Congressman shows true colors in Columbia Co. 'coup'

Once again U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., has shown his true colors.

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Recently he engineered a coup to stab Columbia County's Republican Chairman Alvin Starks in the back and oust him from office. Now that's a real accomplishment, since Mr. Starks is the only black conservative Republican in the Southeast.

Sort of a Trent Lott deal. And all this occurred while Mr. Norwood served on President George W. Bush's committee to get more blacks and minorities involved with the Republican Party.

On top of that achievement, Mr. Norwood has done nothing in the past six years to help military retirees and veterans with their health care, as was promised for 20 or more years of service, or as is the entitlement for those with a service-related disability.

He did support a package that uses Medicare and requires us to pay $58 per month for what was supposed to be free. There continues to be nothing for retirees under 65 despite Mr. Norwood's promises of the past six years to help us.

Mr. Norwood's accomplishments for his district have been a big zero also. He seems to have no concern for us.

Maybe the biggest complaint I hear is that Mr. Norwood and his local office staff are non-responsive and uncaring when it comes to problems. ...

In short, Mr. Norwood has been a failure for retirees, veterans and the residents of his home county. He needs to be gone as soon as possible so we can get a real leader and caring person as our representative instead of the ego-driven, non-performer currently filling the office.

Willis Clifton, Martinez, Ga.