Lankford: "Davis Ducks Decision"
In a statement release today, Tennessee Fourth District Congressional Candidate Monty Lankford lambasted Congressman Lincoln Davis for refusing to stand up and endorse a candidate for President.
"The voters deserve to know who their Congressman supports for President," said Lankford. "I've made it clear that I fully support the Republican nominee John McCain, but who does Mr. Davis support? Does Mr. Davis support liberal, pro-choice, anti-gun Illinois Senator Barack Obama or liberal, pro-choice, anti-gun New York Senator Hillary Clinton? Is Mr. Davis afraid to tell us which liberal he supports because it exposes just how much he supports liberal causes in Washington, and further, just how much he has "gone Washington" since being elected nearly six years ago?"
Lincoln Davis is one of a dwindling number of Democratic "Superdelegates" to the National Democratic Convention not pledged to any candidate, even though Sen. Clinton won the Tennessee Primary and the 4th Congressional District on "Super Tuesday," February 5th.
"If Lincoln Davis can't make a decision as easy as this, why should we trust him to make the tough decisions for us in Congress? As our campaign builds momentum, Mr. Davis is having more and more trouble balancing his liberal tendencies in Washington with his conservative sounding words in Tennessee, apparently limiting his willingness to tell us where he stands on important issues that affect all of us."
"Recently, Davis was the only House member who voted present' on the FISA bill," Lankford explained, "which was important legislation to keep Americans safe from terrorists. He's wrong if he thinks he can dodge the big issues," Lankford said.
Davis, a self-described "Blue Dog" Democrat Member of Congress, wrote his Washington leader, liberal San-Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi, a letter on January 28, 2008, claiming that the FISA legislation was "satisfactory" and he "would fully support that measure should it reach the House floor without substantial change." But when decision time came on whether to vote against the terrorists and for the safety and security of our Tennessee families Lincoln Davis refused to even take a position, withdrawing his support and voting present.'"
"By withdrawing his support for the FISA bill and casting the craven vote of present,' Mr. Davis refused to stand up to the terrorists and was unwilling to stand up for the safety and security of our Tennessee families in an apparent concern of upsetting or offending his liberal leader Nancy Pelosi and various liberal special interest groups."
"Lincoln Davis can't duck these decisions forever. At some point he has to take a stand, and decide where his loyalties lie - with liberal Washington interests or with us."
Monty Lankford and his wife, Shalia, live on a farm in Franklin and have five grown children and five grandchildren. Growing up in a family of preachers, Monty worked his way through Free Will Baptist Bible College as a welder. He founded his own company, TLC Medical, a medical supply company, in 1996. TLC Medical currently has 12 locations across Tennessee, 5 of which are in the Fourth District, serving thousands of patients and employing approximately 50 people.