I know that Pete Olson is going to harp on this as he competes with Lampson.

The article was odd since it was a Florida paper profiling a Texas candidate, and seemed to attribute more power to a single member of Congress than is reasonable. By themselves, a member of the House has little impact. And there are lots of seats that are being contested so can the national Party really influence what candidates say out there?

Congressman Lampson to his credit has built a coalition in both parties, of moderate leaders, that work together to keep the government working. We have seen too many years of paralysis due to extremists on both sides, and that costs us lots of money – due to failure to pass a budget on time, etc.

I must object to characterizing the trip to see the Shuttle launch as a junket – it was too much travel and too little free time to qualify as a junket in my mind. Some people that frequent this site describe any trip to Florida (Space Flight Awareness as an example) as a waste of money but visiting to see the fruits of your labor or money is not automatically waste.

Charles

And a disclaimer – I am a low level volunteer in the Nick Lampson campaign.