Upstate Congressman Gresham Barrett called this afternoon. I was sort of stacked up and didn’t have much time to talk, but I picked up the following:
- If Congress manages to wrap up this week, he’s heading to Canada Sunday to see how our former House Speaker is doing in the land of the McKenzie brothers. Oh, that reminds me: He said he’s been told that a lot of Canadians have a sort of inferiority complex that has to do with feeling like we don’t appreciate our biggest trading partner and frequent ally the way we should. Oh, sure we do. Take off, eh.
- After that, he’s heading straight for Laredo to see how that border is holding up. This is in preparation for "field hearings" the House plans to hold while we wait for it and the Senate to work out their differences over immigration, or for Acapulco to freeze over, whichever comes first.
- Then he’s going to visit with as many constituents as he can. But you knew that already, right?
He said he’ll share his observations about both our NAFTA partners when he gets back. We spoke tentatively of an editorial board meeting.
Perhaps most interesting to me was that he was calling in the first place, and said he planned to call more often, even though he and I have only met once before that I recall.
I asked him whether he was seeking higher office. I’ve been a little cynical on that point ever since 1978, when I was working in Tennessee and first spotted Al Gore wandering about outside his congressional district.
He just laughed. Gresham, I mean. Al doesn’t laugh much.
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With the exception of Lindsey Graham, South Carolina has a pretty insignifican congressional delegation these days, doesn’t it.
But to paraphrase Andy, “Hey to Gresham.”
A junket to Laredo is not necessary to fix the border. The problems are known, and so are all the solutions. Any Congressman who isn’t ready to debate some serious legislation and pass it right now needs to resign.
Lindsay Graham’s sellout is disgusting, but so is the sideline inactivity of Gresham and Demint.
Dump Lindsay please.
It’s hard not to be cynical about congressional visits, since so many “fact finding missions” are nothing more than junkets. But there’s no substitute for being there– when you actually see parts of the Mexican border with your own eyes, you realize how ridiculous the idea of a fence is, and it gives you a whole new perspective on enforcement. So it would be wothwhile if it turns out Gresham learns anything useful.
We do have a remarkably weak delegation. Lindsay is our only true statesman, willing to use his brains, as opposed to the others who take their marching orders from Karl Rove. Rep. Wilson would jump off the Washington Monument if the Whitehouse asked him to.
While Gresham is in Candada, I wonder if he’ll ask Ambassador Wilkins about his plans to run for governor? I know Gresham is interested in that for himself.
Canada is a great place to visit…in the summer. To show my appreciation for our neighbor to the North, I’m going to raise a frosty Molson right now. How’s that, eh?
What did you expect from DeMint. Like DeLay, he spouts off in your type rhetoric about “French surrender monkeys” without a hint of irony.
He is a frigging moron. I loved his acceptance speech. Total class act, taking sophmoric jabs at his opponent after he won. You get what you ask for around here. As long as the average IQ around here is 80, your leaders will have an average of 81.
I’m surprised that Barrett abandoned the fight on Capitol Hill to “preserve marriage.” (Ironically he sees the threat coming from gays getting married and not heteros getting divorced.)
Barrett finds time to demagogue about the “threat” to hetero marriage saying on the floor of the HoR:
“My home State of South Carolina is one of 45 States that has already enacted laws defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Our message is clear: marriage matters and it is should be limited to that of a man and a woman.
So I stand here today wondering why we are faced with the fact that a handful of judges have taken it upon themselves to hand down rulings that redefine marriage for moms and dads and most importantly, children, across our nation.
Mr. Speaker, some in this country, elected by no one believe they have the right to supersede the wishes of my constituents and the constituents of other Members here today. I urge my colleagues to join me today in supporting the Marriage Protection Amendment and ensuring our constituents’ voices are heard.”
In 1968 he would have been a Dixiecrat railing against unelected federal judges enforcing integration. In 2006 he’s a Republican running hard on homophobia and trying to ignore the economic diaster that the Bush/Sanford years have been for working South Carolinians.
(H/T to Max)
No, Preston. It’s “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” as coined by the inimitable Bart Simpson.
Brad, the French are the “whine and cheese eating surrender monkeys”. That is an especially disgusting species that whines all the time.
Say what you will about the French, you have that freedom. But remember if it hadn’t been for France, you’d be mucking some Englishman’s stable now.
La vie longue le français!
Thanks Brad. I hope that doesn’t take away from the point I was trying to make.
Preston, if he current crop of Republican office-holders is any indication, the average IQ would be several points below the population average.
It seems that SC would be better off to just elect rubber stamps to US office from SC. A rubber stamp can do just as good a job as our current crop of GOPers (except Lindsey), only their are no staf or salary issues to worry about. All of that money can be sent back to SC. It would also cut down on ridiculous ads during campaign season.
I thought Lindsay was a rubber stamp for John McCain and Ted Kennedy on the sellout to illegal labor for American business.
Not at all, Preston. I just like quoting Bart Simpson.
I find the French-bashing always amusing. It’s interesting to me that, even though Germany has also tended recently to be fairly active in opposing our Iraq activities (especially when Schroeder was in power) you didn’t hear Bill O’Reilly and their ilk bashing Germany. No, France is the one to laugh it, because of their less-than-impressive military history in the last century. Is there some secret admiration for the historical military prowess of the Germans that lurks within the minds of O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and the other proto-fascists on the airwaves? Just asking?
At least the French were never a threat to take over Europe. They dare to sometimes tell America to take a hike, which Dave calls whining. Seems like most of the whining is done on this end. “How dare they not agree to what we want?”
