For some reason, I regularly get email releases from U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida. And I have to say, they are disappointing. You see that name, and you expect towering eloquence. But I get stuff like this:
“The federal executive-branch agencies hold an extensive amount of property that includes 429,000 buildings and over a million total properties. In fact, the federal government is the largest owner and manager of real estate in our country. If we sold all excess federal properties, proceeds could approach an estimated $15 billion – serious savings – on top of even more savings reaped annually from reducing maintenance and operating costs.
“H.R. 1734 is a cost saving initiative that achieves a reduction in the size of the federal real property inventory through selling or redeveloping underutilized properties, increasing the utilization rates of existing properties, and expediting the disposal of surplus properties. The act shows real respect for the hardworking taxpayers who pay for government buildings and space. You can do more with less if you do it efficiently; this bill does just that. Better management of federal property presents an opportunity to reduce expenditures and increase revenue. As families look for ways to budget and manage their personal finances, our government should do the same,” said Representative Webster.
Not exactly “Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.”
But I guess he does what he can. Here’s what an Orlando publication says about him:
For someone who shares a name with one of the most loquacious and eloquent men to sit in the United States Congress, 8th District Rep. Daniel Webster has been nothing like his historic namesake since leaving for Washington. By December 2011, the Winter Garden Republican had yet to make a single major speech on the House floor or introduce a substantive piece of legislation—in marked contrast to the freshman lawmaker he unseated in 2010, Democrat Alan Grayson, by all accounts one of the mouthiest politicians on Capitol Hill.
In a year’s time his office has issued just 31 press releases, and from June through December, Webster, 62, held no public town hall meetings, although he did meet with 25 invited guests at Valencia College in November. One reason Webster has been so elusive may be that a town hall meeting in April turned raucous, provoking some of the meager press coverage about him–after which his office circulated a “watch list” of six Florida activists to other GOP members of Congress.
It goes on to say:
So, what’s up with the bland, soft-spoken, former longtime state legislator and Tea Party favorite? Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at University of Central Florida, says Webster sees himself as “a foot soldier in what the Republicans [are] trying to do, and not necessarily being a leader in the movement.” Donald Davison, of Rollins College’s political science department, takes a similar view. “My impression is, the guy’s invisible,” Davison says. “My guess is he’s following the leaders of the Republican leadership in the House: united opposition to Obama.”
Sounds like he’s sort of the Joe Wilson of the Tea Party movement — more of a “me, too” kind of guy.
Too bad. With the right handlers, the original Dan’l Webster could have been the leader of the Tea Party movement, had he so chosen. Here are other quotes I ran across:
- “A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.”
- “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.”
- “God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
What they wouldn’t be so crazy about was when he said stuff like this: “Keep cool; anger is not an argument.” And some of his positions still wouldn’t fly down South: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”
But you can’t have everything. In any case, they don’t make Daniel Websters the way they used to.
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“The Union, next to our liberty, most dear.”