Political deceiver and democracyphobe, Karl Rove, and one of the worst Attorneys General in history, Alberto Gonzalez, are among the most recent rodents skittering off the Bush sinking ship.  They served, along with many others, as screw-the-Constitution, imperial Bush loyalists.  Bush, Cheney and their authoritarian loving flunkies have completely politicized the government in their pursuit of a unitary/imperial executive branch and less equal rubber stamp congressional and judicial branches permanently controlled by Republicans.

Bush's presidency has been characterized by lies, corruption, incompetence, and so many failed foreign and domestic policies that it boggles the mind: the Iraq pre-emptive invasion and occupation debacle; a Clinton surplus turned into enormous deficits while borrowing and spending trillions and saddling current and future American generations with the bill; increase in poverty; lack of health care for 47 million plus Americans or health care that has become almost unaffordable for working Americans; huge economic inequality with tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% and more tax breaks for corporations while burdening the rest of America to make up the difference, and on, and on. 

American voters are frustrated and angry. President Bush and his administration may be worst ever in American history and his Republican Congressional minions are not far behind.

Bush has been abetted by a rubber stamp Republican controlled Congress.  Now, though the minority party on Capitol Hill since November, 2006, obstructionist Republicans are still determined to kill any legislation that helps Americans while trying to hang on to Republican seats in the Senate and House of Representatives by any means possible. They assume they can once again bamboozle voters.

Bush, Cheney, Rove and their minion, Gonzalez and his Department of Justice, have used blatant methods of voter suppression aimed at those who might vote Democratic. They have employed politically motivated federal prosecutions against Democrats, which have been overturned, thrown out or are being investigated for abuse of federal prosecutorial authority.  This has been done with the support and acquiescence of Republican members of Congress.

However, now that their imperial executive is steering the Titanic on its final voyage, Congressional Republicans are afraid that they will be caught in the sinking ship's undertow.  They are trying to run away from or deny their Bush loyalist record.  Even in heavily Republican Congressional districts, primarily in the South and Midwest, the Republican Party and Republican incumbents facing re-election in 2008 are concerned and taking no chances, often using cunning deception to retain their seats.

This is apparent, for example, in Virginia's 1st Congressional District. Jo Ann Davis, the Republican incumbent, has tried to re-package herself as an independent conservative even though the record shows her to be a Bush rubber stamp loyalist.

Last year, Ms. Davis had a Democratic challenger, Shawn O'Donnell, for the first time since 2000 when she won an open seat held previously by another Republican.  In 2006, Ms. Davis had to actually campaign and spend money not planned on since she was not the sole candidate on the ballot as in previous years. Ms. Davis' campaign and the Republican Party, upset that a Democrat had the audacity to run for Congress in "their" district, implemented a Karl Rove menu of contemptible dirty tricks.

Despite this, Mr. O'Donnell won a substantial number of votes and inspired a moribund Democratic Party in that district to rebuild.  He would have garnered even more votes in the gerrymandered Republican district except for a bigoted, anti-human rights, fearmongering Republican sponsored referendum against gay rights on the ballot (written in a complicated manner where voting for meant against human rights and vice versa) that brought out all the hypocritical, hysterical right wing Republican lemmings.  However, the Democratic challenge last year worried Republicans.

During the current 110th Congress from January until the recess began on August 6, Jo Ann Davis missed 712 votes or 82.2% of the votes. Of the 101 days when there were voting roll calls in the House of Representatives, Jo Ann Davis was present for only 23 of those days. (joanndavisinfo and/or house.gov)

Representative Davis underwent urinary tract surgery in early February, 2007 and suffered a "reoccurence of breast cancer."  While her health problems are unfortunate, they can, hopefully, be successfully treated and brought under remission.

But, this brings up the issue of candor.  When Ms. Davis campaigned for re-election last year, she assured everyone that she was in excellent health after her cancer surgery.  She and her staff emphasized this repeatedly before and after November, 2006.  Following her new urinary and recurred cancer health problems in early February, a great silence descended.

The primary responsibility of Congressional representatives is to represent the citizens in their districts by voting for or against bills that are important to those constituents.  Congressional representatives must be present on the floor of the House of Representatives to cast their votes. This duty of Ms. Davis' to her constituents cannot be done from home or elsewhere.

Her web site and press releases deceptively imply that Ms. Davis is on the job, but her 82.2% not voting record tells a different story. No matter how experienced her staff, they cannot vote in her place; they have not been elected.  The buck stops with Ms. Davis. 

Jo Ann Davis fails to carry out her primary responsibility to the citizens of the 1st Congressional District when she does not vote.  Ms. Davis has missed far too many important votes already.

Jo Ann Davis needs to give the citizens of Virginia's 1st Congressional District a candid explanation about her missed voting record of 82.2% and whether missing every vote these three weeks after the August Congressional recess will be a continuation of this troubling and unsatisfactory "not voting" pattern.

Some members of the Republican Party seem to be jockeying for Ms. Davis' seat, if the rampant speculation and rumors about a possible resignation have any validity. Perhaps they and the Republican Party of Virginia know something that her ordinary, out-of-the-loop constituents do not. However, Ms. Davis' constituents deserve more than silence, secrecy and spin.  Unfortunately, Republican ethics and candor seem to be oxymorons like Republican moderate.

As their Congressional representative, Jo Ann Davis owes it to all her constituents to be forthcoming and honest about her health condition and prognosis which seems to be having a detrimental effect on her ability and duty to carry out the primary requirement of her job. Ms. Davis works for the citizens of Virginia's 1st Congressional district and they have a right to know. Not later, but now.