Congressman Cliff Stearns is not making news - but he should be.

Marion County`s Sheriff Dean and his associates have valiantly collected more than 1200 bullet-proof vests to send to Sgt. Chisolm`s command in Iraq -- but the vests are still sitting in Ocala waiting for the interminable red tape of approvals to clear through the chain of command.

But where`s Cliff Stearns?

The District 6 Congressman for our area has not been effective in expediting the shipment of life-saving vests to Iraq even though the armor is desperately needed to re-enforce the thin-skinned Humvees wrongly supplied for patrol in a hostile Iraq. Daily patrols for Chisolm`s 351st Military Police group are constantly exposed to RPG`sand roadside bombs that have already maimed soldiers in his unit.

Last week, Sgt. Chisolm was threatened with a possible Courts Martial for embarrassing a 3-star Army Supply General on the issue of supplying non-armored Humvees. Instead of running to Chisolm`s defense, Congressman Stearns participated in the persecution by accusing Sheriff Dean of making the issue public.

Cliff Stearns` may be best remembered as the Congressman who wasn`t around when the chips were down.

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