Ten Good Reasons Charlie Bass is an Idiot

And as a followup to my last post, we have another whackjob Congressman who wants to get some of that ol' RedState loving. Here we have Rep. Charlie Bass from New Hampshire, another 1994 Gingrich Republican, but who also got swept right back out of office in 2006. I suspect Bass was one of those sheep candidates hired for his ability to repeat rhetoric, and not too swift when it comes to seeing the political tides shift.

Curiously, his Wikipedia page says he's a moderate Republican, which should make him a pariah at RedState. But perhaps he's only there to reform his image. Or hell, why even pretend RedState has any standards. They were probably happy to have him, even if he's not in Congress anymore.

Charlie's Post is entitled: Ten Good Reasons to Oppose the Omnibus Spending Bill. How imaginative. Particularly as his list doesn't actually give any good reasons for doing so.

Here's an example of Charlie's mentality:

Families all across the country are being forced to tighten their belts and make the tough decisions and its time Washington followed the lead of the American people.

Yeah. We're in a recession because people aren't spending money, so Charlie's answer is to have the government also spend less money. Brilliant. I suppose his cure for diarrhea includes giving people dysentery. Perhaps we can have the military firebomb major cities to really show them that we feel their pain.

A Shorter Charlie Bass

Here's my summary of Charlie's list:

1. It's a lot of money.
2. Some money is going to agencies that already received money in the stimulus.
3. Some money is going where Congressmen want it to go.
4. Some money is going to organizations that used a disgraced lobbying firm.
5. Some money is going to grant programs named after Democratic Congressmen.
6. Some money is being spent on salmon.
7. Some money is going to a group with a Spanish name.
8. Some money is going to NASA museums.
9. Congress is hiring more staff members.
10. Some money is going where former congressmen wanted it to go.

And it can all be summed as: You should oppose this bill because money is being spent.

Yet, not once does he actually explain why this is bad spending. It's just assumed that it's bad for salmon and NASA to get money. And on number nine, he actually suggests that it's wrong for Congress to hire people if businesses are firing people. He actually complains that the bill "Does as I Say Don’t Do as I Do" as if they're hypocrites for hiring people during a recession. What the hell is the matter with these people? That sentence didn't even make sense!

And seriously, did RedState really imagine they needed a former congressman to make the point that conservatives don't like budgets made by Democrats? I thought that was part of their mission statement or something. Of course, in comments there are plenty of complaints against Republicans for voting for it and inserting earmarks. And good for them. It sounds like they might have finally realized they've been punk'd all these years and that they never had any power in Washington. Now if they can only understand why everyone else thinks they're idiots, we really might be onto something.