While I have been busy meeting with many of you this past week at events in the community, I have been asked to weigh in on the recent public feud between two of our Minnesota representatives.
I have been reluctant to do so, because as I have said many times along the campaign trail, I believe the Fifth Congressional District is lacking focused attention from our representation.
Once again we have witnessed Keith Ellison engage in a bitter fight over an issue that is of no significance in the daily lives of the constituents of the Fifth Congressional District.
This week’s very public back-and-forth with Representative Bachmann is yet more proof that Keith Ellison is incapable of focusing and delivering solutions. He has failed to focus on the fact that Minneapolis is home to the largest achievement and unemployment gaps between black and white constituents in the entire country. Instead of working to solve these issues, Keith is engaged in yet another high profile attention-seeking fight.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee Representative Bachmann plays a unique role in the oversight of our country’s intelligence agencies. Ellison, on the other hand, is not a member of the Intelligence Committee. And despite his assertions on the Al McFarlane radio show, he isn’t a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee either. Therefore, he had no real reason to get involved in this issue. This is just another way for Keith to grab headlines at the expense of the people of the district he was elected to represent.
Much can be said about the manner in which Representative Bachmann voiced her concerns. However one thing that is clear is that Representative Bachmann takes her duties as a member of the Intelligence Committee seriously.
On the other hand, Keith Ellison simply is not concerned about his duties on the Financial Services Committee. If he were, we would not have so many foreclosures and families devastated by this economy.
Keith should consider a job as a host on MSNBC if he wants to continue to bloviate about issues that don’t affect the lives of people in his district.
Our district deserves focused, attentive leadership. Our economy is in shambles, we need more jobs, and our education system is failing our students.
If I elected I will focus on the issues that matter to the residents of the Fifth District. I will provide the focused leadership and attention our district needs to move forward.
ABOUT: Chris Fields is the alternative to Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District. Chris is a retired combat veteran who honorably served his country for more than 21 years in the United States Marine Corps. His message of reform, responsibility, and accountability is encouraging people from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions to Come Together to support a leader that will make real and tangible changes to a broken political system.
Find Chris online at ChrisFieldsForCongress.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ChrisFieldsForCongress, and on Twitter at @FieldsFor5thCD.
ROFLOL!!!! Seriously, can't make that up.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again..." As an independent living in the district, I have been completely turned off by your negative campaigning and daily smearing of Keith Ellison, while you yourself have proposed virtually no policy positions or new ideas since running for office. All you ever do is fall back on your biography of being a retired Marine and growing up poor in the Bronx, and then stating you could do a better job than Keith. I think and hope most voters are smart enough to see through your smoke and mirrors. Minneapolis is a place where people care about each other. It will be a cold day in hell when they elect a smooth talking snake like you into public office. My vote will be going to Keith this November.
Also, please note one specific "smear" against Keith Ellison made by Chris Fields.
You might want to take the bass out of your voice, because I don’t think you know who your talking to. Your responses proves my point. Chris and his supporters can not win this race on the issues, so instead all you do is attack Keith. Before I go down your rabbit hole how about you first address what I said? Name me three policy positions that Chris Fields has, ie., what would he do if he was in charge? I will not anwser any of your questions until this is done. And I don’t want to hear some vague Republican BS about cutting taxes, and reducing regulations, etc. Give me something real and tangiable. Also, there is a difference between misspeaking and lying Jim. Keith may have misspoke about the name of the committee he was on, but what he was trying to articulate was that he works on issues relating to foreign policy matters (you are aware that congressmen are not mayors right? They work on all kinds of issues). Just like when President Obama misspoke a few days ago with his “you didn’t build that” remark. Republicans took that way out of context and ran with it. Oh, one last thing Jim. The burden of proof is on your side. Everyone knows you guys won’t get over 30% of the vote. You guys have to prove to us why we should change our minds. And based on what I’ve seen so far, that surely isn’t going to happen.
Keith is on the Banking Committee. He is on no other committees. And when Chris pointed out that he was spending too much time on issues outside his district, Keith justified that with lying by saying he should be focusing on foreign affairs because he was on the Foreign Affairs committee. I don't believe for a second that Keith Ellison "misspoke". He lied.
Adopt the “Chilean Model” for Social Security, which creates individual social security accounts. We can end the days of politicians using our own hard-earned money to bribe and scare us. Customize Medicaid and countless other federal spending programs that aid low-income families: We can accomplish this by allowing the states to collect the needed revenue to run their own programs. Programs designed and managed by state and local agencies stand a better chance of being effective. Create a more competitive environment for Medicare: In order for Medicare to be sustainable, we must have tort reform, the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, thus increasing competition. Medicare, along with other entitlement programs, must be means tested.
Oh the Chilean Model, that's a brilliant idea. With such a stable stock market, we would be fools not to do this! Let's privatize everything while were at it. Everything should be for profit. Just like Chuck e Cheese. Yes, lets also allow the states to do whatever they want with people's healthcare. Minnesota could become just like Texas, where a quarter of the population doesn't have health insurance! Luckily Obamacare is stepping in to end this madness. Tort reform only accounts for about 2% of medical expenses, nice try. Buy health insurance across state lines? Will this really lower costs or just put more money into the pockets of the insurance companies? Will this provide coverage for all people, or will sick people and children be denied insurance coverage? Which essentially means they are SOL or can visit the ER once it's too late? Will buying insurance across state lines prevent medical bankruptcy like instate health insurance does? Oh yes, give the power back to the state? That's just a Republican cop out for not taking responsibilities. Just pass the buck off to the guy below you...
Chris F" Patch's Terms of Use (http://fridley.patch.com/terms) says: "We encourage, but do not require, that the user name you provide be your real name." Under our Terms of Use, users agree not to post content that "is inaccurate, false or misleading in any way." I appreciate satire as much as the next person, maybe more. But at Patch, please go about it some other way than by adopting someone else's name as your user name.
I just refuse to buy into Chris Fields' notion that everything that ever went wrong is because of Keith Ellison. Instead of telling people what he would do different, he spends 90% of his time trying to bring down Keith. His negativity is nauseating. This is not the trait of a leader.
So your idea to clean up Washington is to let the fringe players like Bachman run the show...as a former marine, you should stand up when people are being falsely accused of things like this -- you are turning a blind eye to this for your politcal ambitions...shame, shame on you. CP