Who does Congressman Perriello think he's fooling by twice voting against the banking reform bill backed by Nancy Pelosi?

It is insulting that he thinks we are so dumb that he can get away with a last-ditch attempt to distance himself from Pelosi and the ultra-liberal crowd he has voted with ever since he got to Washington.

Clearly, this is a trick to make us think he is representing the 5th District and that he is not a Pelosi puppet.

I looked it up, and here are the facts: Of his 1,340 votes cast, Perriello has voted against Pelosi and company in less than 10 percent of the cases.

More than 1,200 of his votes have been in lock-step with Pelosi-including the health-care bill and cap-and-trade, measures that will virtually wreck employment prospects in rural Virginia.

So now he gets scared at election time and has a last-minute conversion? Sorry, Mr. Perriello, but it is too little, too late. These votes are nothing but political pandering, pure and simple.

My family has been in the tobacco business for many decades in Southside Virginia. I know people in the 5th District, and we're not nearly as dumb as Tom Perriello thinks we are.

Also, I saw his silly ad on television showing him stepping in cow manure and getting hit in the face with a cup of coffee.

This is not the time for slap-stick comedy. Perriello may think it's funny, but we don't.

The ad tells us that he has no idea what we are going through during these hard times.

One other point on that ad: I've spent a lot of time in farm settings, and anyone dumb enough to step in a cow pie certainly isn't fit to be walking around Washington.

Just look what Perriello has managed to step into during his first term.

I can hardly wait to cast my vote for Senator Robert Hurt. To save our future, we must send a man like Senator Hurt to Washington-a man who knows who we are and what we stand for.

Nancie M. Motley

Chatham