At "Congress At Your Corner" events and other meet-and-greets this week, Congressman Jerry McNerney has taken time to talk directly with constituents about the issues that concern them the most. As the New York Times reports in Sunday's edition, the subject of Iraq is often a hot topic.
Times reporter Jesse McKinley writes about how various congressional leaders are addressing the war as they interact with constituents in their district, leading off the article with a vignette of Congressman McNerney's visit to a coffee shop in Brentwood a few days ago:
It took less than a week for Representative Jerry McNerney to discover that Congressional recess is not always a recess.
Like other representatives, Mr. McNerney went home to his district early this month during Congress’s spring break, a working vacation that often amounts to a two-week marathon of hand-shaking, baby-kissing and question-answering. That is particularly true for freshmen like Mr. McNerney, a Democrat from a district east of San Francisco, who found himself quizzed on his pre-break vote to set an August 2008 deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
“It’s the president’s job to be commander in chief,” said Myra Harrison, 83, during a meet-and-greet in a coffee shop in Brentwood, a Bay Area suburb. “Congress isn’t supposed to micromanage wars.”
After several other jabs from Ms. Harrison, Mr. McNerney responded. “We gave him everything he wanted plus more,” he said, his voice rising. “And we want something back. And he’s going to have to be willing to work with us or he’s going to have a problem on his hands.” Most of the assembled kaffeeklatsch broke into applause.
McKinley ends the article by circling back to McNerney's response to a question about how constituents address his vote for the recent supplemental funding bill that set benchmarks and a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq:
Mr. McNerney, meanwhile, said he had heard both praise and scorn for his vote, not surprisingly. His district, which sprawls over four counties, includes liberal enclaves near San Francisco and more conservative areas to the east. Mr. McNerney in November defeated Richard W. Pombo, a powerful Republican incumbent.
“The ones that are vocal tend to be like, ‘What gives you the right to tell the president to end the war?’” Mr. McNerney said, shaking hands outside a wind-raked rail station on Wednesday. “But when I give them a strong answer, I usually get some cheers.”
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