The Invisible Congresswoman

What's remarkable about the Daily News coverage of Congresswoman Eshoo is how little attention is paid. You'd think having an office within a 5 minute walk from the paper would result in greater awareness. Joe Simitian gets attention by filching other people's ideas in order to pass new laws and reporters are dispatched to celebrate. Eshoo has to fly across country and feign interest in local matters with little fanfare.

Today a letter writer, Richard C. Placone, unintentionally embarasses the paper by calling attention to Congresswoman Eshoo. The writer wanted to point out how dastardly it was to pass the bit of legislation known as CAFTA because of what he feels is its negative effect on labor. Silicon Valley corporations saw CAFTA as a boon to local employees. Eshoo dithered over supporting CAFTA but ended up voting against it. This allowed her to be perceived as supporting labor while, at the same time, having no effect on the passage of the legislation her corporate backers wanted. Considering that two competing local special interests were in play you'd expect some newspaper scrutiny. How sweet it must be never be asked to account for difficult votes.