Heath Shuler: Another Blue Dog Pretending to be a Conservative.

Heath Shuler Shows Why He Doesn't Belong in Congress
John Armor for Congress Press Release | March 28, 2008 | Armor for Congress

NEWS RELEASE

BlueRidgeNow, the website of the Hendersonville Times-News, reported on March 26 on an appearance by Rep. Heath Shuler at a Rotary Club meeting in that city, but missed the deeper story that was present.
 

According to the story, Heath Shuler blamed Senator John McCain, a Republican who is not serving in the House, as "blocking" Shuler's SAVE Act which would impose tighter controls on illegal immigration from getting a vote in the House. The Times-News had noted in an editorial on 20 March that "48 Democrats had co-sponsored the bill." So, if all those Democrats had signed the Discharge Petition, Shuler's SAVE Act would have reached the floor, and would have gotten a vote.
 

A Discharge Petition means that 218 Members of the House sign a document requiring a bill to come to the floor, regardless of the actions of any Committee, and regardless of the position of House leadership, especially the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The article does note that Speaker Pelosi does not want this bill voted on. However, it does not note that Speaker Pelosi, a liberal, San Francisco Democrat, only became Speaker with the votes of Heath Shuler and about 20 other freshman Democrats who advertised themselves as conservative" when they ran for office in 2006.

Those reluctant House Democrats who co-sponsored the bill but haven't signed the Discharge Petition have no reason to listen to any requests from Senator John McCain a Republican. They have every incentive to listen to demands from Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.

In short, the facts of this matter lead to the conclusion that it was Heath Shuler, and no one else, who blocked Shuler's bill from the floor. He did so with the first vote he ever cast in Congress, to choose Pelosi as Speaker.

John Armor, constitutional lawyer from Macon County, and a candidate for Congress in the 11th District, said, "All the facts would have allowed readers to conclude that Shuler never expected his SAVE Act to get a vote in Congress. He knew it would fail. He just wanted to pretend, one more time, that he was a 'conservative' with 'mountain values.'" Mr. Armor pointed out that Shuler admitted at the Christmas party for the Macon County Sheriff that because of Speaker Pelosi, "my bill will never get out of committee."

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John Armor
Highlands, NC
www.ArmorforCongress.com