For The House of Representatives: NYPols Endorses Hall, Lowey and Engel

In our opinion, voters should have one overriding thought when they enter the polls on Tuesday. It is time to put up a roadblock for President Bush. Time to save him from himself. And to save ourselves!

The policies of the Bush administration have led this country down a dark and dangerous path. A path that takes away human rights and puts justice in the hands of one man - the chief executive.

Bush and the go-along GOP Congress have put the needs and desires of their big-business, big-religion bankrollers in the forefront, while the rest of us work longer days at lower-paying jobs with no health coverage, or at best health coverage that we are paying through the nose for.

The environment is taking a beating and calls for research into new, renewable, earth-friendly energy sources are ignored while Bush's buddies in the oil industy rake in record profits and melt the solar ice caps.

Though they may be starting to realize they've been played for fools by Bush's GOP, leaders of the religious right have much too much influence on what happens in Washington. They've turned the party of laissez-fair and small government into the party of Terry Schiavo and gay bashers.

Most importantly, Bush and the GOP go-alongers in Congress have gotten us hopelessly lost in Iraq - fighting a war that had nothing to do with terrorism while we lose ground in Afghanistan, the war that should have been fought to its conclusion instead. We are killing and being killed at alarming rates, and for what? We're in so deep now in Iraq it's hard to see our way out. We helped bring about the Hell that is today's Iraq and we have no idea, and no real desire, to make things better there.

It is time, on Tuesday, for Americans to finally let Bush and the GOP go-alongers know unequivocally that they have had enough. They can do that by throwing out the GOP go-alongers and giving the legislative branch the power to check our imperial president.

Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel are hard-working, effective veteran representatives who deserve a chance to show what they can do as part of a majority party. Lowey's opponent, Richard Hoffman, would walk the Bush/GOP line, while Engel's challenger James Faulkner is a kind of John Sperncer -light.

Which brings us to the only local House race that seems to be up for grabs on Tuesday, the 19th District race between incumbent Republican Rep. Sue Kelly and Democratic challenger John Hall.

Nowhere can you find a better example of where this country has been in the past six years and where it should be headed in the future.

Yes, Sue Kelly has bucked her party on occaision on environmental issues. But she has proposed nothing like the 30-plus page, sweeping overhaul of the nation's energy policy that Hall released this spring. A plan that would save our environment, eliminate the danger of that creaky old nuclear power plant that is sitting on our doorstep and provide quality, high-paying jobs for New Yorkers in the alternative energy field.

On the war, tax cuts for the richest, college loans and the many other issues that really matter to voters in the lower Hudson Valley, Sue Kelly has been the consummate GOP go-alonger.

We need new ideas in Congress. And new priorities. John Hall offers both.

We say vote for Hall, Lowey and Engel for Congress and let the 'other guys' show us what they can do!