"A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad. . . . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse." -- Albert Camus
I love this ... things start going south and the Republicans march out their old standards: blame the media and especially The New York Times:
Hayworth critical of NY Times story
J D Hawyworth is a former Phoenix sportscaster and once voted as the dumbest congressman. And we in Arizona get to call him our own. Though, I'm lucky enough that he's not our district's congressman. I was in the bookstore the other day and was suprised to find a book by Mr Hayworth, Whatever It Takes. It's about his take on the immigration issue ... but that's neither here nor there. His subject matter wasn't suprising, but rather the fact that he wrote a book. From seeing his idiocy up close for many years, I was convinced that he was incapable of reading a book, let alone writing one. But if you want to be amused, check out the reviews by some of his brain-washed minions. You can tell they are the type that will read anything by Coulter, Hannity, etc. and just eat it up unquestioningly.
And, of course, Bill Frist has to speak up and attack something so as to play to the other Republicans. This man has absolutely no spine. I sincerely think he doesn't have any thoughts of his own. Because he always seems to be playing to the polls, he comes across as the ultimately political animal. And it has been getting him burned because he all too often does not guage correctly the sentiments of his own party.
Frist Blames CNN for Republican Problems
This brings back memories of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. Back then, Nixon and the government vehemently criticized the Times and did everything in their power to try and stop the publishing of the Papers but the Supreme Court backed the Times.
Why is it that Republicans view the exposure of unethical, immoral and unconstitutional behavior by the goverment as a worse crime than that behavior itself? These people are those bullies in school that would steal your lunch money and then beat up any kids that would report it to the principal. Unbelievable.
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias" -- Stephen Colbert
5 comments:
Any source on 'JD Hayworth voted dumbest congressmen' thing? I've heard that but never any attribution. I'd love to have something concrete behind that assertion.
I've read he was voted that by the Washington Press Club and Hill staffers separately. I'll see if I can scare up a more solid reference to it.
Ken Silverstein, who writes for Harpers, the Nation, and the Progressive wrote an article quite a few years back when Hayworth had just came in:
BY KEN SILVERSTEIN (As published in The Progressive)
H.L. Mencken once wrote that since elections produced such dreadful results, citizens should stop wasting their time voting and simply pick their representatives at random from the phone book. Mencken's barb has even more sting these days since the quality of political leadership seems to have dropped precipitously, as a few random hours watching C-Span quickly reveals.
Identifying the ten most dimwitted members of Congress was a difficult task. To do so, I canvassed several dozen sources-- liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican-- on Capitol Hill. Seven freshmen and one sophomore won a place on the list. Thanks to the sheer brute stupidity of these newcomers, world-class contenders like New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato and California Representative Bob Dornan didn't even come close to making the final cut.
Before turning to the roll call, a few caveats.
First, I intended to create a bipartisan list, but was unable to come up with any suitable Democratic candidates. This in no way reflects the high intellectual caliber of the party, which has its fair share of nitwits.
However, I found that while Democrats were eager to point to Republicans, the opposite was not the case: Republicans fingered their own. "That's the luxury you have when you're in the majority," one Democratic staffer complained bitterly.
Second, while most of the members here come from the GOP's right wing, it would be a mistake to conclude, as many liberals do, that conservatives are generally dumb: Newt Gingrich and Jesse Helms are anything but stupid.
Finally, while the distinguished members of the list may enrich the nation's political folklore, their foolishness is dangerous.
That said, the winners are:
... No. 6 - Representative J.D. Hayworth - Arizona (1994)
A former TV sportscaster and football player, Hayworth, like Gerald Ford, appears to have forgotten his helmet one too many times. At a recent convention of People for the West!, a group linked to the Wise Use movement, Hayworth said that logging was a particularly beneficial activity because forests are a fire hazard.
Hayworth's entire political philosophy can be boiled down to "Big government, bad; less government, good." The Arizona Republic has said that "substance has never been a strong suit of Hayworth's (even by sportscasting
standards)," and that he even has "to read his cliches from a script."
Hayworth's major activity since coming to Washington-- and one that invariably sets off waves of anguished head-slapping on the floor-- is his daily one-minute statement. His attempts at humor elicit groans, as when he suggested to the opposition party that it "lure Freddy Krueger as the new liberal Democrat spokesman" and "set up a new political-action committee, the 'Whine Producers.' "
Though decidedly dumb, Hayworth is also smooth and relentless. "You can't have a real debate with Hayworth," says one Democratic staffer. "He
talks as passionately about his need to take a No. 1 as he does about the need to cut government spending." ...
I'm disappointed he was only considered 6th dumbest.
http://www.petting-zoo.net/~deadbeef/archive/702.html
Here's the only link I could find (based on your information). Thanks for finding that.
Josh,
Thanks for the link. Admittedly, my assertion is fairly anecdotal. I try not to do that too much. It's just that I've seen him first hand for almost 15 years and even met him in passing at a restaurant in Scottsdale once.
Post a Comment