Roskam shows how Washington's broken

Want to know what's wrong with Washington? Listen to Peter Roskam in your Sept 30 article by Melissa Silverberg. Roskam called for a meeting of the GOP house caucus Tuesday Sept. 29 to discuss goals when electing a new speaker after John Boehner's stunning resignation.

Monday he told a reporter that one goal is House Republicans "need to be more rhetorically aggressive against the administration." In his letter Wednesday announcing he's out of the running for any leadership positions he reiterated that position, writing he hopes the candidates for speaker "will outline a plan for how we can more aggressively assert our Article 1 authority against the Administration, and also how we can be more provocative in our challenges so as to command more of the narrative of these debates." In other words he wants Republicans in the U.S. Congress to ramp up the criticism of the Obama administration in order win more of the twenty four hour news cycles.

He said "being more aggressive might be helpful - in moving along, not stopping the business of lawmaking. If those hard-liners "know you are fighting," then "if you make a suggestion that the next move is incremental" then they may accept taking those smaller steps. Apparently Roskam thinks if the next speaker is especially vitriolic like Ted Cruz he can get away with accomplishing little of the Tea Party's agenda better than Boehner. No wonder Roskam isn't running for the job.

Politicians like Roskam and the rest of the GOP make no bones about it, they view their most important job as opposing Obama. Not working across the aisle or even among themselves to craft legislation that helps the American people and businesses. That's what's wrong with Washington and the Republican Party no longer even tries to hide it.

Mark Garrity

Downers Grove