OC Weekly: Learning to love Loretta Sanchez . . . mmm, maybe not

[question everything]

July 23 - 29, 2004

Coming Up Roses

by Nadia Afghani

Two years back, during simpler times of Patriot Acts and warrantless raids, the OC Peace Coalition found itself on the thorns of a dilemma: Should these gentle, peace-loving dirty hippies reward Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s opposition to the Iraq war with a bouquet of roses? Or not? They were torn.

The Garden Grove Democrat’s views on the war are evident. As a ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, she has called the present condition in Iraq a "classic guerrilla-type war" and has publicly questioned the president’s and the secretary of Defense’s "refus to characterize it as such." She has criticized the administration’s determination to "downplay the gravity of this situation." She has even used her allotted time on the committee to grill military officials—such as then-CENTCOM commander General Tommy R. Franks—on Army tactics in Iraq.

While they liked her anti-war stance on Iraq, they loathed her contradictory position of "favoring massive, wasteful ‘defense’ spending," Gordon Johnson of OC Peace recalls. Some claimed that "on a few issues she has been okay," but disputed the necessity of gifting a government official for "doing precisely what is expected." Then there was painful memory: a Sanchez staffer had once dismissed local peaceniks as "silly, know-nothing crackpots."

Sanchez, the 44-year-old, 47th District representative, is a self-proclaimed "working-class indigenous Mexican," though she’s Lynwood born and Anaheim bred, and married to a rich man whose last name is Brixey. Given that, it may come as little surprise she’s legendary in political circles for her Leonard Zelig-like ability to change positions on almost any issue, a quality that has frustrated supporters and critics who can’t seem to pin her down. Her flip-flopping has made enemies of people who ought to be her friends—call them frenemies: veterans, ravers and the ACLU. Despite this, even longtime skeptics have admired her more recent—and unwavering—opposition to the war.

More..

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/46/news-afghani.php

[Syrinx]

1. she's not perfect

But a huge improvement over "B-1" Bob Dornan.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. She has to keep her seat...

In OC. And she's a Dem. Man, cut the poor woman a little slack. OC is one beaucoup weird place, kinda like Oklahoma West.

[question everything]

5. They did

I think that during the first primaries Loretta beat the other person who was less flashy, not a Republican who switched parties because it was more expeditious and the OC Weekly supported the rival.

Hey, that's politics but one can at least hope for some who care and not just opportunists, even if they wear the same school tie.

[genius]

3. The staffer sounds like Alicia

Alicia is somewhere to the far right of Zell Miller.

[genius]

4. Delete

[Albert Einstein]

7. No. Zell Miller is much more liberal than Alicia.

She's Bush's best friend in the Democratic Party.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Major inaccuracy in this article

She is not a "ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee." She is pretty low down on the HASC totem pole.