Courtesy of wallpaperdojo.com
In the aftermath of our Nobel Laureate President's acceptance address and the endless cycle of annual year-in-review summaries and charts and Barbara Walter's 10 most interesting people (Michelle Obama? You've got to be kidding...), I've decided to launch my first annual Jackass of the Year contest, Democrats whom have stood out far beneath the crowd of affiliated mediocre politicians and leaders.
I did have an unannounced winner during 2008, so let us recall the obvious choice:
Unofficial 2008 Jackass of the Year, Eliot Spitzer
courtesy of ABC
Former NY Attorney General and Governor Eliot Spitzer, who built a reputation on busting a number of illegal operations (including prostitution rings) and Wall Street bad guys, was hypocritically caught up in his own call girl scandal; the FBI investigation was motivated not by intrinsic interest in the governor's extramarital sex life but on suspicious money transfers, suggestive of bribery or other illegal activity.
2009 Candidates
It was a crowded field with a number of viable candidates competing for dishonorable distinction.
Dishonorable Mention: Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, whom will always be remembered for his immortal words (in reference to his authority to appoint the successor to Obama's US Senate seat): "I’ve got this thing and it’s f***ing golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f***in’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there." Blago would later explain that this was nothing more than political business as usual in Chicagoland. Illinois Democrats, afraid of being tainted by the scandal, ran away from him. Blago refused to resign, leaving the Democratic-controlled legislature with no alternative but to impeach and remove him from office.
Dishonorable Mention: Former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, having been charged in a bribery scandal (notoriously hiding the cash in his freezer), refused to withdraw from subsequent reelection campaigns, resulting in a rare Republican pickup of a seat last fall. Jefferson last August was convicted on 11 of 16 counts and last month was sentenced to 13 years.
Courtesy of Gary McCoy
Barack Obama. It would be unfair of me to exclude the President from this award, because, unlike his unearned Nobel Peace Prize, awarded just days after taking office, he did earn his way onto this list: his constant Bush-bashing and refusal to take responsibility for the job for which he campaigned 2 years; his broken promises on earmarks and irresponsible federal spending; engaging in divisive class warfare; piling up the largest budget deficit in American history; his lip service to genuine bipartisanship, focusing on ramming partisan bills down the nation's throat; his dithering on Afghanistan; and his incessant "apology tours".
The Blue Dog Democrats. Remember how the bipartisan Gang of 14 defused a crisis with Majority Leader Bill Frist threatening the "nuclear option" (to change Senate rules) in the face of Democratic minority obstruction of floor votes on judicial nominees, in particular, the unconscionable use of the filibuster to deny qualified candidates an up-or-down vote? Where were the Blue Dogs and Senate Democratic moderates in terms of allying themselves with Republicans, forcing the progressive Democrats to compromise on unprecedented spending sprees, piling up a debt not only which will take years to pay back but which was remarkably ineffective. Why, given looming entitlement funding crises, a strong risk of stagflation and a fragile economic recovery, would they allow the liberals to put at risk a popular private-sector health insurance sector under the pretense of concern for the temporarily uninsured? Or a dubious climate change bill? Why would they allow passage of a so-called stimulus bill, sold on dubious economic claims (e.g, 8% cap on unemployment) and deliberately misleading terms (a stimulus bill where the vast majority of funding came after the first 6 months and justified mainly on a modest amount of infrastructure spending).
The Blue Dogs appear to be all bark and no bite, little more than show dogs that roll over, play dead and sit at the beck and call of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
The Axis Powers of American Progressivism. What more can we say about a trio whom do not see what bothers the American people (e.g., a sluggish American economy), do not hear patriots calling for limited government and frugal spending, and do not speak to the real priorities, including long-term global economic competitiveness, a deteriorating currency, government streamlining, tax reform, and entitlement solvency. How many voters in 2008 believed that, in the middle of the one of the deepest recessions in US history, the Democrats would put as the top priorities on their agenda revamping the relatively popular private-sector health care system and pushing for, under dubious scientific justifications and without a corresponding commitment from developing nations, climate change legislation, both of which push additional costs on American companies and their customers?
Barbara "Call Me 'Senator'" Boxer. Is there any excuse for California voters to have sent this pathetically thin-skinned senator 3 times to the Senate? It's bad enough she was boorish enough to question the unmarried former Secretary of State Condi Rice's integrity (because she didn't have children of her own to send to the Gulf Region), but then (despite multiple military bases in California) last June at a committee hearing, she admonished General Walsh, whom called her "ma'am" (consistent with military protocol). Perhaps her aggressive, petty behavior compensates for her short stature. I'm looking forward to calling her "former senator" about a year from now.
The Chris Dodd/Barney Frank Show. Who would have ever predicted in the aftermath of last year's economic tsunami, Chris "Countrywide Mortgage" Dodd and Barney "I want to roll the dice" Frank, hardly prescient in terms of AIG and the GSE's respectively, would be leading the charge on financial reform? CEO's of the relevant institutions have come and gone, but the members of Congress who failed to anticipate the crisis are still in place and have been tasked with spearheading reform.
As worthy as all these individuals are of the nation's contempt, there is one finalist whom has failed to live up to even the modestly low expectations of Congressional professionalism:
AND THE WINNER IS:
The Dishonorable
Alan "This Congressman is Nuts" Grayson (D, FL-8)
- He said of Linda Robertson, advisor to Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: "This lobbyist, this K street wh*re, is trying to teach me about economics."
- He said, of GOP alternatives to Democratic health care "reform": “Don’t Get Sick! And if You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly!”
- He went to the floor to read the names of people whom have allegedly died for lack of health insurance in GOP districts. "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't acted sooner to end this holocaust in America." Note that Grayson is Jewish, and his comment was vociferously condemned by Jewish groups, whom believe that false comparisons insult the memories of those murdered during World War II
- "The Republicans are a bunch of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals."
