John Barrow-- Losing Friends And Cooking His Own Goose Down In Georgia

Please allow me to introduce you to a delightful and passionate woman living in Savannah, Georgia, Dr. Barbara Allison-Simpson. A mutual friend told me that Barbara and I had something in common; both of us were angry that John Barrow had lied to us. In her case, he lied in her church. Barbara is the widow of a retired Navy submariner who lived in Hawaii for 19 years while he was stationed in Pearl Harbor and then moved back to Detroit where she studied and then worked as a Creative Problem Solving Consultant before earning her doctorate at United Theological Seminary in 2006 at which time she was Divinely inspired to move to Savannah. She serves on the ministerial staff of First African Baptist Church, the oldest Black congregation in North America which is in the oldest brick building constructed by enslaved Africans for enslaved Africans. She told me about her experience with John Barrow and I begged her to do a guest blog here at DWT. And she was fast.

Republican In A Blue Dog Coat

-by Dr. Barbara Allison-Simpson

Like many voters last fall, I hoped that Rep. John Barrow was serious when he pledged his support to the candidate Obama. Unfortunately at my church, First African Baptist Church, his pledge proved worthless. He traveled throughout the black church community in Savannah and Chatham County praising candidate Obama who in turned endorsed John Barrow before the 2008 election. Because his Chatham Democratic supporters had no information about his previous voting record or his 2009 voting record, he did not hold any public town hall meetings in Savannah or Chatham county nor did the local Democratic leadership confront him on his lack of support for President Obama's initiatives, the community-- and I include myself-- were clueless that Barrow lied to us in church.

On Tuesday. September 1, 2009, A number of citizens who supported health care reform met at Barrow's Savannah office in support of health care reform. Several were there because they were concerned with how their correspondences to Barrow might have been misinterpreted based on the written response a number of persons had received. One citizen sent a letter about health care reform but didn't mention the public option and the response was a fulsome thanks for supporting his opposition to the public option! Some others had sent e-mails supporting health care reform and the responses they received didn't mention health care reform at all. Although the congressman was in the office, he never came out to greet his constituents. One lone staff person-- looking like a deer in the headlights-- received a barrage of complaints, concerns, and petitions. Having once been a volunteer in Congressman John Conyers Jr. office working on constituent problems, I was shocked by Barrow's insensitivity to Savannah supporters.

On Wednesday, September 2, 2009, I attended an invitation only town hall meeting for Rep. Barrow sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce here in Savannah. Remember, he was re-elected as a Democrat on the commitment that he would support candidate Barack Obama's health care reforms. But he didn't keep his word. In fact, it was even worse than that. He boasted about the seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee stalling the passage of the health care reform. Republicans call it obstructing; Blue Dogs call it stalling... but it amounts to the same thing-- hundreds of American citizens without health insurance or health care needlessly dying in the richest country in the history of the world. He talked about how he and the other six Blue Dogs raised the minimum requirement income for business owners to provide employees with health insurance from $100,000 to $700,000. He had tried to raise it to $900,000 and when he couldn't, he voted against the Frankenstein bill he helped mold. He also told us that his focus was only on the 85% Americans with health insurance-- here in GA-12 there are 114,00 John Barrow constituents without health insurance-- and he didn't think the insurance companies had been given a fair chance. Sunday's Savannah Morning News pointed out that the Democratic base is growing restless with the game Barrow has been playing.

Liberals consider his misgivings about the pending Democratic bill in the House a betrayal of progressive ideals.

There are rumblings about a challenge in next year's Democratic primary... [and there's an] alternative scenario from the left: Legions of folks disgusted with Barrow stay home in the general election and let a Republican win.

Early last month Patrick Rodgers did a lengthy interview with Barrow for ConnectSavannah which explains why Barrow has become a "thorn in the president's side on the issue of health care reform"-- and why he has managed to displease just about everyone on all sides of the issue. His answers are a portrait of a non-leader who stands for nothing and shows neither principles nor values-- just a strategy for getting re-elected.