Columns

    Giddy. That’s the word I’m hearing that best describes the way right-wingers have been acting since last week’s media storm about the three “scandals” supposedly plaguing the Obama administration.
    The president’s enemies, so utterly unable to bring Barack Obama down at the polls, now appear to think that they finally have something they can use against him.

    Though 1,200 miles away, the devastation Moore, Okla., suffered Monday gripped our hearts right here in Bedford as we watched in anguish as the tragedy unfolded before us in television reports, photographs and homemade videos.
    And what was left in the wake of the two-mile wide tornado proved horrifying:

In what many may consider a surprise for such a conservative area of Virginia, Republican primary voters here not only rejected a tea party activist and two religious crusaders, they chose a nominee for state delegate who’d helped raise taxes.
    Right here, no less, in the state House’s 19th district, which includes Bedford County, Botetourt supervisor Terry Austin won the Republican nomination to succeed retiring delegate Lacey Putney.

By Congressman Robert Hurt

This past week, the Department of Labor issued the latest unemployment report indicating that 7.5 percent of Americans who are looking for work still cannot find a job. And as I traveled across the 5th District this week, from Pittsylvania County to Fauquier, it is clear that policies handed down from Washington are continuing to burden our families, farmers, and small businesses.