web1_police-lights_1.jpg

Police: Shoplifters caught at Wilkes-Barre Kohl’s

web1_flowers.jpg

Justice Anthony Kennedy was ‘Catholic conservatives’ worst nightmare’ on the Supreme Court

<p>It was interesting to hear U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, the Republican Senate candidate running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, speak at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg on Monday.</p><p>Not that Barletta made news. He seemed intent on not doing so.</p><p>But he is, you may know, joined at the hip to Donald Trump. Yet he managed &#8212; despite their, well, adhesion &#8212; to plow through a 20-minute speech without mentioning the president.</p><p>A little odd, no?</p><p>Barletta, remember, is the former Hazleton mayor who drew national attention as a hardliner on illegal immigration a decade before Trump rode the issue into the Oval Office.</p><p>He was an early Trump supporter who co-chaired Trump&#8217;s Pennsylvania campaign. And Trump, in turn, touted Barletta as a &#8220;Great Republican&#8230;(who) will make a FANTASTIC Senator.&#8221;</p><p>Note the caps.</p><p>It&#8217;s likely Barletta wouldn&#8217;t be a candidate for Senate in 2018 were it not for Trump&#8217;s winning Pennsylvania in 2016.</p><p>So, you&#8217;d think a Barletta speech would tout Trump. On the economy, the tax cuts, peace efforts with North Korea, something. But no.</p><p>Barletta&#8217;s speech was about Barletta.</p><p>About his unsuccessful Major League Baseball tryout (couldn&#8217;t hit the curve), starting his own successful business (line-painting parking lots), getting elected mayor as a Republican in 2-1 Democratic Hazleton, and later to Congress in a 60 percent Democratic district.</p><p>OK, maybe he figures he needs to get his story out, given he&#8217;s running against a two-term incumbent with lots more money and a famous surname who&#8217;s appearing on a contested statewide ballot for the 10th time since 1996<ins> (losing just once; the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary to Ed </ins><ins>Rendell)</ins>.</p><p>Fair enough. But then he took shots at GOP-run Washington, where he&#8217;s been a member of Congress for seven years, saying, &#8220;Washington is broken.&#8221;</p><p>He noted that after members of Congress were shot during practice for a congressional baseball game last June, Congress &#8220;instantly&#8221; upped funding for its own security, while offering little but talk in response to school shootings.</p><p>He criticized congressional inability to repeal and replace Obamacare, noting the failure to offer an actual replacement.</p><p>He ended with, &#8220;It&#8217;s an honor to serve in Congress.&#8221; It didn&#8217;t sound like sarcasm.</p><p>Now, because press club luncheons include a Q&amp;A session, he couldn&#8217;t avoid Trump or the current uproar over immigration policy.</p><p>On both he demonstrated enough dexterity to suggest that even if he can&#8217;t hit the curve, he&#8217;d be pretty good at dodgeball.</p><p>Asked if there are any areas of Trump policy or practice with which he disagrees, he said, &#8220;Sure.&#8221;</p><p>He then spoke of promoting after-school programs, and how when an administration budget proposal sought to eliminate federal funding for same he got the funding restored, and how that won him &#8220;legislator of the year&#8221; honors from the National Parent Teacher Association.</p><p>But that was in 2016, before Trump was president. And while Barletta&#8217;s campaign says he also helped get after-school funding this year, the issue has more to do with annual administration/congressional budget spats than Trump. The last three administrations sought to reduce or eliminate the funding.</p><p>Barletta, however, did point to a &#8220;second area&#8221; of disagreement with Trump: &#8220;I believe the president should have a dog.&#8221;</p><p>Trump doesn&#8217;t. And apparently doesn&#8217;t want one.</p><p><ins>(Barletta&#8217;s retriever, Reilly, goes to work with the congressman and &#8220;endorsed&#8221; Barletta earlier this year.) </ins></p><p>Then Barletta, who initially supported, but then praised the recall of, the southern border child-separation policy, juked around a question of whether it was morally wrong and shouldn&#8217;t have happened.</p><p>He went with &#8220;nobody wants to see separations,&#8221; other administrations did it, Congress needs to change the law, and &#8220;there&#8217;s nothing good that comes from illegal immigration.&#8221; But he didn&#8217;t answer the question.</p><p>Not unusual. Lots of pols don&#8217;t answer questions.</p><p>But after hearing Barletta speak, and speak so little of his leader, my question is: Does he know something we don&#8217;t know?</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_baer.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_baer.jpg</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>John Baer</p><p>Guest Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>John Baer is a columnist Philadelphia Daily News</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Your View: Trump-blessed Barletta gives speech with no mention of Trump