Capuano blasts Dems: Stop seeking ideal, ‘perfect candidates don’t exist’

March 14--U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano took aim at his own party at a town hall meeting in Somerville last night, blasting Democrats for pursuit of ideological perfection over viable candidates.

"I don't believe in purity tests," Capuano said. "Perfection is our enemy ... not because we don't want perfect candidates, but because perfect candidates don't exist."

The 19-year congressman and former Somerville mayor spoke to a packed house of about 500 at Somerville High School, fielding questions on health care reform, why Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election and his own support of a border fence with Mexico in 2006.

He said he supported the "stupid fence" because Republicans were "killing" him as being soft on terrorism.

"I am as pro-immigrant as you can get, I believe America needs immigrants. But I also believe in strong borders. I don't believe in open borders, I don't think that would work. I think economically they're a disaster. Therefore there's nothing wrong with strong borders," Capuano said. "Now I don't personally think a fence is going to make much of a difference, but it had become and still is a massive symbol that's been used regularly to beat up Democrats, to show that we're somehow opposed, that we want terrorists under your bed."

When asked how Democrats can do a better job of reaching people on the right side of the political spectrum, Capuano said, "The idea is to talk to people the way you want to be talked to. I don't want to be lectured. Nobody likes a lecture. I want to have discussion. And we disagree, OK we disagree, is there anything we can work on?"

On health care, Capuano said if the current GOP plan to reform Obamacare passes, the Bay State's own Romneycare could be a victim since $2 billion in funding came from Washington, and the state cannot make up that difference.

"I want to be real clear with people. Because some people are saying, 'Oh Massachusetts will just go back to what we had before.' No, you won't," Capuano said.

"And here's why. What we had before was basically funded by the federal government as an experiment on how to expand health insurance."

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