Insolence of Office
Having been given my position in the family business, I’m more inclined to give Luke Russert a break, except he doesn’t need it. He isn’t content to be “Luke Russert, son of the late Tim Russert.” Working for MSNBC, he approached Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Bedrock) with some questions about his pending ethics investigations. He asked the Harlem representative if he thought that the investigation would cost him his job. Rangel was not terribly pleased, and replied “Basically you know it’s a dumb question, and I’m not going to respond.”
Except the question is a brilliant one. The New York Times investigated and found allegations of unreported gifts, income and assets and failure to pay his taxes. Quite a Murderer’s Row of unethical behavior, there. The question of “do you think you’ll lose your job?” is only slightly less brilliant than “So, did you do it, Representative?” and Luke gets a hearty ¡ole! from me for actually asking a piercing question and not just giving cover. And that little exchange we see all we need to know about the 20-time carryover champion from Harlem, New York. I don’t have to answer your stupid question so get out of my face.
(Now, the reason Rangel is routinely returned to the beltway is because he brings back the money to Harlem. There’s only so big a pie, and he gets a heaping slice to take back to his constituents. Everyone who complains about earmarks and stuff, that’s how you get things like bridges, dams and roads. Someone is back in Washington D.C. grappling to get it, and the ones who are really good at it are sent back to do it again. So we can complain about complacency all we want, but that’s a big part of the machine.
Coincidentally, this isn’t the only case of a Representative taking umbrage at a question. In June 2010, Rep. Bob Etheridge, out of South Carolina’s Fighting Second District, encountered a couple of young college aged kids in Washington, D.C. While rolling video, they asked him if the Representative “fully supported the Obama agenda.” He then grabbed one of the young men by the wrists, neck, shirt. He repeatedly asked who the young men were, and the rest is Youtube history.
But arrogance from incumbency is nothing new. Rep. Pete Stark (D-California’s 13th) ran against George Miller in 1972 by saying, “Hey, I’m not that guy who has been your Assemblyman for 28 years,” and won by a handy margin. Stark is still there. He has a laundry list of abhorrent behavior, from a raving lunatic phone call responding to a member of the Army National Guard, to various batty comments on the House floor, and his mocking of a Minuteman at a town hall.
And there’s Barbara Boxer dresses down a military officer for calling her "ma’am." Sheila Jackson-Lee fields phone calls during a town hall when not forgetting that North and South Vietnam had merged thirty-five years ago. And I haven’t even plumbed the depths, those are just the most easy-to-find national stories. In local news, Covington’s own Geoff Simpson decided that his ex-wife didn’t need to visit her daughter who was recuperating at Children’s Hospital because it wasn’t her visitation day. So he blocked her out as if he was boxing a zone defense in the paint, and barricaded the door. What a classy, classy guy.
There are a bunch of people who are getting tired of the arrogance of incumbency. All of those Tea Partiers who aren’t articulate, who can’t quite put into words what is bothering them about politics today, are seeing this, and they’re not happy. Incumbents are normally returned to office at a rate of 95 percent. In a normal year, nineteen of twenty are given the keys to the kingdom again. This is not a normal year. People aren’t going to put up with rudeness, with arrogance, with the idea that once you get your name on that little brass plate, you don’t have to worry about the little guy. We will send the opposite message. You do not turn into a rock star in that hall. You represent us, we elect you, not the other way around.
Except the question is a brilliant one. The New York Times investigated and found allegations of unreported gifts, income and assets and failure to pay his taxes. Quite a Murderer’s Row of unethical behavior, there. The question of “do you think you’ll lose your job?” is only slightly less brilliant than “So, did you do it, Representative?” and Luke gets a hearty ¡ole! from me for actually asking a piercing question and not just giving cover. And that little exchange we see all we need to know about the 20-time carryover champion from Harlem, New York. I don’t have to answer your stupid question so get out of my face.
(Now, the reason Rangel is routinely returned to the beltway is because he brings back the money to Harlem. There’s only so big a pie, and he gets a heaping slice to take back to his constituents. Everyone who complains about earmarks and stuff, that’s how you get things like bridges, dams and roads. Someone is back in Washington D.C. grappling to get it, and the ones who are really good at it are sent back to do it again. So we can complain about complacency all we want, but that’s a big part of the machine.
Coincidentally, this isn’t the only case of a Representative taking umbrage at a question. In June 2010, Rep. Bob Etheridge, out of South Carolina’s Fighting Second District, encountered a couple of young college aged kids in Washington, D.C. While rolling video, they asked him if the Representative “fully supported the Obama agenda.” He then grabbed one of the young men by the wrists, neck, shirt. He repeatedly asked who the young men were, and the rest is Youtube history.
But arrogance from incumbency is nothing new. Rep. Pete Stark (D-California’s 13th) ran against George Miller in 1972 by saying, “Hey, I’m not that guy who has been your Assemblyman for 28 years,” and won by a handy margin. Stark is still there. He has a laundry list of abhorrent behavior, from a raving lunatic phone call responding to a member of the Army National Guard, to various batty comments on the House floor, and his mocking of a Minuteman at a town hall.
And there’s Barbara Boxer dresses down a military officer for calling her "ma’am." Sheila Jackson-Lee fields phone calls during a town hall when not forgetting that North and South Vietnam had merged thirty-five years ago. And I haven’t even plumbed the depths, those are just the most easy-to-find national stories. In local news, Covington’s own Geoff Simpson decided that his ex-wife didn’t need to visit her daughter who was recuperating at Children’s Hospital because it wasn’t her visitation day. So he blocked her out as if he was boxing a zone defense in the paint, and barricaded the door. What a classy, classy guy.
There are a bunch of people who are getting tired of the arrogance of incumbency. All of those Tea Partiers who aren’t articulate, who can’t quite put into words what is bothering them about politics today, are seeing this, and they’re not happy. Incumbents are normally returned to office at a rate of 95 percent. In a normal year, nineteen of twenty are given the keys to the kingdom again. This is not a normal year. People aren’t going to put up with rudeness, with arrogance, with the idea that once you get your name on that little brass plate, you don’t have to worry about the little guy. We will send the opposite message. You do not turn into a rock star in that hall. You represent us, we elect you, not the other way around.