WELLER: Colombia then and now

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-99542?ref=email On Monday afternoon, I, like many Americans, or at least I suspect many of the people on this website, took a minute to look over the results of the House vote on the Bailout bill. I noticed two things which I feel are worth mentioning. The first of which being just how many democrats voted against the bill. Now, I know, the reason some democrats voted against the bill was so that the bill wouldn't be passed by just a democratic majority, and so that in case this bailout fails miserably, Nancy Pelosi and her party won't be the only ones to answer to a furious constituency. But let's be honest, after hearing Speaker Pelosi's speech yesterday, it wouldn't have been a very far stretch of the imagination to see the bill lose some republican support, and the amount of votes it needed to pass. The democrats should have seen this coming, and accounted for it. The only reason this bill failed yesterday is because bipartisanship does not exist at our nations capitol. Even in the defining moments of this congress' watch over Washington, the Speaker refused to neglect her partisan rhetoric, and gave a speech that already cost her, and will ultimately cost the American people. The second, and what I feel is the more alarming observation, was Representative Jerry Weller's apparent absence from the vote. As I said, this bill represents the most significant and important vote in this congress' tenure at the capitol, and to not vote on it is absolutely unacceptable. Representatives and Senators, regardless of what other obligations they may have, have an overriding obligation to be present during session. These persons, and Representative Weller specifically, have been elected, paid, and employed by the American people, and to not vote on a bill of this magnitude is so abhorrent I find myself almost at a loss for words to decry it. Representative Weller, the record will show, was the only member of the House to not vote on this legislation, and he should be made famous for doing (or not doing) so. As a Republican it pains me to call for Representative Weller to be denied re-election, but as an American, I find his negligence that much more disturbing. Representative Weller does not deserve the title he has been given, and he should be stripped of the duties for which he cares so little at the next available opportunity. To Representative Weller, I say this, out of 435 Representatives, how do you sir, manage to be the ONLY one who doesn't show up to vote on the Bailout. The voters of the 11th district of Illinois did NOT elect you to phone it in on the day of the most important vote in the last 80 years of this country. Please, desist from embarrassing your party and your constituents, do your job, or lose it.