It was bad enough when he jumped all over Representative John Murtha for a completely innocuous comment about the situation in Iraq. Murtha committed the gravest of sins, calling the war “unwinnable.” He was immediately branded unpatriotic by Johnson, who used the comment as his issue of the moment.
That doesn’t sound terribly unsupportive to me. In fact, it sounds like he’s saying we need to support them more. But you knew that, Sam. Didn’t you?
And now he’s at it again, this time because Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa added a provision to a defense bill that would call for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services provides more balanced programming.
See, at the moment they’re playing Rush Limbaugh. The Democrats believe that as long as they’re playing a far far right personality, why not balance it out with someone from the left? You know, maybe someone who doesn’t think torture is a beautiful idea. Sounds like a fair idea to me.
Not to Mr. Johnson though. What did he say when he found out the Democrats wanted to balance the broadcasting a little? “Sounds a little like communism to me.”
Nobody slap me on the back for a few minutes. My eyes have rolled back so far that I can’t see, and I don’t want 'em to stick like that. I decided that every time this idiot says something asinine I’m going to send twenty bucks to his opponent, so I hit the TDP’s website to find out who it is.
Seriously. A lot of people have entered politics just because they got mad enought at something or somebody. The Texas Democratic Party would, no doubt, be happy to have more of their slots filled with candidates who can at least present themselves respectably.
It might be one of those throw-away districts. I learned about those on West Wing. They used Orange County California as their example. The DNC wouldn’t put any money behind anyone there because it was too hopeless.
This is actually a very interesting topic (and by “very interesting” I mean “something I know a small bit about”). The local independent paper here did their main article last week about a couple who, when the husband was in Iraq, the wife protested. A lot. Protested here, protested in France, protested where Bush traveled, etc., most with and through Military Families Speak Out.
His job in Iraq was to set up and facilitate the Iraqi Media Network… screw it, here’s the link:
That’s a curious thing to mention. Does Rep. Johnson still believe those murky legends about American POW’s still being held captive by our Indochinese foes?
Anyway, this statement seems par for the course for a Texas Republican. I feel sorry for any Democrat (or rational person) who lives in this guy’s district but people like him do provide good fodder of some of Molly Ivin’s more entertaining columns.
Bah. He probably thinks the Indochinese and the Muslims are working together to bring down Capitalism, Christianity, and Heterosexuals, and that everyone who doubts him should be sent to the salt mines.
Or maybe he doesn’t. But he has no apparent ability with logical thought.
Oh, you mean that staunch Republican Loretta Sanchez (D - Orange County, Ca.)? OK, to be fair, the majority of OC’s districts have twice as many Republicans as Democrats, but they are fielding candidates in every district, and Sanchez originally won her district from “B-1 Bob” Dornan.
Perhaps the Hon. Mr. Johnson would like to visit Rep. Murtha’s (and my) hometown of Johnstown, PA, to make a speech on this issue. I’m sure he’d get a warm reception.*
*full disclosure: Congressman Jack is practically worshipped there, as there’s a general impression among his constituency that he’s very diligent about taking care of their interests; i.e. that he’s been pretty good at steering little tidbits of federal funding to the area, amongst other things. Also, I have friends who live on the same street as Murtha’s family. Every year there is a block party on that street, and the Rep. almost always shows up to mingle with the neighbors. That alone is enough to mean that Rep. Johnson is at risk of violent attack by an army of middle-aged housewives wielding lukewarm tuna-noodle casseroles.
Plus, Murtha’s an ex-Marine Colonel and a Viet Nam vet, fer cryin’ out loud.
This doesn’t at all contradict what Liberal said. A very good friend of mine is running for Congress and against an entrenched GOP incumbent who has been around for many years. The DNC told him that he had to make certain fundraising and poll number goals before they would give him support. If they determined that the seat was truely in play, the sky would be the limit.
By the way, Loretta Sanchez Brixey is in a district with a huge and recent immigrant Hispanic base. She suddenly found her roots and dropped her married name when she ran for election. She beat out Dornan who is a certified kook and as far Right as it is possible to be. Even the most forgiving of moderate Republicans couldn’t take him anymore.
Sadly, the libraries are closed for the 4th of July weekend, so I can’t provide an exact example here, but this sort of statement is par for the course for Johnson. He’s stated stuff like this throughout his 13 years in Congress.
And, for the record, his North Dallas district is one of the staunchest Reps seats in Texas.
Um, due respect to both of you whom I admire, but could you kindly get your shit together? At the top right is a welcome message spelling out who is logged in. I’m not asking you to be perfect, but y’all are doing this like four times a day lately. The PTB have extended those of us with one computer in a household the courtesy of allowing us to post. Yes, we fuck up from time to time on rare occasions. And you two used to do a lot better than you have recently. But sooner or later something bad is going to happen as a result of people not logging out their SO. And when it does, we might all lose our privileges. So why don’t you and Airman (or you and Robyn, depending on who you are) take a brief timeout to strategize how you can make a habit of checking the top right of the page before posting, or how you can make a habit of logging out when you’re done. Okay?
I understand the concept of “checking to see who’s logged in”. Last time I sat down, however, it was I who was checked in and didn’t know that Airman had logged in in the meantime.
That said, we are working on getting our computer upgraded sufficiently so that we can load XP or at least figure out a way to get profiles on here so that we have our own copies of Explorer.