Davis touts need for individuality in government
HUNTSVILLE — Congressman Lincoln Davis touched on a number of issues during a two-hour stopover at the city municipal building here Thursday, including rising fuel costs and veterans’ benefits, but the political climate in Washington was the Pall Mall native’s main message to constituents.
In an election year where presidential candidates’ ability — or lack thereof — to unite the nation has been a major topic, Davis said that politicians owe it to the American people to consider each issue according to its merit, and to not vote a certain way simply because the issue is a conservative issue or a liberal issue.
Davis, who owns a construction company in his native Fentress County and has served at every level of government after beginning as mayor of Byrdstown, mentioned the agenda of several U.S. presidents through the years — from Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to Republican Ronald Reagan — and said that each had a vision to make America better. It’s time for the next president, he said, to set similar goals.
“It’s my hope that after the next president is sworn in, whoever that might be, that they will use the presidential shield in front of them as a pulpit for education, healthcare, national security and other important issues,” he said.
Davis touts himself as a “conservative member of the Blue Dog Coalition,” a group of 48 moderate-to-conservative Democrats that includes such notable Congressmen as Jim Cooper from Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District and former University of Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler of North Carolina. It is that ability to represent from the middle that better enables government at a time when Congress “as a whole isn’t doing what the people of this country want them to do,” he said.
“We need to look at each issue that comes before us as an independent thinker,” Davis said. “Not as a Democrat or a Republican or a liberal or a conservative.
“I’ve got a 49.5% liberal rating and a 50.5% conservative rating. That means I’m 100% right,” he joked. “If you have a liberal or a conservative rating above 65%, and if you’re voting straight down the line left or right, it’s my opinion that you’re voting for someone else’s agenda.
“I’m not bound by someone else’s philosophical beliefs, liberal or conservative,” Davis added. “I think we all need to ask our elected representatives to be that way, and our country will be better for it.”
Fielding questions from constituents on a variety of topics, Davis spoke boldly about the issue of rising oil prices.
“If I were president, I’d go to Saudi Arabia and say, ‘Listen, we saved you from a dictator named Saddam Hussein. We need some oil,’” he said. “And I’d go to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and say, ‘You’ve got big oil reserves and we saved you from conquest. We need some help.’ I’d go to other countries that have oil reserves who we’ve helped and ask them to start producing and say, ‘This isn’t a request. It’s a demand. Or otherwise you can start taking care of your own problems.’”
Davis is toying with the idea of running for Tennessee’s gubernatorial seat to succeed fellow Democrat Phil Bredesen in 2010, going so far as to unofficially announce his intention last year. If he officially enters the race, he may be forced to seek his party’s nomination against former Memphis Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. Ford, whose Senatorial campaign Davis managed in 2006, is said to be interested in the governor’s chair as well.