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"The president's quite a chameleon and we all recognize that," said Steve Buyer, Fifth District congressman, at the Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner Thursday at the Shrine Building.
U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer also caught heat for claiming credit for the North Webster NEXRAD.
Buyer credited Brant Hershman, one of Buyer's staff, as being the person responsible for the system's availability.
Hershman said Sen. Dan Coats originally found the gap in weather coverage but at the time the government said there were no more systems available.
Grissom Air Force Base was scheduled to receive a NEXRAD system before it was closed. That was enough to spark Hershman's curiosity.
He wanted to know what happened to that system and did some "paper chasing" in search of its location.
He found that it was scheduled to be cannibalized for parts. With that information he approached the government again and asked for the radar installation to fill the gap in the radar coverage.
This time, they said yes.
Buyer said that he didn't care that the installation was given to Roemer's district, he was just happy that the coverage was now available. He thought that people should know who was responsible for it.
U.S. Rep. for the Second District, David McIntosh, spoke about the importance of faith, family and freedom.
McIntosh named Jean Northerner, senior president of marketing at Lake City Bank, as a "Hoosier Hero." He said that Northerner "gave more back to the county" than she asked for by participating on "every board in Kosciusko County."
Mike McDaniels, state party chairman, spoke, as well, calling former Gov. Evan Bayh "the Eddie Haskell of Indiana politics." He said, "What you see on television is not what you get."
According to McDaniels, Bayh would oppose Sen. Richard Lugar every chance he could and side with President Clinton 90 percent of the time.
McDaniels also gave an award to the Kosciusko County Republican Central Committee. The award honored the fact that the committee passed all of the goals that were set for them.
Only one-third of the 92 counties in Indiana achieve all of their goals, said McDaniels.
Indiana House Rep. Dave Wolkins received an award from Joyce Brinkman, of the state treasurer's office, for "excellence in civic involvement."
There were 27 Republican candidates and about 120 people present for the Lincoln Day Dinner, which was organized by Jean Northerner, Kosciusko County Auditor Charlene Knispel and Wayne Township Trustee Sheila Hodges.
