Stupid GOP tricks

June 22, 2007

Would you believe there’s a large contingent of the House GOP caucus that still wants to make an issue of Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Syria in March?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday.

The amendment to the $34 billion State and Foreign Operations bill, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), prohibits funds to be used to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter released [yesterday], King said Pelosi had overstepped her constitutional role as Speaker when she traveled to Syria in April.

Greg Sargent gave ol’ Rep. King’s office a call and asked about Republican members of Congress who also travel to these countries. A spokesperson said, “The measure only applies to one position — the Speaker of the House.”

And people wonder why we laugh at the House Republican caucus.

In any case, the measure came up for a vote this morning. The good news is, it was defeated, 337 to 84. The bad news is, there are 84 House Republicans — more than a third of the overall caucus — who actually voted for this transparent nonsense.

You can see a list of all 84 here. If you happen to live in one of the districts represented by one of these “lawmakers,” well, I’m very sorry.

Anytime Bush needs to think of an example of “political theater,” this ought to be right at the top of his list.

But Bush would probably try to dazzle us with his intellect and refer to it as “kabuki” – but pronounce it “Kah-boo-KAI.

Sigh…I am just so tired of stupid.

  • How did this colossal waste of time even get to see the light of day? I’m rather confused about this. The Speaker gets to set the agenda, and decide what business will get discussed, doesn’t she?

  • Rather than restricting her travel to Syria and the like, Congress should vote to restrict free travel for Congressional family members — a ridiculous pork-barrel notion Pelosi ludicrously favors. So much for cleaning up the swamp.

    http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272614051.shtml (I’m unfamiliar with National Ledger — it’s leanings or validity — but I read this a few days ago via Yahoo! News and TNL was the only reference I could find in a quick Google search.)

  • Holy cow. My congressman, the corrupt John Doolittle, voted no. That’s the first time in 16 years that I’ve agreed with him on a vote!

  • Some of Indiana’s “finest,” I see proved yet again what tools they are by voting for this bill. What can we say about Dan Burton, Mike Pence and Steve Buyer? (I COULD offer numerous explanations, all of them just a little more profane than the previous one, but why waste my breath).

    If there was only some way to show this state’s voters how big of idiots these guys are, I’d do it. Alas, most of the rednecks here in “Hoosier” land are just as bad or even more clueless than these clowns!

  • “The measure only applies to one position — the Speaker of the House.”

    I’m surprised they didn’t try to ban female speakers of the house from leaving the kitchen.

    Dipshits.

  • Republicans really are all about “Exceptionalism”, aren’t they?

    No Speaker should have their activities curtailed except the current one; And every vice president has been in the executive branch except the current one; and no president has ever been above the law except the current one.

    Good grief, if the circumstances and party affiliations were reversed, the Republicans would be building a special prison to house the “criminal Democratic President, his VP and his Cabinet, while the Speaker usurped his/her office.

    Fortunately for the Rs – the MSM happens to be owned, operated and commercially sponsored by the same people who own Congress.

  • Living north of Cincinnati, I’m so proud to see that all THREE of my local congresscritters voted AYE:

    Boehner, Mean Jean Schmitt and Chabot.

    Christ, Cincinnati is the end of the world. Knuckledragger capitol of Red America.

    Sorry .

  • Obviously, Alabama is Knuckledragger capitol of the universe, so I was not surprised to see Terry Everett and several of his colleagues vote aye. I guess the state as a whole is heavily in favor of transparent nonsense.

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