EXTREME NUTTINESS
10/27/2003
In terms of political nuttiness, perhaps you thought that California
was tops -- but I have to put in a bid for my beloved Texas as
nuttiest of them all.
Yes, California has its flash recall elections and its Governor Arnold
-- but no where else but Texas has Tom DeLay, Arlene Wohlegmuth and
Debbie Riddle.
Tom, a former pest exterminator, has now become the pest as Republican
majority leader of the U.S. House.
He's a vituperative, right-wing partisan extremist of the top order of
nuttiness -- think Newt Gingrich on Viagra.
This little general recently seized the state government of Texas to
re-redistrict the state.
Tom was upset that the official redistricting, done by a bipartisan
panel of judges in 2001, was failing to elect enough Republicans to
congress.
Unable to beat the Democrats at the polls, Tom literally drew his own
map of congressional districts and browbeat the state's
lackey-Republican leaders into gerrymandering Texas to fit his
right-wing agenda -- democracy be damned.
Tom's autocratic attitude is echoed in the legislative loopiness of
state rep Arlene Wohlgemuth, a tireless, right-wing scolder of poor
people.
She wants a new "nanny law" to crack down on poor families by cutting
off their medical benefits if they don't follow a list of state
behavior rules, including how much they drink.
She declares that people who get taxpayer subsidies should have to
modify their behavior.
I wonder if Arlene would apply this to martini-swilling CEOs who get
way more taxpayer benefits than poor people do?
Then there's Rep. Debbie Riddle, whose ideological extremism hits the
red zone of radical kookiness.
In March, she declared that the idea of free public education is an
idea that "comes from Moscow, from Russia, It comes straight from the
pit of hell."
California's going to have to go some to catch up with our Texas
nutballs.
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Mornin' coffee with Jim Hightower.
Harry
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