Army declines to send reservist-congressman

USA TODAY ^ | 6 Apr 03 | Kathy Kiely

[OriginalV]

WASHINGTON

[hoosiermama]

Great guy!

[gcruse]

A classy response.

[kms61]

I seem to recall that during WWII members of Congress who joined the military were required to resign from office. Makes sense to me for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the separation of the military from the civilian leadership.

[2timothy3.16]

"I've already voted to send people," Buyer says. "How could I not go?"

Now that is one classy guy.

[dpwiener]

One always wonders about a story like this. Is it PR spin? Did Buyers truly want to serve, or was he in fact happy to have an out?

I'm inclined to believe that he did want to serve, and that he is indeed (justifiably) pissed about being turned down. If nothing else, serving in the war would have been a huge boost to his political resume.

Buyers should have fought the decision, if necessary by resigning from Congress. At the rate things are going, the war will soon be over, and he could have been home in time to run for Congress in the special election to fill his own vacancy.

[sausageseller]

He served during the first gulf war. I lived in Monticello, In. at the time, And he would send articles he wrote home to the local nemspaper. I looked foward to them. Made for good reading.

[sausageseller]

Steve Buyer is a first rate guy. If you said it was about PR to his face I believe his first thought would be to punch your lights out for calling his patriotism into question. ( All though he would of course restrain himself!)

But if he did it I might look the other way.

[dpwiener]

Steve Buyer is a first rate guy. If you said it was about PR to his face I believe his first thought would be to punch your lights out for calling his patriotism into question.

I don't know Steve Buyer, but I'm willing to believe you (and him) that this isn't just PR. And that was my conclusion in my previous post.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Yeah, he's definitely a first rate guy. After impeachment, I "adopted" him as my congressman (to help me get past the fact that my actual one is Nadler) and have only been proud of my choice since then.

I send him a couple of small campaign contributions every year and always get back personally signed notes, but I got a short handwritten note as well the last time. :)

Having people like Steve Buyer in government gives me some hope that we *do* have some good people in there and we're not doomed. :)