And as VietVet points out, the US would not have come into existence (or probably its start might have been delayed for many decades) had it not been for the French.
I would wager that Dave is secretly jealous of the French, and of Europeans in general.
I don’t know why we tend to bash the French, and not the Germans, but thankfully the Europeans in general are not treating us at their borders the way our immigration people are often treating them at ours. The U.S. is becoming a difficult place to visit. Almost easier to get over the border from Mexico . . . .
“At least the French were never a threat to take over Europe.”
Your ignorance of history is showing. Between about 1800 and 1814, France did just that when Napoleon went as far as trying to conquer Russia, after having done the rest of Europe (minus Britain, of course). Overall, Napoleon got just about as far as Hitler did 130 years later. Fortunately for the rest of the world, the French haven’t won any wars since then.
While I’m certainly grateful for France’s help during the Revolutionary War, I’m also quite sure that that debt has been repaid several times over when we had to save their cheese-eating surrender monkey rear ends in 2 world wars in the last century. If we hadn’t helped them out, they would be speaking either German or Russian right now. In fact, I submit to you that 1783 was the last time they ever did anything for us, instead of the other way around. If anything, they owe us bigtime by now.
BTW, just last night I watched some episodes of the first season of “Married…With Children” and even then (1987) the French were slagged mercilessly.
Lex, a history lesson is in order. France did most of the heavy lifting in WW I and did about as well as the US in Vietnam. All the suffering France suffered during the 20th century has made them far wiser in the 21st. Face it neocons, you were sooooo wrong about Iraq. This disaster just continues to deteriorate. Boy do I long for the days of a competent leader in the white house. Give me Clinton, Carter or even Reagan over the bumbling fool we have in the white house now. Can we survive 2+ years of his ineptitude? He has my vote for worst president ever.
Lex, of course you’re right about Napoleon. I was kind of thinking of the last century and a half when I made that comment, but since I did allude to France’s assistance in the American Revolution, I should have acknowledged the Napoleonic campaigns. My oversight, and a huge one at that.
But I stand by my question about why it’s more popular these days to poke fun at the French rather than the Germans. From my own perspective I’m actually finding more anti-American sentiment among younger Germans than French (who I think are deeply aware and appreciative of America’s help in WWII but believe that was a different America than the current one) but that’s only anecdotal evidence on my part. Most French people I know love America and American culture and actually have a less snooty attitude about this country than the Germans I know.
Bud also makes an excellent point about the French (or European) perspective on war…America has been fortunate to have no wars on its soil since its own Civil War. Obviously Europe has a different experience, vivid memories and physical reminders to this day of destruction wrought on their terrain. That unquestionably plays some role in their stronger inclinations for multinational diplomatic solutions rather than unilateral military ones. Whether they’re right or wrong is a different question, but as a society Europeans by and large have a more vivid understanding of what war really is than Americans do, simply because so much of it has taken place where they live.
bud, if you think “the French did about as well as the US in Vietnam”, you really do have just the socialist nutshell version of history.
Just compare the US victory at Khe Sanh in 1968, at the same location as the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The difference wasn’t the valor of the Foreign Legion, but the abandonment by politicians in Paris.
Excellent observation, Phillip. We got a tast of it on 9/11, but we have never had all our cities reduced to rubble like Europe has.
Neither has Europe, Herb, neither has Europe!
Huh? Not sure what you are referring to, LexWolf. I was thinking re the end of WWII and the devestation of much of the UK and certainly Germany, also Holland and Belgium. OK, technically not all European cities, but certainly a lot of them.
The reasons for the destruction in Germany were of course of it’s own doing, but the point is that, like a bad childhood puts its stamp on a person’s psyche for life, the German psyche is still very much affected by the Third Reich. And my gut feeling is, after living there so long, that suffering for an unjust cause makes the country that much less secure in taking on any real role in the world. The total lack of any kind of patriotism among young people is an indication of that.
We would have had our cities reduced to rubble, if Japan had the means to reach them.
The primary reasons for some of Europe not joining in the war on Islamofascism (38 countries have), is that some of the nations were involved in illegally trading in Iraqi oil, and selling them conventional weapons and the means to produce chemical, nuclear and biological weapons.
Iraq had a uranium enrichment facility purchased from Red China, which had originally come from the Soviet Union.
France has over $6,000,000,000 of UN oil money in its banks. Germany and Russia well selling Iraqi oil as Russian oil.
Hundreds of UN officials were bribed by Saddam Hussein.
Herb, me jealous of the French. Mais non! I think France has many conservative and patriotic citizens who see their nation being reduced to a welfare, declining, and bankrupt nation. Their conservative parties are actually pretty lively, but not in the majority, yet.
The new German chancellor Merkel is actually much aligned with Bush on Iraq, Iran, and other key points. There may be hope for the Krauts yet. I know for a fact several companies are closing plants in Germany and relocating to Poland for lower wages and a business friendly climate. Germany willhave to suffer severe economic pain before it wakes up and realizes that you cannot have 1/3 of the country working to support the others.
THE FRENCH HELPED US WITH NAVY FOR OUR INDEPENDENCE WE PAYED THEM BACK AGAINST THE GERMANS WHAT DID THAT AMERICAN COMMANDER SAY SETING FOOT ON FRENCH SOIL I KNOW DO YOU IM AMERICAN MY GRAND FATHER A FRENCHMAN WORKED WITH THE FRENCH UNDERGROUND SURRVIVED THE WAR TO DIE HERE IN AMERICA BY DUI ITS A MERICAL IM EVEN HERE