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Westmoreland, McGraw stage spirited debateThu, 10/12/2006 - 5:01pm
By: John Thompson
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland continued his attacks on the media during a feisty debate Wednesday night with Democratic challenger Mike McGraw in Newnan. McGraw was taking the Congressman to task over ignoring the plight of more than 700 Fayette and South Fulton residents who have become ill due to noxious odor emanating from the PSC plant on the Fayette-Fulton border. Westmoreland’s response? “You read the Fayette Citizen too much.” The response was just one of the verbal jousts witnessed by more than 200 interested voters. Westmoreland also defended his position on the renewal of the Voting Rights Act by stating that he was just trying to make the act better and have it apply to every part of the country. The Congressman had received criticism that he was trying to hold up renewing the act. But McGraw was aghast that there was even discussion on this issue, when the Congress had far bigger issues to discuss. “Why are we even discussing this in 2006? You protect everybody’s right to vote. That shouldn’t even be a question,’ McGraw said. Another issue raised during the debate was how best to preserve Constitutional rights during the age of terrorism. “We have used the Patriot Act for years against organized crime, so why shouldn’t we be able to use it against people who are trying to harm us?” Westmoreland said. McGraw said it was a challenge, but he was a Sam Nunn type Democrat and said we had to follow the “moral high ground” and preserve the Constitution and other human rights documents, such as the Geneva Convention. “We haven’t had another attack. We’re not allowing them to bring the war to us,” said Westmoreland in his rebuttal time. In response to the illegal immigration problem, Westmoreland said the House had just voted to appropriate money to build a 700-mile fence at the border to try and stem the flow of illegal aliens. McGraw said he wanted the situation stopped now and advocated fining an employer $100,000 on the first offense of hiring illegal workers. “Clinton handed out more than 5,000 fines against employers that employed illegal aliens. In the last two years, just three employers have been fined,” McGraw added. One of the more pointed questions concerned the integrity of the current Congress. “I look at my campaign literature about every three or four months, and make sure I’m doing the things I promised my constituents. I’m a conservative Republican and fought my own party on several issues,” Westmoreland said. McGraw paused when he was asked the question and said he believes the integrity of Congress is an oxymoron in today’s political landscape. He said he decided to switch his party affiliation in April from republican to Democrat and challenge Westmoreland because he couldn’t tolerate what was going on in Washington. “It’s only gotten worse since April and this is a grassroots effort. I’m running on red, white and blue issues, not red state, blue state,” McGraw added. login to post comments
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