The Arrogance Of Ted Lieu

With a week to go before the general election, it looks like California Democratic state representative Ted Lieu will win the U.S. House seat of retiring Congressman Henry Waxman. Recent polls show he has a 17 point lead over Republican candidate Elan Carr. With a congressional district that draws heavily from the limousine liberals of the Westside and beach communities, the outcome of this campaign isn't really a surprise.

However Ted's arrogance during this election cycle is especially annoying. He has already dismissed Mr. Carr as a viable opponent. He has already met with Congressional insiders in Washington to discuss his role after the election. He is already talking about this seat as if it is a lifetime appointment. He tells the newspaper that he told his wife, "If we win in November, my first priority is to live as long as I can. Congress is like the military--it's just pure seniority." So Ted not only has brushed off the candidacy of Mr. Carr, he has already carved his name into his presumed office door on Capitol Hill.  He is so audacious that he doesn't for a second believe there could be another candidate who could successfully vie for the Congressional seat, maybe as early as 2016.

You would think that since Ted is having such an easy time cruising toward his victory party he would be more bold and daring with his ideas. But once again, he proves to us how vacuous his so called leadership will be when he ascends to the Hill. He has already parroted Mr. Waxman's position that his number one priority will be passing environmental laws, particularly cap and trade legislation to decrease emission of greenhouse gases.

Really Ted? You think that's what your constituents in Los Angeles are most worried about? What are you going to do about illegal immigrants flooding our borders and using up our limited resources in schools and hospitals? How do you plan to make healthcare affordable when Obamacare subsidies begin to dry up? What should the U.S. do about Ebola? ISIS? Russia? How do you plan to raise the standard of living of thousands of your constituents without using the job killing gimmick of raising the minimum wage? Are you going to keep pushing for a bullet train to nowhere even though most Californians now oppose its construction now that we have realized what a white elephant Gov. Jerry Brown's pet project has become? How are you going to fix the public pension crisis that is bankrupting cities all over California? There are so many issues that are of more immediate concern to the average voter yet he professes he will go to the Hill and legislate climate change. What an out of touch Democratic idiot.

It's too bad Mr. Carr declined to be interviewed by the local newspaper because it has decided to endorse Ted. If only voters knew more about him, I think his mature leadership as a former prosecutor would have given people a clear choice about who to vote for. It seems that the more we know about Ted, the more diminished he becomes.