posed by any high school student who reads the newspaper. It is absolutely not reassuring in light of the lack of government control of large swathes of territory along the Pakistani-Afghan border, and the penetration of the military by these so-called "extremists".
Charlie goes on to offer hope for democracy in what has been a Musharaff dictatorship, supported by his President Bush; "I am hopeful that the elections in Pakistan will be fair and peaceful," Congressman Dent said. "Our State Department and other nations are going to be there to make sure this election is going to be open and fair. Regardless of who wins the elections, I hope and believe Pakistan will continue to evolve as a partner in our peace efforts in this important region of the world." As the suicide bombers kill dozens, and Musharaff fires the courts and maintains an iron grip with the military and security forces.
He staggers through his days, I imagine. Another proud effort was his support for a measure condemning Berkeley for passing a counter-recruitment resolution. It was called The Semper Fi Act, and Mr. Dent made this bold statement in castigation of the Berkeley City Council, "I hope that the City Council will soon come to their senses and rescind this meaningless yet hurtful proclamation and apologize to Marines everywhere." This is what our congressman does with his legislative imperative.
This particular outburst suggests the ravings of Tad Walters, the representative from the Lehigh Valley for the McCarthy years and chairman of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, who railed against the communist leanings of the left coast, thereby encouraging an exodus of counter culture students to join the movement in Berkeley. I doubt whether Dent’s efforts will have any effect at all. As he himself notes, the resolution is meaningless, yet worthy of his brave and studious attention, Semper Fi, indeed.
Unfortuntely, there is no opposition. I checked out the website of Sam Bennet, the putative candidate of the moribund Democrats of the region. It was uninspiring, to say the least. Here is one item on her to-do list as a representative, as she talks about government, "I want to improve what it should do well, but hasn’t under George Bush and Charlie Dent – taking care of the military, homeland security, and passing responsible budgets."
Hello, Sam, try to differentiate yourself from Charlie. This is exactly the kind of dreck that Dent is giving us now. Why should the Lehigh Valley voter move to someone who offers only more of the same? Once again, the Lehigh Valley will demonstrate that there is really only one party in this country, and Charlie Dent is the perfect militaristic, inherently corrupted, good old boy to continue in the 15th Congressional District. No matter what you hear about him, he’s "ALL RIGHT". -Joe DeRaymond
Charles Dent Misrepresents Healthcare for Children Vote in Morning Call Editorial
On August 1, 15th District Congressman Charles Dent voted “NO” on House Bill 3162, “The Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007”. The vote was nearly party line in the House, 224-206, and in Pennsylvania was perfectly party line. Every Pennsylvania Republican voted against the bill, every Democrat voted to pass it.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is intended to provide medical care for children who do not qualify for Medicaid, but who would otherwise be uninsured as the family income is not enough to be able to afford private coverage. It is a “gap” insurance that tries to bring some of our most vulnerable citizens health care coverage. It is worth noting that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are willing to address the overall problem of a health care system that leaves so many uninsured.
On August 10, 2007, Congressman Charles Dent authored an op-ed article in the Morning Call that attempts to justify his “NO” vote on the SCHIP bill. Of course, before he trashes the bill, he praises the program, and claims credit for being “one of the most steadfast supporters” of SCHIP.
His first argument for his vote is that “the legislation calls for more than $190 billion in cuts to Medicare benefits over a 10-year period”. The “cuts” he refers to are in the Medicare Advantage program. The Medicare Advantage program is one of the privatized programs of Medicare that were approved by a prior Congresss. It has been ripping off taxpayers and recipients for billions each year. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), private Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers an average of 12 percent more than normal Medicare. The CBO estimated that overpayments to Medicare Advantage will total $54 billion over five years, and $160 billion over the next decade. Furthermore, while senior citizens are promised improved flexibility and benefits with these plans, beneficiaries often discover after signing up that they're actually getting less than traditional Medicare offers. HR 3162 removes this waste by private insurers - this is described by Dent as a “cut” of $190 billion in Medicare, in an attempt to scare senior citizens into opposing a bill intended to provide medical coverage for children – divide and confuse.
