McComb Enterprise-Journal

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., shares a laugh with Sharon Honea at the Pike County Courthouse in Magnolia on Monday. Wicker is campaigning to stay in the seat vacated by Sen. Trent Lott. (Aaron Rhoads | Enterprise-Journal)

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On the road: Roger Wicker says he will fight for state’s ‘fair share’

By Timothy Woerner | Enterprise-Journal
Posted: 03/25/08 - 11:42:34 am CDT

Sen. Roger Wicker visited city and county officials Monday in Magnolia and Pike County, campaigning to stay in the vacated seat of former Sen. Trent Lott.

After Lott’s resignation in December, Wicker was appointed to the post by Gov. Haley Barbour, but he will need to convince voters he should remain there through a special election in November.

Making his case Monday, Wicker, R-Miss., touted the ways federal officials can work with local leaders to fund projects, promising he would “fight for Mississippi’s fair share.”

“This is something that I’ve done for 13 years,” Wicker said, referring to his time as a U.S. representative. “The local needs of a county and city have not changed. They need grants ... and ways the federal government can be a partner to provide a better environment for job creation.”

Wicker also pointed to energy prices, military policy, Social Security and education as key national issues he intended to focus on.

“People are concerned with energy prices, and it’s not only management,” Wicker said.

Wicker said he’d visited a manufacturing plant and found employees questioning high oil and gas prices.

“Every worker on the line is feeling a pinch,” he said. “What they didn’t understand is why we don’t drill in Alaska. ... They found a very receptive ear in their new senator on that issue.”

Wicker was equally concerned with foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing voters to rally behind American troops.

“We need to realize that each and every one of them is a volunteer because they remember 9/11 and they want to get to the fight,” he said. “There’s a group of young people that understand that we are facing a world-wide threat. ... In the face of these sacrifices and in light of these successes, the question is, ‘Do we still throw up our arms and just quit? Say, 60 days and we’re out?’

“I think the American people are going to say stay the course,” Wicker continued. “Get the job done, but make sure we don’t waste the sacrifices that have been made.”

Wicker acknowledged differing interpretations of the need for and success of the American invasion of Iraq but pointed to the expediency of Saddam Hussein’s removal and the recent troop surge as evidence of positive development.

“I’ll say this for Sen. McCain,” Wicker said, offering his agreement with the presidential candidate’s professed opinion on Iraq. “He was for the surge when it was very unpopular, just like George Washington was for independence when public opinion was against him two-to-one.”

Wicker also said he would back an independent commission to reform Social Security, saying there are ways for the program to get a better interest rate than the 2 percent returned by investing in the U.S. treasury.

“I don’t like to say private investment,” he said, “but individual accounts where the Social Security payer can get a better deal.”He added that as Congress re-evaluates education programs, he is listening for feedback on No Child Left Behind.

“I get mixed reactions from that,” Wicker said. “Some people say it has been beneficial because it tries to measure results and hold schools accountable. But a number of educators have told me that they have to teach to the test. The question is will we modify and continue to work with that mold, or will we scrap it entirely?”

Wicker was enthusiastically received by some of his supporters at the Magnolia courthouse, including Pike County Republican Party secretary Sharon Honea, who quizzed him on immigration.

“You’re gonna shut it down, right?” she asked.

“Middle-class America is shrinking,” she said, explaining her reason for backing Wicker. “There’s fewer and fewer taxpayers to go to to build bigger government. So I’m supporting a conservative candidate. I think his values reflect my values. ... You gotta have government, but you don’t need more entitlement programs when you can’t run the ones you have.”

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The campaign swing Monday also included stops in Laurel, Columbia and Tylertown, Wicker said.

Let us know what you think about this story or topic.

Ronnie Temple wrote on Mar 26, 2008 10:48 AM:

" My, My oh Wicked Wicker..do you really think he deserves a place in Dante's inferno???. That is so harsh... Let me say that "Us Republicans" want each person to be the best that he can be. Perhaps you, Mr or Ms Disgusted, should turn to and lean on Father God rather than Uncle Sam for your needs. The word says in Phil 4:19, "...my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus". The Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The U.S. Government does not owe you happiness, Medicare, nor a particular way of life. You should pursue your own happiness and not rely on others to provide it. However, we should never forget that the Love of Christ compels us to take care of widows and orphans and those less fortunate than us. God Bless the U.S.A. "

thecacique wrote on Mar 25, 2008 7:46 PM:

" Wonder WHY Senator Wicker does not get together with the Mississippi delegation in Congress and draft legislation that would close the doughnut hole in the senior and disabled drug plans. If he truly wanted to help many Mississippians this would be a way. "

Disgusted in Hattiesburg wrote on Mar 25, 2008 3:39 PM:

" There should be a special place in Dante's inferno for Wicker with his wanting to ruin the irreplaceable beauty of Alaska and wanting to torture those who should be enjoying their retirement by taking away Medicare and leaving them to spend their retirement trying to deal with whatever private scammers the Republicans come up with. I don't think Dante could think of anything hot enough for Roger Wicker. And who do you think has shrunk the Middle Class but decades of Republicans and the type of Republications who pretend to be Democrats but who are Republican wolves in Democratic clothing. "

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