Wheeling News-Register - Mollohan Seeking 13th Term in Congress

Mollohan Seeking 13th Term in Congress

Wheeling News-Register
Joselyn King

Alan Mollohan wears a suit to work every day.

Though he has been in public office 24 years, he said there is something most people don't know about him: he prefers to wear denim when not in the public eye.

"I love to wear blue jeans," Mollohan, 63, said. "When I was in law school and dating my wife - trying to date her - I always wore a suit and tie. When she was talking to her mother about me, that is what she told her."

After 30 years of marriage, Barbara Mollohan has come to see there is more to her husband's wardrobe.

"I think she prefers the casual me," Mollohan, the incumbent House of Representatives member in West Virginia's 1st District, said.

Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., is a native of Fairmont and is the son of former U.S. Rep. Robert Mollohan, D-W.Va.

Mollohan is facing Wheeling Republican Chris Wakim in the general election, his first serious opposition since being elected to Congress in 1982. He also has had to answer questions about his financial disclosures and why his personal wealth has increased dramatically over the past five years.

Likewise, Mollohan has taken Wakim to task for his resume and having gambling machines at his business.

Mollohan's seat has been among those most targeted by Republicans for takeover in 2006.

"In a two-party system, when one party gets entrenched in power in all branches of government, it is usually a good time to be the party out of power," Mollohan said. "It is a particularly good environment for Democrats across the country.

"Everybody believes government works best when there are real checks and balances in the system - when there is genuine oversight. This year bodes well for Democrats."

On the war in Iraq: "There is a consensus that oversight is a good thing, and that this Congress controlled by Republicans has done no oversight of President Bush or any of his policies," Mollohan said.

"Whether it is the war in Iraq, his lack of a plan for winning or his management of natural disasters at home, Congress should be looking at these policies. There should be hearings in which we give the administration an opportunity to explain its policies. That is just not happening now."

Mollohan said more information about the circumstances surrounding the U.S. choice for war is coming to light.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that the invasion of Iraq was ill conceived," he said. "The military advice given to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the president by our professional military was not heeded and was ignored. Many retired generals now are saying that they told them that if they wanted to go into Iraq - and if they wanted to win both the peace and the war - they were going to have to have a lot more manpower on the ground."

On trials for suspected terrorists: Mollohan has voted against the Military Commissions Act, which would have created military commissions to try suspected terrorists being detained by U.S. officials instead of putting them before U.S. courts.

"Any war is going to generate prisoners," he said. "We all understand that the threats that this country and the civilized world faces from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups is not a conventional situation."

But the U.S. must find a way to gather "useful, truthful" information from terrorists that does not go against the principles of the Geneva Convention, Mollohan added.
"A policy that involves disregarding that code is not good policy," he said. The legislation passed by Congress "had some glaring omissions that were fatal flaws in my judgment. The inability of a detainee to have their detention reviewed - being imprisoned without any recourse to trial or judicial review - is a very serious omission. It really violates one of the central judicial due process principles."

On Social Security: "The Social Security system is as secure as the commitment of members of Congress to keep it secure," Mollohan said.

He was a member of a committee that made reforms to the system in the 1990s, and doesn't believe people should presently be alarmed that they might not receive their guaranteed benefits in the future.

"We adjusted the contributions, and created a solvent system through 2045," Mollohan said, explaining that the same process could be done again when needed.

"This emergency doesn't exist. What this is all about is an ideological opposition to the idea of a guaranteed benefit system. Republicans want to replace this system with a private system subject to the swings of the stock market, and this is not a guaranteed benefit program.

"The present system will be there if members of Congress want it to be there, and if the President does. If members really want to change to a privatized system, it won't be there."

On Moral Issues: Questions about abortion and same sex marriage frequently are debated in public and in Congress.

"Those issues are legitimate issues," Mollohan said. "It's the demagoguery that surrounds them that is regrettable.

"The question of abortion is extremely important. It is about the preservation of life at every stage of existence. I have always been pro-life. I was chairman of the pro-life caucus, and I have a 100 percent pro-life voting record."

The word "marriage" has a special place in American culture, he added.

"It does imply the union of a man and a woman in a family context," Mollohan said. "I supported back in 1996 the defense of marriage act. It guaranteed that no state would have its marriage laws usurped. That legislation has worked, and there has not been an issue since its passage.

"It also means that every state retains the right through its state legislature - to fashion adoption and visitation laws. State governments should fashion their own family law. Other states shouldn't dictate to us."

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