Proud Member of The Moms Clean Air Force
Print This Post
Oct
7
I’d never heard of or read about Jo Ann Davis until an hour ago.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, who represented southeastern Virginia for seven years, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. This year, she suffered a recurrence.
But her health took a turn for the worse during the past week and she died Saturday morning at her home in Gloucester after a two-year battle with the disease.
Davis, 57, became Virginia’s first Republican woman elected to Congress in 2000, and she was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Thank goodness for hyperlinks so that I don’t have to bore anyone who doesn’t care about or care to know more about my connections with breast cancer.
What stood out for me the most in the article, however, was that last line in the piece above:
became Virginia’s first Republican woman elected to Congress in 2000
What is with that? That’s just crazy. Virginia’s Republicans didn’t elect a woman to the U.S. House of Representatives until seven years ago??
Sigh.
Well, it sounds like when they did choose, they chose well:
A conservative who came from modest means, Davis was known for her unquenchable inquisitiveness and how quickly and deeply she learned about any legislative issue.
“I always admired Congresswoman Davis’ strong convictions and the tenacity that she brought to bear in acting on them,” said U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, a fellow Virginia Republican.
Davis called in August 2006 for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, defense secretary at the time, and expressed second thoughts about her support of the war in Iraq.
“All of the intelligence we were given says we should be over there,” she told a military comptrollers organization at the time. “If I had known that the intelligence they gave us wasn’t correct, I don’t know how I would have voted.”
Again, I’d never heard of her before this morning but, in the spirit of the Dem and GOPper running together against Jim Sensenbrenner in Wisconsin? She sounds like someone I certainly would have wanted to hear from and talk to, and might very well trust as Burkee and Walz seem to trust each other. Although her Wikipedia entry says that the Children’s Defense Fund (founder Marian Wright Edelman is one of my role models) gave her a 0% ranking. Egad.
Deepest sympathies to Rep. Davis’s family.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:05 am October 7th, 2007 in Congress, Government, Politics, Women
Comments
4 Responses to “U.S Rep., Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), RIP (57yo, breast cancer)”
Voted into Top 25 Political Mom Blogs
Now on sale-WLST essay included!
Posts About Pepper Pike City Council2010 WE Magazine 101 Women Bloggers to Watch
Category Specific RSS
Pepper Pike Cleveland+ Politics Women Ohio Elections Law Jewish
I saw this story last night and had the same reaction: Jo Ann Who?
I have trouble understanding why that is, too. If there was a member of Congress in such serious medical jeopardy, shouldn’t the media have said something about her before the woman died? You know, “VA Congresswoman hospitalized,” or some headline like that?
WTF?
Well – I really don’t know on this one. I mean, first of all it did happen very quickly from what the story says. If you remember, the congresswoman from California who died last spring from cancer, Juanita McDonald – it was rather quick too.
Sigh – I think I have to defer to the family on this one. She was in congress for several years and we’d never heard of her. I’m not sure hearing about her only when she’s on the deathbed, and before the death, really matters so much to me – to what end, you know? We know now – I’m not sure what benefit there would have been to knowing sooner – does that make sense? Maybe not, lol.
I should think that a member of the Federal Congress suddenly becoming ill would be considered news. Those people are there to do our business, and if their medical conditions prevent them from doing that business, the public has a right to know.
I didn’t care to watch Reagan’s televised colonscopy (WTMI), but I did think his condition was something I needed to know about because his job performance directly affects the lives of all Americans. The same principle applies here. Granted, it’s to a lesser degree, but it applies all the same.
Of course, that might take away precious airtime from the wall-to-wall Britney Spears coverage and anachronistic maunderings about Barack Obama’s lapel pin.
Well, Len.
There are 535 of them. Certainly pretty much anything – my kids’ lice? – outstrips the relevance of Spears and the lapel pin. If it weren’t for other people I know filling me in on that stuff, I wouldn’t in fact even know. Oh wait – I’m lying – when my kids go for haircuts? PEOPLE magazine bonanza!!
But that bleeds into your next comment re: social grooming and family time! My mom trashed my older brother’s hair when we were kids – I’ll always remember the pictures of her trying to buzz his hair in the early 1960s. That was the end of family grooming.
I see your point – I guess I’m a little timid to say I needed to know because of her being in Virginia, it happening relatively quickly and she sounds like she was someone who didn’t want it
I wonder if the VA blogs were covering it??