Dent’s next argument is that “the bill imposes a tax increase on health insurance premiums for all Americans”. The bill actually provides for a fee to be paid by insurance providers that will provide funds to finance a Health Care Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund. In 2008, the fees would total $90 million; in 2009, $100 million; 2010, $110 million. This is not a justifiable expense, since we do not need more studies of our healthcare system, we need a commitment to cover all citizens with a fair and comprehensive program. While Mr. Dent has some traction with this reason for voting against the bill, he walks an edge toward mischaracterization as he hammers away at the fee as a “tax increase”.
Dent’s next argument is truly despicable. He raises the illegal immigrant issue, because the bill provides that a State may determine eligibility for the program using its own standard. The concern addressed by the bill is that eligible children are being excuded because in many poor rural and urban areas, people do not have driver’s licenses or access to documents that may be required by federal programs. Therefore, States are allowed to set their own rules for determining citizenship or legal status. Dent claims, therefore, that our tax payments will go to illegal aliens who have falsely alleged they are citizens or legal residents.
This is despicable because we are talking about health care for children. As a nation, we can err on the side of providing needed medical care to a child who is a citizen and whose family may not be able to produce the required documentation. The bill specifically excludes undocumented aliens from the program. Mr. Dent would rather deny eligible children care in order to be absolutely sure that no child without documents receives care. This is truly compassionate conservatism in the George Bush sense.
The final argument by Charles is that the bill raises income levels for eligibility to the point where some people may give up their private insurance in order to get in the program. These will not be rich families, however, and again, it is the act of a Scrooge to cut back healthcare to children who need it in order to deny a lower middle class income level family the right to get into the program.
This entire issue is being decided by people with a Cadillac of an insurance system, the US Congress. Mr. Dent has an even better idea, as he is able to continue to get the Pennsylvania taxpayer to pay for his first class health insurance as a retired State Senator. The unfortunate reality is the we will get a good healthcare system in this country when those who design the system have to struggle like the average worker under the current system.
HR 3162 is an example of a Congress bending itself into a knot trying to provide healthcare to about 6 million children who badly need insurance coverage. The main source of revenue for healthcare coverage for these children is a 69 cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarrettes. This in itself is unconscionable, to pay for healthcare on the back of an addict class, encouraged in their addiction by sophisticated advertising campaigns, by government policy, and by the viciously addictive qualities of the drug nicotine.
Our Congress, Democrats and Republicans can do better. However, in order to do so, they will have to stand up to the insurance and healthcare corporations that are currently making policy, and create a system that truly provides healthcare coverage for all.
Bush wants to veto the bill as passed by the House, which puts Dent squarely in his court with his "NO" vote. The fact that Charlie never once mentions the political reality that makes his party line vote a no-brainer weakens his already weak arguments. His attempt to convince us that he is doing the right thing, instead of making the politically expedient/necessary move, points to a lack of any ability to lead, or to create independent solutions for his constituents. -Joe DeRaymond
Boscola Aide Blogs - Makes Dent Look Good
The latest from Charlie Dent is that he is backtracking fast from any connection with President Bush. He voted to support stem cell research to help pass a bill that Bush promises to veto. He has become part of a group of moderates in the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who claim to represent a center politics in the Congress. He has co-sponsored a bill that would make the Baker Commission report a template for our Iraq policy – in other words, he supports an immediate start of a staged withdrawal of troops.
In counterpoint to this move by our Republican Congressman to the center, we have seen a recent embarrassing situation in the office of Democratic State Senator Lisa Boscola. Lisa had been widely touted as a future opponent of Dent, perhaps even in 2008. She wins her gerrymandered district with over 70% of the vote, she is generally known and liked as a Lehigh Valley political product, and her politics fit the 15th Congressional District.
A stumbling block to her aspirations, if they existed, appeared this week. Lisa’s chief aide, Bernie Kieklak, placed obscene posts on Bernie O’Hare’s blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings. He also made bizarre comments on the blog about Dent and a possible Dent opponent, Sam Bennett. These comments were picked up by the local press, Morning Call and Express Times, who reported Kieklak’s inanities. Boscola thereupon made apologies to Dent and Bennett, and, presumably, Kieklak will speak no more for Lisa.
