The Foxx Can Weep (Crocodile Tears)

Memorial Day observances earlier this week in Winston-Salem offered a display of real grief over loss, on the one hand, and a stage-managed show of emotion for political effect on the other.

The W-S Journal profiled Cynthia and David Timmons Sr., who lost their son in Afghanistan on May 5th. At a ceremony unveiling granite columns honoring Forsyth County's recent war dead, "Cynthia Timmons stood crying, taking off her glasses and wiping tears from her face as strangers came up to grasp her husband's hand." Real grief over incalculable loss.

And then arrived Representative Foxx, trailing fumes of self-importance -- she had just come from a bill-signing ceremony at the White House where her first piece of legislation had been signed into law. For the Memorial Day ceremony, she read the Gettysburg Address, "at times with tears filling her voice."

Phony tears. We've seen this act before, up close and personal, prior to her holding any office higher than the Watauga County School Board. When she needs sympathy, she cries, or pretends to. I recall a lot of dabbing at dry eyes, and it's easy, with practice, to produce a catch in the voice. For his part, David Timmons wasn't buying the act. "Timmons has been outspoken about American intentions in Iraq .... He spoke to Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, while they were on stage during the ceremony, he said. He wants to meet with her. He wants some answers, or at least the chance to ask some questions. 'I think the American people are owed some answers here,' he said after the ceremony. 'I hold the legislative branch accountable for those types of decisions.' "

The Madam didn't like Mr. Timmons' affrontery one little bit either, and we'd be willing to bet a little paint pony that Mr. Timmons will not (1) be invited to ask his probing questions and (2) get any answer from his congresswoman.