Pantagraph to Weller: Abstain
The Pantagraph runs a strong editorial calling on Jerry Weller to abstain from the vote on CAFTA. Weller is married to Zury Rios Sosa, a Guatemalan lawmaker and the conflict of interest should be obvious.
However, it could look like his vote is influenced by his wife serving in the government of another country that is party to the pact.
We don’t know what kind of ethics laws Guatemala has or whether the Guatemalan Congress would vote on CAFTA. But it would seem Weller’s wife should excuse herself from a vote there, too.
Nearly a year ago, when Weller’s engagement to Rios Sosa became a campaign issue, Weller spokesman Telly Lovelace said, “If there is any obvious conflict of interest, Congressman Weller will do what’s appropriate.”
This is his first test.
The “appropriate” thing for him to do is sit out this vote
Where I disagree is what his first test was–shaving.
His second test was continuing his membership on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and continuing as Vice Chairman on that subcommittee.
His wife isn’t just any random lawmaker. She represents the Party of her father )(he founded the party) and when Rios Montt ran for President in 2003 (and the Bush administration admirably opposed him because of his genocidal history) Zury R?os Sosa spoke before him at rallies and serves in the Guatemalan Legislature under his party. During that campaign, the FRG Party rioted to have Rios Montt included in the vote after being banned for being the head of the 1982 coup.
And damn funny that her web site has her going by a different name:
http://www.zuryrios.com/: Zury Rios Montt.
Even more bizarre is that the majority of her adult career has been supporting the party of her father starting in 1989 when he founded the FRG:
1989-1990. Public Relations Secretary of the political party Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG) in the presidential campaign.
Weller has tried to say she isn’t her father, which in a strict sense is true, but everything about her career is about supporting her father, a genocidal dictator and political thug. He held up his hand with purple paint to signify his solidarity to the Iraqi people–too bad he has no such solidarity those in Guatemala who faced the same kind of persecution Saddam practiced.