BREAKING NEWS: A Conservative Does the Right Thing

by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

The question is: what took him so long?

McClatchy reports on Conservative Republican Rep. Devin Nunes' decision to vote for a global AIDS relief package:

Conservative U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., joined some of his most liberal colleagues in the House of Representative on a recent trip to Africa. What he saw there changed him, at least a little.

Struck by the unrelenting poverty in a South African slum, Nunes this week joined Democrats in supporting a $50 billion global AIDS relief package. Most of his fellow Republicans opposed the bill

While it is nice that Rep. Nunes did not side with his craven and cold-hearted Republican colleagues, I have to wonder why it took a trip to Africa for this guy to do the right thing.  Can he only contemplate suffering when he sees it up close and personal? 

For the past thirty years, AIDS has been a worldwide health care crisis and African poverty has been a problem for far longer than that.  Where has Rep. Nunes been during this time?  Has he never read an article or seen a news report on the devastating effects of AIDS and poverty?  Has he never had a constituent who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS?  Is there no poverty in his district?

I do not like patting people on the back for doing the right thing, so, I will just say this to Rep. Nunes: welcome to the human race, my friend.

Danny
Communications Director