Facts Are Stubborn Things

I read with great amusement from earlier this week bragging about how “bipartisan” he has been.  It sounded great, but the problem for Congressman Bishop is that facts are stubborn things, and his record in Washington has been anything but bipartisan. 

Do you know that Congressman Bishop actually promotes an article on the Home page of his web site that is entitled “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.”? 

Does that sound bipartisan to you? 

(P.S. I assume he will delete it when he reads this blog post, but just contact my campaign – we saved it.) 

Much like his phony attacks on my business record, Congressman Bishop has demonstrated a knack for being willing to say anything if he believes it will advance his re-election prospects.  Whether it’s true or not seems to be largely irrelevant to him. 

I guess after nearly 10 years in Washington presiding over irresponsible spending and borrowing, and the collapse of our economy, you develop this “talent” as a means for political survival. 

Let’s take a few moments to review what non-partisan publications have reported and what Congressman Bishop has said to help us separate fact from fiction in regard to his self-proclaimed bipartisanship. 

• After a review of his voting record, Congressional Quarterly reported that Congressman Bishop supported President Obama’s ultra-liberal agenda 97% of the time in 2009 and did so 95% of the time in 2010.  

• CQ also noted that Bishop posted party unity scores of 96% and 99% during Nancy Pelosi’s time as Speaker, while the Washington Post said Bishop sided with the Obama-Pelosi team 94% of the time in 2011.

• Newsday reported that Bishop empathized with Occupy Wall Street protesters, while calling conservative activists “very angry people” who exhibited “mob behavior.”

• The Congressman has also repeatedly referred to himself as an unapologetic liberal, and said part of President Obama’s problem in Washington is that he’s tried too hard to be bipartisan.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.  Congressman Bishop can call himself bipartisan until he’s blue in the face, but that doesn’t make it true.

 That’s one of the reasons I am running for Congress.

 As a self-made businessman who has built two American companies from the ground up and created over 1,000 American jobs, I have experience working successfully with people of all political ideologies and backgrounds to achieve a common goal. 

I want to use those skills to advance my 10-point plan to foster job creation, boost small businesses and improve Long Island’s economy; The one that has lost more than 30,000 jobs since Congressman Bishop took office in Washington. 

As the father of two young children, I am concerned about them inheriting an America in crisis, and paying for problems that they did nothing to create. 

We still have time to turn things around, but we must act now. 

That’s why, if we want to truly change Congress, we need to start by changing our Congressman.