As to the politics of Lisa Boscola, a quick look at her positions shows us that she is identified as “mixed” in her support for choice on the abortion issue. She supports cuts to the capital gains tax. She supports the death penalty. She has not spoken out on the war and occupation of Iraq, but if one reads the comments of her chief aide on the blog of O’Hare, you find that Kieklak supports a nuclear war against the Islamic world, starting with Iraq, after a withdrawal of US troops. The bottom line is that it appears that Boscola is to the right of Charlie Dent on the political spectrum. In other words, she is a perfect Democratic candidate for this 15th Congressional District. From Tad Walters to Paul McHale to Charlie Dent, this district loves a rightwinger. (See "A Short History of the 15th Congressional District) So, Lisa has a shot, as she moves (or stays) right and Dent moves left.
-Joe DeRaymond
Dent Meets Bush - War Support Continues
in 15th Congressional District
May 22, 2007...On May 8, Charlie Dent met with George Bush, Tony Snow, Karl Rove and Robert Gates. The press dutifully reported a frank and open discussion about Iraq. Unfortunately, the real news is that Charlie and the other Republican "moderates" who met with the decision makers have decided to wait till September to hear from General Petraeus on the state of the war.
The real purpose of the meeting was to shore up some political credibility after slavishly following a criminal war policy for four years. The reality is right in front of us - over 3400 US troops have died, 20,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, millions displaced, a nationa and a region in flames, and Dent and his fellow Republican and Democratic "legislators".
Above is a photo of Bernie Berg, holding a slice of the truth for passing motorists. Below is a letter by Bernie regarding Dent's endorsement of the Prince of Darkness, the politician trying to ride national tragedy to the White House, Rudi Giuliani:
"Charlie Dent, the fair-haired boy U. S. Rep. for the 15th District has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president. Charlie has spent the past two and a half years impressing the Lehigh Valley's newspapers of record with his role as lap dog and rubber stamp for the Bush Junta. For this he was endorsed for re-election by both the Express Times and the Morning Call."
"Charlie regaled the constituency with his op-ed pieces in The E.T. (4/12) and the M.C(4/5) that read like a cheer-leading campaign flier cranked out by the Giuliani propaganda machine that never sleeps. What Dent neglected to mention was Rudy's many memory lapses when questioned on his hand-picked police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who Bush sent to Iraq in 2003 to train police. There Bernie spent his days sleeping and his nights giving upbeat appraisals of Baghdad shopping malls (Frank Rich, NYT). Since then Rudy's pal has been indicted for tax evasion and misleading federal prosecutors. Giuliani, when he wasn't posing for T.V. photo ops during 9-11 atop the rubble created partly by his storing 6000 gallons of diesel fuel in his WTC "command post", was criminalizing poverty and homelessness and bulldozing community centers and gardens to make way for shyster developers. For this he gets the endorsement of one of the more obscure and obtuse members of the House. Meanwhile, if Charlie Dent did any less for his constituents we'd be required by law to shovel dirt over him."
-Joe DeRaymond
Dented by the Express Times and Morning Call how the local press gave Charlie a free ride, and how the ride continues
In 2007, a new Congress convened in Washington, DC. The 15th Congressional District is being represented by favorite son Republican Charles Dent, for his second term. Dent is a Bush/Delay Republican, a staunch supporter of the Iraq War, a corporate Congressman who portrays himself as a moderate.
He won re-election with 52.8% of the vote in a district gerrymandered to include areas of Berks and Montgomery County guaranteed to vote Republican. He raised $1,255,566, and spent $1,003,278 against citizen candidates Charles Dertinger, Democrat, and Greta Browne, Green Party. Dertinger won his candidacy on a write-in ticket, and raised just $90,122. See Open Secrets for complete fundraising data, and check out my article below, “Who Is Charles Dent”, for more analysis of Dent’s corporate approach to politics.
The money was key to the race, to combat Dent’s negative campaigning, and, I believe more importantly, to expose his record. His votes against labor, the middle class, for the War, and in support of the Bush program make him a dangerous and institutionally corrupt politician. If Dertinger had been able to out Dent’s record, I believe it would have been a very close race. As we now know, voters wanted a change in 2006, and in the 15th Congressional District voted to dump Santorum, and elect Rendell. If those votes had held for Dertinger, he would have won. Dent was able to get people to cross over based on a belief in his “independence” and moderation.
