Representatives Gone Wild at the OC (Oversight Committee)

I caught some of the hearings on the Toyota recall on February 24th and I particularly focused on the comportment of our representatives on the Oversight Committee. Given that this situation involved much more than a simple testimony (cross-cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural communication among other things), I wanted to see how some people presented themselves. Sadly, yet not surprisingly, I was disappointed in the arrogance and boorishness of our representatives. Check out examples of classless behavior from some of our representative at the Toyota Hearings. Some representatives were civil, such as the chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Darrell Issa (R-CA), but their diplomatic tones were subdued in comparison with the sharp tones of Representatives Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)(46:30) (whose nationalist rhetoric at one point led him to say, "We should just forgive these companies and let them kill our people." Dan Burton (R-IN) was much more open to conversing, not attacking the CEO of Toyota, but he was followed up by Joh Mica (R-FL), who I found to be extremely rude, uncouth and abrasive. His gestures were confrontational and condescending that would be interpreted by any international person as overtly aggressive. Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) (2:26:50)at least apologized that the Toyota witnesses had to testify in a second language in a situation that was not very comfortable to them (kudos to Mr. Bilbray!). Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) ( 2:15:40)acknowledged that differences in Japanese and American corporate and societal culture might have played a role in the situation.

I wonder who among this group of representatives owns a passport or speaks another language? My guess would be the ones who behaved in a civil fashion with the Japanese. I called Rep. Kanjorski's office to ask if he owned a passport or spoke another language. I was told by his staff assistant to send an e-mail. So far, no one has responded. And therein lies the problem...on so many levels.