Editor, The Smithfield Times:

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner says “I’ve put a lot of points on the board” this term. Trouble is, he fouled out before this game, his term, was over, big time!

Instead of getting hung up in the phony Hillary-initiated Russiagate, he should have been paying attention to his constituents’ need, in this case America’s veterans. This includes Virginia citizens who took an oath to put “their all” on the line when called upon to do so.

Personally, eyeball to eyeball, I’d handed Warner a letter on veterans’ medical care shortfalls back in April 2015. Another letter was handed to him personally by me, eyeball to eyeball, in August 2015, on the veterans’ homelessness issue. Several telephone calls in the intervening period from then to November 2019, to his office (202-224-2023), got no response on these letters’ subjects, either.

At a Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce luncheon last November, lo and behold, there was Sen. Warner, along with several other political officeholders, giving us their ole sweet songs about their accomplishments. At engagement’s completion, a line formed to say whatever and shake their hands.

When I addressed Sen. Warner and mentioned these two hand-delivered letters, his face lit up, until I followed with, “I’m still waiting for the answers to my hand-delivered letters to you of 2015,” whereupon his jaw almost hit the floor and his face turned red. He never said he was sorry as I tarried a moment before moving on from “my/our” senator’s presence.

Caring about constituent issues and responding in a timely manner to important subjects addressed is a primary principle a legislator has to adhere to 100%. Regret to say Warner has just become another political “empty suit,” caught up in the D.C. swamp, “fouling out” before the game was over with us, his constituents. Yes, time has come for change. Dan Gade with one less extremity fills out a suit better than the incumbent politician Warner that we are stuck with — only until January, I pray.

 

Herb De Groft

Smithfield