{"id":12159,"date":"2010-07-19T19:52:16","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T19:52:16","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-07-19T19:52:16","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T19:52:16","slug":"worst-congressperson-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/19\/worst-congressperson-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Worst. Congressperson. In. The. World."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/48076930@N02\/4805381159\/\" title=\"Carter billboard 1 by smileycreek, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4143\/4805381159_958b7540ac.jpg\" width=\"409\" height=\"287\" alt=\"Carter billboard 1\" width=300 align=right> <\/p>\n<p>I really do have the worst congressperson in the world &nbsp;(he was, after all, the guy who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/2\/13\/836586\/-Talking-Mailpiece-Blasts-Right-Wing-Terrorists\">god-blessed a self-proclaimed &#8220;proud right-wing terrorist&#8221;<\/a> as a &#8220;great American&#8221;), and I will prove it to you below the jump. &nbsp;But first, let me show you the type of people who have been <em>electing<\/em> my congresscritter to office for the past 24 years.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the main thoroughfare in my little mountain town, and that&#8217;s the mentality I get to live with.<\/p>\n<p>But just wait until you hear the latest from my congressguy. <\/p>\n<p>Unbelievable. But not unprecedented.<\/p>\n<p>Just last December, Wally Herger, CA-02, introduced one of his go-nowhere bills that was supposed to <strong>ease the pain of homeowner&#8217;s insurance rates going up as a result of FEMA redrawing the floodplain maps.<\/strong> This affects a great many people along the Sacramento River in northern California&#8217;s Second District.<\/p>\n<p>I say it was a go-nowhere bill because Herger is famous for his grandstanding political ploys that do nothing for his district. This is how worthless Herger is: His last successsful bill, the Quincy (<em>another small mountain town<\/em>) Library Act, was 12 years ago. This means that during the eight years of the Bush administration, back when deficits didn&#8217;t matter, Herger got absolutely <em>nothing<\/em> helpful done for his district. &nbsp;Zip, zero, nada.<\/p>\n<p>As always, Herger&#8217;s bill went nowhere, as it was introduced purely for show.<\/p>\n<p>Last week the House passed HR 5114, a flood relief bill that would <strong>ease the pain of homeowner&#8217;s insurance rates going up as a result of FEMA redrawing the floodplain maps.<br \/>\n<br \/><\/strong><br \/>\n<br \/><u>HERGER VOTED NO ON THE BILL.<\/u> &nbsp;Why? <\/p>\n<p><strong>Because it was introduced by a Democrat.<\/strong> &nbsp;And Herger votes with the Republican party 96 % of the time. &nbsp;Pretty much the only time he <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em> vote with the Republicans is when he accidentally hits the wrong voting button. That&#8217;s right&#8211; Herger voted against his own constituents and against the same concept he himself proposed only 7 months earlier because he&#8217;s the rubber stamp of the Party of No.<\/p>\n<p>Nice work if you can get it, never having to think for yourself. &nbsp;At this point I don&#8217;t think Wally is even <em>capable<\/em> of thinking for himself.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another recent gem from WallyWorld: &nbsp;<strong>Herger is now circulating a petition in the House to &#8220;Repeal and Replace&#8221; Health Care Reform <\/strong>because, you know, the &#8220;American people&#8221; don&#8217;t want it. &nbsp;This despite a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalnewest.freshcontentengine.com\/bloomberg-poll-61-dont-want-to-repeal-health-law\/\">Bloomberg Poll<\/a> showing that 61% of the selfsame American people have no interest in repealing Health Care Reform. &nbsp;Mostly, they want to see how it turns out. <\/p>\n<p>Wally knows darned well his little petition doesn&#8217;t have a chance of getting through the House, much less getting past a Presidential veto, but this is how he operates in Washington. He&#8217;ll do anything to politically boost his party, and he&#8217;ll vote against his own constituents if the Republican party tells him to.<\/p>\n<p>This is a guy who is now a born-again believer in deficit reduction. &nbsp;But it doesn&#8217;t matter to him that <strong>tossing out Health Care Reform would add $138 billion to the deficit <\/strong>(courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/26315908\/vp\/38252571#38252571\">Rachel Maddow<\/a>). But hey, don&#8217;t let facts get in the way of your ideology, Wally!