Feb. 16, 2007
 
EDITORIAL: Capito Has Her Cake, Eats It, Too, and Then Some
 
When it comes to Iraq, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito is engaging in the kind of artful dodging that made her father a legend. Somehow, though, she just isn't as smooth as the old man. If she has aspirations for statewide office, she's going to have to treat the public with more respect than to think we can't see through malarkey when it is flaunted in our faces.
 
Capito sliced it about as thinly as one can in a floor speech during in the House of Representatives yesterday as she made "clear" that, while she still opposes President Bush's new surge of troops in Iraq, she cannot vote for a House resolution that says...exactly what she believes.
 
Come again, Congresswoman Capito? Which is it now: yea or nay?
 
Capito's tortured reasoning is that, while she agrees with the content of the resolution, she fears that the Democrats may see it as a first step towards taking away funding from existing troops in the field.
 
Nevermind that the resolution nowhere states such a thing. Moreover, nobody is saying that Capito has to sign on to any further resolution or action by the Democrats if she finds sound cause to reject such future actions.
 
So we are left with a Congresswoman who was given credit for having the courage of her convictions, even to the point of standing up to the man who got her elected, only to now see her slink away and hope nobody notices.
 
But of course we do notice such blatant hypocrisy and cowardice. In the future, when Congresswoman Capito backpedals furiously like this again, we hope she will tip us off by wearing a bright yellow dress.