Palm Beach Post Endorses Rooney

July 27th, 2008 at 08:57pm Boru

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Sunday, July 27, 2008

To face Mahoney, Rooney

During strongly contested primaries, some candidates try to win by feeding red meat to the party base. But even within that tradition, the Republican primary for the 16th U.S. Congressional District turned up one particularly bloody bit.

Gayle Harrell, shrugging off the harsh treatment of foreign prisoners in U.S. custody, said, “When I see our people having their heads cut off on TV, I think that what happened at Abu Ghraib is very minor.” That’s macho. But it isn’t smart. Excesses by American soldiers at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were a successful recruiting tool for terrorists in Iraq and significantly set back U.S. efforts to improve our standing in the Muslim world. That comment alone is enough to disqualify Ms. Harrell, a state representative from Port St. Lucie who is term-limited out of office this year.

The other two candidates, Tom Rooney and Hal Valeche, took the more responsible position that torture could boomerang and harm U.S. troops who are captured. They agreed, as did Ms. Harrell, on a new bit of red meat du jour, that expanded drilling for oil and gas off Florida’s coast is OK. That’s a switch from past Republican positions but in line with Sen. John McCain and, lately, Gov. Crist.

Mr. Valeche is a Vietnam veteran, financier and former Palm Beach Gardens council member. He and Mr. Rooney, a lawyer whose family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Palm Beach Kennel Club, track similarly on many issues. But Mr. Rooney’s positions generally are more thoughtful and more in Florida’s interest. The Post recommends Mr. Rooney in the Aug. 26 primary. The winner will face Democratic incumbent Tim Mahoney. The district runs from central Palm Beach County north to St. Lucie and across the state to Charlotte County.

Mr. Rooney, bucking party nominee John McCain, supports Rep. Mahoney’s (a) bill to create a national catastrophic program to provide hurricane protection and reduce insurance rates in Florida. On immigration, Mr. Rooney says that while “we need to follow the rule of law” and “secure the borders,” agriculture needs “an accountable guest worker program.” On that, he’s in line with Sen. McCain. And he’s a pleasing departure from Ms. Harrell, whose own party wouldn’t give her politically crafted anti-immigrant bills a hearing.

Mr. Rooney notes that Republicans were “10 times worse” than Democrats on wasteful earmarks - budget items for individual lawmakers that didn’t get the normal scrutiny - and he vows to stick to Republican principles of lower spending. An Army veteran and a lawyer, Mr. Rooney says of the war in Iraq that “we are buying time for them in our blood” and that a timeline for Iraqis to take control “needs to be sooner rather than later.”

Mr. Rooney, in short, has been paying attention. He understands how the Republican Party lost credibility. He offers some red meat - this is a primary, after all - but he also offers solutions.

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