Al Weed Responds to Frank Ruff

Found on the Farmville Herald’s Letters to the Editor Page tonight:

Is The 5th District Waking Up To Goode?

Editor, The Herald:

State Senator Frank Ruff (R-Clarksville) recently expressed "amazement" that I would suggest that Mr. Goode has done anything wrong in the MZM affair.

Many around the nation have been critical of our Congressman's apparent ethical indifference, and they have good reason to wonder. How can Mr. Goode suggest that he was "shocked and amazed" that the contributions were illegal?

Senator Ruff talks about Mr. Goode's thirty years in politics as a virtue. If he is such a seasoned politician, he should know better. MZM was the largest contributor to his campaign, he helped them get lucrative contracts the Pentagon didn't want, and they did not have to sign a performance bond leaving Martinsville and Henry County potentially to hold the bag. Then many MZM employees, all of whom live outside of the district, magically give him maximum contributions. And we are expected to believe that he was fooled by MZM? Perhaps he was, but it is certainly right, in our democracy, to question a foolish Congressman.

All across the nation Congressmen are working to get new jobs in districts hurt by globalization, yet only Mr. Goode and Ms. Harris (R-FL) felt that MZM should pay them for these jobs. I guess a $160,000 annual salary is not enough.

Senator Ruff said that he finds "it truly amazing" that I would attack Mr. Goode's morals, when all I've suggested is that I'm saddened that Mr. Goode thinks so little of us to claim that he did nothing wrong. We have to wonder, though, why the Republicans have so quickly jumped to defend Mr. Goode? Is it my published comments, or the sounds of the 5th District waking up?

Al Weed