Congressman Rogers Forgot His Raising and Should Apologize

I usually let sleeping dogs lie, but Congressman Mike Rogers’ recent crude and unbecoming comments about Speaker Nancy Pelosi earns a trip to the woodshed.

Maybe, for me, it’s a Southern thing.

One of my cousins tells a story about moving to South Korea with her soldier husband back in the 1970’s. There was a big going away party on our farm with all the families of my Mississippi community in attendance. She vividly recounts how my farmer-sheriff father, Big Daddy, hugged her and simply said “You remember your raising while you’re over there.” She did.

Congressman Rogers forgot his raising recently when speaking to constituents in Auburn he called Speaker Pelosi “crazy”; “mean as a snake”; and “Tom Delay in a skirt”. Does this mean Mike Rogers has seen Tom Delay in a skirt? Then he proceeded to talk about how he and his Party are not included in anything in Washington.

Bless his heart but this is crude, childish, unbecoming of a public servant and, I’ll say it, deserving of being left out. My mamma and both grandmammas would have cut a switch from the nearest bush if I had said something like that. They should have.

Rogers should apologize.

I worked for Speaker Pelosi for several years and was blessed by getting to know someone of deep faith and conviction. There were many times when we would discuss faith, her Baltimore-raised Italian-American Catholic grounding and my rural Mississippi evangelical moorings meeting in dialogue and, for me, discovering a common thread in our faith with a passion, no, a calling, to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the strangers and love our neighbors as we do ourselves.

She has often said that her God, family and the principles of her Party are the things that drive her public life. What I have learned over the years from Speaker Pelosi is that our nation is indeed great because out of the diversity comes common ground and distinct values that we all share as Americans.

I remember traveling with her and other Members of Congress across the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast after Katrina brought its destruction to my motherland. She was listening to local citizens and elected officials share their challenges and problems with the federal response.

This included joining Mississippi’s Republican Governor Haley Barbour at Keesler Air Force Base. She listened to him and his department heads. In Alabama, Republican Governor Bob Riley and his department leaders shared their problems. The Speaker took notes, thanked them for their service and returned to Washington working to enact many of their ideas and solve their problems.

Partisan? Give me a break. Congressman Rogers doesn’t want bi-partisanship because that would require conversation, sharing ideas and finding compromise and common ground.

Congressman Rogers forget his raising and should apologize.

A friend and fellow Southerner, Chair of the of the Alabama Democratic Party, Joe Turnham, said it all very well in a statement released earlier today:

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Contact: Jim Spearman, Executive Director, 334-262-2221

Alabama Democratic Party Chair Makes Offer to Congressman Mike Rogers

If Rogers Will Apologize About Pelosi Remarks and Contact Him, Turnham Will Set Up a Meeting with Speaker Pelosi to Usher Bi-Partisan Cooperation

Montgomery, AL – Responding to disparaging public remarks Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama’s 3rd District made about Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rogers’ remorse of a lack of bi-partisan cooperation in Congress, Alabama Democratic Party Chair Joe Turnham is making an offer to Congressman Rogers to be of assistance.

This past week Rogers was at AUM and called Speaker Pelosi “crazy”; “mean as a snake”; and “Tom Delay in a skirt”. He went on to say, “They don’t talk to us”. “Republican leaders didn’t talk to the Democrats. The attitude was, we have the votes on our side, let the Democrats whine.” Rogers went on to claim the need for bi-partisan discussion by saying, “at some point we’ve got to recognize that the power goes back and forth…we’ve got to work together.”

Chairman Joe Turnham announces today that he is offering to assist Congressman Rogers in his quest to work together with Democrats by personally asking the Democratic Speaker to meet with him and to attend the meeting if he so desires. Speaker Pelosi was the keynote speaker at the Alabama Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner last year and Turnham has met the Speaker on a number of occasions.

“Speaker Pelosi is the first woman in American history to be elected US House Speaker. She is a Christian lady, a wife, a mother and devoted grandmother. She was the past Chair of the California Democratic Party. She does her job with passion and tenacity. While Congressman Rogers does not agree with her politics, she is not the evil person Congressman Rogers portrays her to be. Congressman Rogers cannot serve the people of Alabama effectively if he uses profane language to disparage the Speaker in this manner all while expressing the desire for more bi-partisanship in Washington. If Congressman Rogers will publically apologize to Speaker Pelosi for his unflattering remarks made about her at AUM this week, I will personally request that the Speaker meet with Congressman Rogers and discuss how he and the Speaker’s office can work more productively together.” Turnham said.

“You can’t call people names and then bemoan the fact they won’t work with you. I am willing to offer Congressman Rogers a way to work this out.” Turnham concluded.