<\/p>\n<p>Want more? &nbsp;How about this: &nbsp;89 days into the Deepwater Drilling Disaster, Herger <em>still<\/em> supports deepwater drilling and <em>still<\/em> has a statement on his <a href=\"http:\/\/herger.house.gov\/index.php?option=com_content&#038;view=article&#038;id=57&#038;catid=36&#038;Itemid=94\">website<\/a> claiming that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I&#8217;ve long supported efforts to allow for the exploration of oil and natural gas in a small section of the frozen &#8220;ANWR&#8221; tundra in Alaska. &nbsp;ANWR spans nearly 20 million acres, but energy exploration would only occur on 2,000 acres, or .01 percent of the land area. &nbsp;And importantly, <strong>21st Century technology would also allow us to recover energy resources without harming the environment.<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>(emphasis mine)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what 21st Century <em>Wally&#8217;s<\/em> living in, but in <em>my<\/em> reality-based world deep water drilling is demonstrably unsafe, and the technology for dealing with spills is decades old.<\/p>\n<p>Look, I don&#8217;t like to complain just for the sake of complaining. &nbsp;I&#8217;m a solutions-oriented person. &nbsp;And my solution to having a lazy rubber-stamp of a Congressman is to get the word out that Wally Herger has a serious opponent this election cycle. &nbsp;I&#8217;m not talking about the kind of place-holder candidate the Democratic party occasionally throws out there against Herger.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reednow.com\/\">Jim Reed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a sort of resigned meme in the Second District that Wally&#8217;s in office until he dies or decides to retire. That no one can beat him. &nbsp;That it&#8217;s such a red district no Democrat has a chance against him. But that&#8217;s not true. &nbsp;The district is changing&#8211; there&#8217;s now only 45% registered Republicans. &nbsp;Reed, a moderate Democrat with Republican supporters who are fed up with Wally, &nbsp;is running an aggressive and focused campaign. &nbsp;I was recently at a Reed strategy meeting where an impressed supporter who has worked to unseat Herger numerous times exclaimed, &#8220;This campaign is 200% more energetic and organized than anything I&#8217;ve <em>ever<\/em> seen against Herger!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, do us all a favor. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Help us retire the Worst Congressperson in the World. <\/strong><br \/>\n<br \/>The world will be a better place for it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.actblue.com\/page\/smileycreek\/recipient\/892075\" title=\"contribute to Jim Reed via Act Blue\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4030\/4658024670_7998efdbcd_m.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"80\" alt=\"contribute-button-Act Blue\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/48076930@N02\/4805381159\/\" title=\"Carter billboard 1 by smileycreek, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4143\/4805381159_958b7540ac.jpg\" width=\"409\" height=\"287\" alt=\"Carter billboard 1\" width=300 align=right> <\/p>\n<p>I really do have the worst congressperson in the world &nbsp;(he was, after all, the guy who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/2\/13\/836586\/-Talking-Mailpiece-Blasts-Right-Wing-Terrorists\">god-blessed a self-proclaimed &#8220;proud right-wing terrorist&#8221;<\/a> as a &#8220;great American&#8221;), and I will prove it to you below the jump. &nbsp;But first, let me show you the type of people who have been <em>electing<\/em> my congresscritter to office for the past 24 years.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the main thoroughfare in my little mountain town, and that&#8217;s the mentality I get to live with.<\/p>\n<p>But just wait until you hear the latest from my congressguy. <\/p>\n<p>Unbelievable. But not unprecedented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1990],"tags":[6519,2907,150,8921,183],"class_list":["post-12159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990","tag-6519","tag-2907","tag-150","tag-8921","tag-183"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3a7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}