Thanks to a complaint filed against Morgan Griffith by Independent 9th District Congressional candidate Jeremiah Heaton to the Justice Department, you can see an example of what Griffith is really like. There are actually two videos at this link, the short and long version. I urge you to view the long version all the way to the end.
Check it out above or at Roanoke.com political blogs.Specifically, according to the article:
In the August 20, 2010 video, Morgan Griffith recounts a May 29th discussion he had with Jeremiah Heaton concerning future redistricting as it applies to the location of Griffith’s 6th district home. On the video, Morgan Griffith states the following:“You gotta bring 65,000 people in; I’m coming in. And Heaton actually said to me, ‘Can you guarantee it?’ and I said yes, and he looked at me kind of funny. I said if I am in Congress, my friends in the House are going to take care of me. If I’m not in Congress, I’m drawing the line. I can guarantee it.”
“He’s coming in (to the 9th), not by actually living here, but my magic line-drawing. Ironically, this week, Morgan Griffith launched a new ad in which he claims he is only “one foot” from the 9th district. Hahahah! It’s truly Palinesque. He probably thinks he can see Russia from his house too.
Watch the contortions he goes through to justify his supposed belonging in and running in our district. And his confidence in his ability to re-engineer the 9th District for his convenience (whether he is in Congress or not) and his long-winded and bizarre justification is reminiscent of “Felix” (aka George Felix Allen).
Here’s the thing. It is not that Griffith hasn’t played this game before. He and his buddies have already made one valiant attempt to rearranged the boundaries of the 9th and add enough Republican-leaning voters to make it more likely (they thought) that Boucher would loose. Oops! Boucher kept on winning. Yet, on the one hand, he’s acting as if but for the goofy redistricting lines, he’d be right in the district, but on the other hand, hello, Griffith, you drew the lines! Do you need an eraser?
In HoD and state Senate redistricting, Morgan Griffith drew the lines which gerrymandered Madison Marye and Jim Shuler out of their jobs. Only after some musical chairs and Creigh Deeds’ winning the late Emily Couric’s seat, was Shuler returned to his rightful, albeit incredibly re-arranged district. HoD Majority Leader Griffith used his best magic to make Shuler’s district snake (as slippery as Griffith himself) into the elongated mess that takes hours to traverse from one end to the other. It was re-arranged to make it impossible to easily meet and know voters. In other words, it was rigged to keep Jim Shuler or any democrat from every winning it again. The joke was on Morgan.
The upshot is that he isn’t in the 9th and he’s not by choice. He’s never done a thing for the 9th, but he shipped educational funding and more out of our district. His ongoing obstruction in Richmond shows what kind of a hypothetical Congressman he’d be. And hypothetical he’ll remain. (You really should watch Griffith in action at a redistricting hearing. Seriously!) There is much more to say about redistricting as it both affects and is a consequence of the election. Stay tuned for more on this important subject…
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