My Least Favorite Republicans
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
I am going to keep this post short and (not so) sweet because I don’t want to give these blowhards any more attention than they deserve. That being said, here is my “Dishonorable Half-Dozen,” in no particular order.
Mitt Romney – I remember writing an op-ed for our local paper in 2012, titled “Is There a Doctor in the House?” Because America was in the throes of a recession – thanks to Barack Obama’s amateurish mismanagement of the economy – I thought that a businessman with a proven record of turning companies around (Staples, Sports Authority) and salvaging the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was exactly what the country needed at the time.
I still think that Romney had the potential to be a decent president… certainly better than Obama… but he has certainly disappointed me since then. His votes to convict President Trump in his first and second senate trials were bad enough, but his marching with Black Lives Matter lent credence to a blatantly corrupt and politically polarizing organization.
Bill Cassidy – Who? All you need to know about the senior senator from Louisiana is the following flip-flop…
On February 9, 2021, Cassidy voted that President Trump's impeachment trial was unconstitutional. However, after the full Senate voted that the trial was constitutional, Cassidy was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of inciting insurrection.
Mitch McConnell – Supposedly, Mitch is a master negotiator behind the scenes but to me, he presents a terrible public face for the Republican party. Some people say that he looks like a turtle, but I am more concerned about the fact that he talks like one, too. His mumbling monotone does little to inspire or persuade anyone and now that he is having periodic fainting spells, it’s time for the 81-year-old who has represented Kentucky in the Senate for 38 years to go back home.
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski – It is hard not to lump these two left-leaning pseudo-Republicans together. For instance, Collins received a 50% approval rating from Planned Parenthood and an even higher 64% rating from NARAL (the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws). Meanwhile, the Susan B. Anthony List gave her a meager 15% approval rating and National Right to Life awarded her a big, fat zero.
Whereas the average Senate Republican receives a score of 78% from the Heritage Foundation, Collins got a 36% in the current session of Congress and a lifetime score of 23%.
As for Murkowski, she received a 32% session / 33% lifetime score from the Heritage Foundation and higher ratings from pro-abortion organizations than she did from pro-life ones. Say… no… more, except that Maine and Alaska could do a whole lot better than these two wishy-washy fence-straddlers.
John Thune – And to think I used to like the senior senator from South Dakota and once supported his presidential aspirations! Nowadays, I imagine Thune spends more time admiring himself in the mirror, currying favor with the moderates, and jockeying for power within the GOP caucus than he does representing the good folks of the Mount Rushmore State.
Want proof? His lackluster lifetime score from the Heritage Foundation is 62% while his score for the current session is an even more dismal 42%. That just doesn’t cut it, John.
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