I remember a sense of excitement when Barry Goldwater said in 1964 that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. At the time, many of us were unsure what it meant, but it sounded new and exciting.

Now what we’ve seen during the past two years is the extremism of saying “no” to any compromise, which has brought a halt to much of the work of our Congress. In refusing to listen to and work with other elected representatives, the Tea Party congressmen look surprisingly like kids before they get into kindergarten.

Would Matthew Doheny add to this stoppage of the people’s business in our House? I’ve listened to him, but I’m just not sure what he’d do for you and me. He seems clever at his Wall Street job, but that is far from my life.

Bill Owens isn’t perfect, but he has a background bringing jobs to Northern New York. I think Bill did his best to renew the Farm Bill, which has serious impact on local dairy farmers and on our neighbors who need food stamps.

In a recent talk at Jefferson Community College, your reporter quoted Bob Deans as saying that during the last 18 months, when Republicans controlled our House, it voted hundreds of times to “undermine common sense safeguards” for the sustainable protection of our environment by tossing aside earlier bipartisan protection.

Mr. Doheny may zigzag over to join these relentless Tea Party radicals. We have seen that Bill Owens can be trusted to protect our environment as he works for all of us.

Warren L. Allen

Watertow

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