`Everybody does it’ not a good defense for Stefanik lie

Book club is a good way to get through the pandemic

The Front Page

Morning Update

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

By Ken Tingley

It should not be surprising to anyone that Rep. Elise Stefanik fudged the reason she voted by proxy last week to attend a fundraiser at Mar-A-Lago.

The proxy rule was enacted in May 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic so that members of Congress could vote safely. No such rule had ever been enacted during any previous national crisis.

Stefanik signed off on a statement last week that she was voting by proxy because she was “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber.”

But she was able to get on a plane and fly to Florida for a fundraiser at Donald Trump’s golf club along with 200 or so other people.

She was among 108 lawmakers who voted by proxy on the same day.

When her political opponents called her out that she had lied, no one heard from Rep. Stefanik. They did hear from one of her paid spokespeople who defended the lie with the excuse that everybody does it. But that doesn’t make it right.

So it might be time for Congress to rescind the proxy voting if the abuses are that widespread. If Rep. Stefanik wanted to make things right, she would immediately propose that legislation.

The event in Florida raised $3.2 million and was attended by approximately 200 people who paid $1,000 for a ticket to be there. Some paid as much as $25,000 each. Imagine if Rep. Stefanik could raise that type of money for one of the local charities. Maybe she could use the proxy voting system to do that this weekend. After all, raising money is what she is really good at.

There is nothing wrong with using proxy voting as long as your are using it for the reason it was intended. But no member of Congress should use it to benefit themselves and that is exactly what Rep. Stefanik did here. It is simply an abuse of her position. She should be docked a day’s pay.

Book club

One of the best things about promoting a book over the past several months has been getting out to talk with local people about the book, writing and newspapers.

I’ve done book signings and spoken to senior citizen groups over the past few months, but I had never spoken to a book club before.

Elaine Cowin invited me to her small book club this past weekend for an informal chat about reading and writing.

The club members - there are eight of them - meet once a month at each other’s homes. During the height of the pandemic, they met remotely over Zoom. For Sunday’s meeting at Elaine’s home in Warrensburg, they had snacks and drinks and great conversation. We all wore our masks, too.

They had all read the book and liked it, thank goodness. One woman said she had read it start to finish in three hours. I was impressed.

We talked some about writing because some of the members were writers, too.

We also talked about newspapers and my second book that will be coming out in the spring, “The Last American Newspaper.”

The two hours went by in a flash and when I left, they were still going strong.

I’m not sure how many book clubs there are out there, but considering the pandemic, this might be the perfect time to start one.

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