Tulsi Gabbard was present. While the rest of the U.S. House of Representatives was neck-deep in fiery debate, and taking a stand on the monumental issue of impeaching a sitting president, one of Hawaii’s two representatives showed up but didn’t say anything and didn’t pick a side.
Tulsi Gabbard was present for the vote, but abstained from voting.
Did she reach out to her constituents way back here in the middle of the Pacific to see if that’s what they wanted her to do?
Has she ever?
Being present is pretty much the most and best representation Hawaii has had from her in a long time. Much of this year, she didn’t even bother to show up in Congress, let alone among the little people in Hawaii, though she’s careful to make the obligatory, calculated photo ops. She’s been too busy courting Fox News stardom and national news headlines by being the high-gloss contrarian and the fly in the Democrat’s ointment.
During Wednesday’s historic proceedings, while most of the members of Congress gave passionate speeches about why they were planning to vote one way or another, Gabbard said nothing. Afterward, she released a statement about her non-action action, framing it as some sort of wise, golden moment of her singular superiority:
“So today, I come before you to make a stand for the center, to appeal to all of you to bridge our differences and stand up for the American people …. My vote today is a vote for much needed reconciliation and hope that together we can heal our country.”
If Gabbard truly saw a different option that she believed to be better than impeach-or-don’t-impeach, then she should have acted like a leader and a consensus builder and talked some colleagues into seeing it her way. That is not Gabbard’s style, though. She is not a deal broker nor a team builder. She’s a blindly ambitious solo operator who has no interest in deals or teams. Her main focus has been to stick her face into the spotlight by saying ostentatious stuff and to snatch headlines by finding a way to drop in on the wave of big news stories. If a big national story was happening back here at home, she’d find a way to fly back and be quoted. (Oh hey, and there she was on the Mauna ….)
The November elections can’t come soon enough for the district that sent Gabbard to Congress not knowing that it was all a rung on her ladder to … what, exactly? Her ambition is so vast that it doesn’t seem to have any one target, just a generalized goal of political celebrity.
Gabbard has said that she will not seek reelection to her House seat, so Hawaii has a chance to put someone in the second congressional district who will actually serve the district rather than his or her own self-interests, someone who will take a stand rather than strike a pose.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