A big factor in that belief had to be the endorsement of the local corporate press. On October 15, 2006, both the Express-Times and the Morning Call endorsed Charles Dent for Congress. The Express-Times lauded Dent’s ability to bring home pork barrel projects, his advocacy of laws that would attack the tribal rights of Native Americans, and for holding meetings on the flooding of the Delaware River. Now, his pork barrel prowess will be limited in a Democratic Congress, his attack on Native American rights was made moot by the Courts (where the issue belongs), and he has done nothing about the flooding on the Delaware, and has instead dumped the problem on inadequately funded State agencies.
Dent breaks with the Republican Right on one issue – abortion. His record on abortion shows that he supported International Family Planning and Abortion Access for Women in the Military, voted against choice when it came to Teen Health and Safety, (see Planned Parenthood Action Fund).
The Express-Times touted his “seasoning” and moderation, and expects Dent to begin “building seniority”. It is an editorial that could have been designed by Dent’s campaign team, a soothing appeal to the status quo that ignores the war, the oil economy, and the Bush redistribution of wealth to the rich. The editorialists dismissed Dertinger, and do not examine in any detail the issues. They endorsed Greta Browne as the anti-Bush vote, but ignored the realities that marginalize third party candidates and made her election impossible.
The Morning Call called Dent an “independent” Republican who votes with the President 78% of the time. He has a deep knowledge of the Valley and its people, according to the Call. Again, the lack of any real analysis of Dent’s record, or relationship to the war in Iraq was omitted. Indentical to the Express-Times in approach, it dismissed Dertinger and praised Greta Browne’s “intelligent advocacy”. Dent used these endorsements visibly in his campaign. Just as the press failed the public as the United States went to war in Iraq, with its inability to uncover the lies and mistakes of the administration, so it failed the people of the 15th District in these blithe endorsements of the status quo, aka Charles Dent.
In 2006, independence from the Bush program was a valued label to the voters. Both of these papers gave it to a candidate who did not deserve it. With Charles Dent as their representative, the Lehigh Valley has been thrust to the margins in the great debates that Congress will address in 2007 and 2008. Democracy is not about careers and connections, it is about citizens being allowed true access to government – in my opinion, the 15th Congressional District remains outside the democratic impulse, and the local press did not encourage democracy through the 2006 election cycle. -Joe DeRaymond
Who is Charles Dent?
"To be sure mistakes have been made in Iraq, from pre-war intelligence to de-Baathification, to the destructive events of Abu Ghraib, but these mistakes should not stop us from our goal," said Rep. Charles Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican. (Reuters, 6/16/2006)
"The Iraq issue is the lens through which people are looking at the federal government," said Rep. Charles W. Dent (Pa.), another swing-district Republican. "That is the issue to most people. There's no question about that." To pretend the war is resolving itself nicely is no longer an option, he said. (Washington Post, 7/20/2006)
Yet, Charles Dent has not signed on to one bill or resolution calling for any change in the war. He watches the bodies get piled higher, the flag draped coffins delivered home, and votes for more war. He uses the Bush rhetoric about “goals”, without defining what the goals are. Waves of attacks in Baghdad, refusals of Iraqi regiments to serve, the looting of barracks as soon as British troops leave, the 3200 US dead, and rising every day, all point to the futility of our efforts in Iraq.
I received Charles Dent’s latest Congressional report, from his office, and it contained not one word about the war in Iraq. The local press gives him a free ride on the issue, and the Democrats give him a free ride on the issue. He votes for a wall on the Mexican border. He votes against labor on CAFTA. He voted with Tom DeLay 93% of the time, and now enjoys a $10,000 contribution from DeLay’s PAC, the Americans for a Republican Majority. Dick Cheney appeared for him this year, here in Bethlehem, and raised $200,000. Will Dent now oppose Cheney’s favorite war?
Dent has an impeccable voting record with business, with concrete manufacturers, with land rights interests, and an abysmal voting record with the NAACP, the League of Conservation Voters, and the American Wilderness Coalition. He votes generally pro-choice, in his sole break with the Republican leadership. With circumstances demanding a change in direction, you will not get it from Charles Dent. He may talk frankly out of the District, but knows to keep his mouth shut here at home, follow orders, and toe that Bush line.
In order to introduce our press analysis columns, I have put up these two articles written just before and after the 2006 elections. It should be noted that Charles Dent did have me arrested (with 8 others) for reading the names of the Iraqi and US dead in his office, after closing hours. -Joe DeRaymond |
