By Sherri Blevins
Congressman Robert Aderholt made a welcomed visit to DeKalb County on Monday, October 29, 2018. While here he visited with local officials, toured the DeKalb County Career Technology Center, and spoke to many area residents at a reception at the Tom Bevil Center in Rainsville. Mountain Valley News spoke with Congressman Aderholt concerning his visit. He stated, “It is good to be back in DeKalb County today and have a chance to visit with the elected officials here and have a chance to go over to the tech school. I really do think that is the wave of the future for Alabama. We will always need four-year institutions, and we will always need people going on to four-year institutions for their college degree, but there is no substitute for tech schools because a lot of the jobs coming to Alabama right now are really weighed heavily in the tech- related industry. Having a facility like this here in DeKalb County and in Rainsville is I think only going to grow and get larger. It is an impressive facility over there. The faculty there is very passionate about what they do, so the students that go there are very fortunate to get the training they have access to.”
MVN also spoke with Congressman Aderholt about Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s recent confirmation hearing and the general climate of Washington D.C. during that time. He commented, “It was probably one of the most divided types of Supreme Court nominations I have ever been aware of. Supreme Court nominations don’t come up a lot. There are only nine on the court, and they are lifetime appointments, so they are few and far between. But I think there was more of a division because of the impact the way the court will be structured will have on the nation. The justice that was retiring, Justice Kennedy, had always been a swing vote and was not really considered in either the conservative camp or the liberal camp, but was considered just like I said -a swing vote, so whoever replaced him for that seat was really going to determine how the court vote was going to go. I think that was why there was so much focus on that particular seat and at that particular time. Of course, being on the House side of Congress, I didn’t have quite as much involvement in it as I would have if I was on the Senate side. The Senators are the only ones that vote to confirm – that is one of their duties- to confirm the United States President’s nomination for the Supreme Court, so I was a little bit removed from that as opposed to my Senate colleagues. I was back and forth between Alabama and Washington D.C. at that time, but everywhere I went that was the topic whether you were in Alabama or Washington. Everyone was focused on that topic. I have never seen as much attention given to a Supreme Court nominee as I have to that one. I think you would have to go back to the Judge Clarence Thomas hearings. I think it was a reflection in what we are seeing in the country. The country is very divided politically right now. There are parts of this country that are very conservative, what we say as very republican, and there are parts of this country that are very liberal or democratic and that is where you have it all come together, on the Supreme Court. I think that is what led to it being a very unique situation because it is so close to the mid-term elections.” He went on to say that he didn’t think the climate would change much in the near future, and if another justice retires, we could see this same atmosphere again.