Our new Congressman for The Villages, Rich Nugent, had a "town hall meeting" at Laurel Manor Rec Center last summer. He had been in office for , what...7-8 months?

His message was crystal clear. First, that our fiscal crisis was real and immediate--not next decade or even next year, but an immediate problem right now!. He demonstrated with lots of charts and graphs.

His second message was also clear and more disturbing. He described a Congress where everyone knew what the problem was and what the array of solutions might be. But representatives from the two political parties were not only not negotiating with one another...they weren't even talking! He gave several examples of committees that he serves on where what was discussed in very short meetings was little morte than the talking points we hear on TV every day--no effort whatsoever to entgerf into productive conversation or negotiation to try to reach a mutually politically acceptable plan to address real problems.

I got to the meeting early and had the opportunity to spend time with Congressman Nugent alone for at least 20 minutes. He's a great guy with high-minded objectives. But in his own words he said that the Congress he became a part of was not at all what he expected. He said it was absolutely frozen with competing ideologies, strong desires not to make a mistake so as to be re-elected, and absolute hatred by the Republicans for President Obama.

At the time I said that I wouldn't be surprised if he decided not to run for even a second term. He seemed to be that discouraged. I was wrong on that point--he's running, although with only one badly underfunded opponent. Unfortunately, he hasn't made much of a difference in my mind. And he's accepted more than $100,000 in "campaign contributions" in just the first nine months of his term.

I'm very much afraid that Congressman Nugent has become a part of the Washington "establishment". As such, as much as I like the guy, he won't get my vote for re-election.