The art of saying nothing

My congressman Scott Murphy sent me a four-paragraph letter last week, I guess in response to my e-mailing and calling his office last year to protest his votes against the Stupak amendment and health-care bill. (Murphy, a Democrat, was one of a tiny minority of representatives who voted against both Stupak and the final bill, in both cases voting the opposite way from bipartisan Republican Rep. Anh Cao.)

In graf one, he lets me know "how much I appreciate having the benefit of your views." He keeps buttering me up in graf two, saying "Listening to civically active citizens like you makes this task [in Congress] much easier." In graf three it's "Thank you again for contacting me, and I encourage you to call my office if you would like to discuss this issue further." The trouble is, at no point in the letter does he indicate what the issue is, or even that we do not see eye-to-eye on it, and I don't relish haranguing some staffer about this despite the congressman's invitation to do so. Graf four winds up thus: "Please do not hesitate to contact my office again if I can be of any further assistance."

Actually, Scott, you didn't provide any assistance. At least this communication from him wasn't full of last year's phony fighting spirit, but it does include this formidable cliche: "As a Member of Congress, I have to make tough decisions every day." Maybe he'll end up backing Obama's new health-care proposal, since its abortion language follows the Senate bill rather than the more restrictive Stupak language of the House measure, and the president's plan would ladle some more gravy New York's way. But I bet any "tough decision" Murphy makes will be designed to appease powerful interest groups and come out of a close reading of opinion polls.  

Comments

[Hank Fox]

Nah. I wrote him a three-page letter lambasting him for voting against the health care bill, and got the same shit.

He's a smooth-looking prick. Gutless, brainless, feathering his bed on the lives of others.

[Brian]

Murphy's always been a master of saying nothing in as many words as possible, ever since the campaign. I've noticed that the higher up you get in the political food chain, the more non-answers you get. The best, most detailed responses to letters I've always gotten from local pols and state legislators. They obviously weren't always persuaded but they typically responded to specific points in my letter, rather than just being a generic response to a generic (insert issue) letter.

[Matthew]

W/ as much double-speak as Murphy is involved in, you'd think that he was a lawyer prior to becoming a member of Congress.

When the House voted for Health Care, he managed to be in favor it & not be in favor of & explained how he was still in favor it despite voting not in favor of it (all in the same press release).

I guess he's an avid practicationer of "if you cannot dazzle them w/ brillance, bewilder them w/ BS."