Zeldin is Not Bipartisan, Hides Behind Bogus Ranking

DAVID FRIEDMAN, ST. JAMES, Feb. 10, 2021—ANY claim that Rep. Lee Zeldin is “seeking to prevent further national division during this volatile time” is just not true.

On the very day Joe Biden was inaugurated calling for unity and bipartisanship, Rep. Zeldin blasted out an email attacking the new President’s “radical agenda” and ranting about “power-hungry elites on the far left.” This is not the rhetoric of someone trying to prevent division.

One of the first groups Rep. Zeldin met with after he entered congress in 2015 was The Oath Keepers. This is the same fringe group founded by a man who had already called John McCain a “traitor” who should be “hung by the neck until dead.” The same heavily armed group now identified by federal authorities as being in the thick of the insurrectionist mob that ransacked the Capitol and threatened to murder the Vice President and members of Congress. This is not the company kept by someone seeking bi-partisanship.

After the insurrectionist mob was finally cleared out of the Capitol by police officers, one of whom was already fatally injured at its hands, Rep. Zeldin unashamedly voted to nullify millions of votes in two states, propagating the “stop the steal” lie that was responsible for the murderous riot in the first place. I have yet to see any statement from Rep. Zeldin that he’s sorry or that either he or former President Trump did anything wrong. Even Kevin McCarthy, the Minority Leader in the
House and certainly no moderate, acknowledged that Trump “bears responsibility” for the“attack on Congress by mob rioters.” But from Rep. Zeldin, nothing — only attacks on Democrats to deflect from what happened. This is not the behavior of someone who wants to heal division.

Rep. Zeldin’s voting record is not at all bipartisan. Georgetown University's computerized Lugar/McCourt index of bipartisanship, recently cited by Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta in defense of Zeldin, is essentially meaningless, because it relies exclusively on whether a lawmaker sponsors or cosponsors legislation with members of the opposite party. It ignores a lawmaker’s voting record. It ignores the importance of the legislation, such as whether the co-sponsored bill renames a local post office or is merely a symbolic gesture destined never to make it out of committee. It’s a great way to mislead Zeldin's constituents, though.

Let’s be honest. Far from being a unifier, Rep. Zeldin early on calculated that his best political strategy was to pander to his Trump base, echo Trump’s falsehoods, and act as a Republican attack dog. Whether this strategy will continue to work for him as the true cost of the delusions and corruption of the Trump era becomes clearer remains to be seen.