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I know that Republican legislators generally aren’t picked for their brainpower — intelligence might make it harder for them to follow orders, and the idea is for the mass of them to do whatever their staffers (who often are hand-picked by their top donors or their patrons within the party) tell them to do — but really, is there a dumber member of Congress, at least in Minnesota, than John Kline?
Here’s a nice example from the town hall he held in the junior high school of Shakopee, a Twin Cities suburb in his congressional district. Now you all know how Congress is scrambling, in the wake of last Sunday’s 60 Minutes exposé, to pass the STOCK Act to outlaw insider trading by members of Congress. It’s not passed yet, but it might be by the end of the week.
According to John Kline, it’s already illegal — as he repeatedly states to an audience filled with people who know better — and he seems to imply that it’s been illegal for some time.
Even better: He claims that he never got a Congressional pay raise over the last four years, but the truth is that he got two pay raises, both pretty sizable ones. I don’t know how rich, dumb, or both one has to be not to notice when your take-home pay starts going up; I’m sure most of the folks filling that Shakopee junior-high auditorium aren’t so rich or so stupid that they wouldn’t notice a few extra bucks in their paychecks.
Just watch the video. Kline has to be seen to be believed. I almost suspect he’s really a wannabee Grecian Formula model who took a wrong turn on his way to the casting call and wound up at Republican headquarters instead; that’s the only explanation that makes sense for his career.
9 Comments
It must be true cause John Kline said it.
Looks like a fellah who turns his whole paycheck over to “the wife” without opening it, so maybe she just hasn’t raised his allowance or told him about his pay raise.
It’s funny to watch because the audience members KNOW he’s wrong and/or lying, and call him on it — and he repeats it all anyway after being loudly corrected!
Heh!
I call this sort of thing ‘Talking to Bowling Balls’.
You get the same sort of satisfaction.
He’s got his script and by gum he’s sticking to it!
Oh, yes — the STOCK Act (which would make insider trading by congresscritters illegal) is currently being held up by Eric Cantor under the pretense of making it better (which I think we may translate as meaning “I hope to hell the public forgets about the 60 Minutes exposé soon so we can quietly kill this bill”.
Minnesota’s own Tim Walz, from the Fighting First Congressional District, has teamed up with Louise Slaughter (D-NY) to force a vote on the bill this week: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1007-other/208043-house-dems-looking-to-force-vote-on-insider-trading-ban
(And yes, he introduced the bill.)
OK
Not proven wrong. Just as I thought.
Veal Pen politics and Kabuki Theatre at its finest.
Do you know anything about the bill in question, Michael?
Did you know, for instance, that Louise Slaughter’s been trying to get that bill passed for years — and now finally has the chance to do so?
Of course not. You’re just being your standard trollish self, holding your grudge because I don’t worship you or your convicted-felon buddy, Dean “hey why don’t release the tapes and show everyone how guilty you are” Zimmermann.
Oh, well. The more I post, the more time you and Maki spend in my threads, and the less time you have to play the off-topic toddler in other people’s threads.