I was turned on to Monica Conyers’ famous outburst at a Detroit City Council meeting (where she called the president of the council “Shrek”). Even better was the clip of her getting pwned by a 8th grader about her lack of decorum:
What’s worse, the lady was a teacher before becoming a councilwoman. Never fear, however - she was recently found guilty of accepting bribes and conspiracy. She’s gone from office, thank God:
This got me thinking - who are the most embarrassing people to hold public office? The list of fools elected to office is long, but I’d have to give Monica a pretty high place on the list.
Who has embarrassed themselves, their citizenry, and the democratic process through their conduct? I’m not just looking for folks who you don’t agree with politically, but people who lack the composure, logic, or intelligence to represent themselves in public.
Representative William Dannemeyer, of Orange County CA was sadly pre-youtube. I had friends who stayed registered republican just so they could vote against him twice. He was against spending money on AIDS prevention, and mae the most amazing comments about “spores” from those infected causing birth defects. Such an angry man, I thought for sure he’d be dead by now, but his wikipedia page does not list his death.
Seriously, I know the good citizens of Ward 8 in DC are thrilled to have Marion Barry representing them, but the rest of us could do without his shenanigans…including hisrecent adulterous, semi-stalker relationship with a woman who he also paid to do contract work for his office.
Oh yeah, and the whole failure to pay taxes + cocaine use stuff…that’s old hat.
That was hilarious. I nominate 8th grade student Kierra Bell as Councilwoman Conyers’ replacement. From the evidence in that video, she could do the job about one hundred times better.
Yeah. Just as you’re about to castigate the city of Detroit and consign it to oblivion, a 13 year old offers a ray of hope.
Conyers is so pathetic. She’s trying so hard to win the kids over, but none of them are having it. I love how she tries to draw a parallel to the kids’ experiences, but as Ms. Bell says, “YOU’RE AN ADULT. You can make better choices.”
That kid is going places. Hope she and her peers do a better job of steering her city than the current scrapheap of grafters.
I try to avoid coverage of it, because hearing her name makes my insides simmer, but I’m pretty sure Conyers quit because she’s in the midst of a bribery/corruption FBI investigation.
HBO is airing a documentary about good ol’ Marion this week. It’s a tragic story - he was a strong leader, clearly working for the people in the 60s and 70s… and then lost the plot.
Memphis Ex-Mayor Willie Herenton. A senile old fool, an idiot, and a clown who made a mess out of Memphis and then quit to run for Congress. No, wait, he’s in the mayor’s race again cos he doesn’t like the interim mayor. GET LOST, MORON! And, oh yeah, quit playing the race card every time you don’t get your way.
Holy sheeeeeyit! That was fucking awesome! That girl pwned Conyer like there was no tomorrow. She has more bad assery in one hand (her bitch smacking hand I presume) than myself and probably a few of my friends combined!
Tara Singh Varma (born in Springlands (British Guyana), August 29, 1948) is a former Dutch politician and former member of the House of Representatives for the GreenLeft party who gained notoriety after falsely claiming to suffer from an incurable cancer.
In 2000 Singh Varma claimed that she was less able to perform her work as Member of Parliament. Twice she appeared in the House of Representatives in a wheelchair. She claimed to suffer from an incurable form of cancer and announced that she would leave the House of Representatives to prepare for the end of her life.
In June 2001 the TROS television show Framed discovered that Singh Varma did not suffer from cancer. Moreover, according to this program, Singh Varma had not fulfilled financial promises to the Indian development organization Ninash Foundation, which had put the organization into financial problems.
First Singh Varma denied both claims and sued the journalists. In August 2001 she claimed that she had not suffered from cancer and instead suffered from post traumatic stress disorder after far right threats and her commitment to the victims of the plane crash in the Bijlmermeer. In 2002 she publicly apologized for her actions. She denied lying on purpose about her diseases and stated that she suffered from delusions and medical condition called pseudologia fantastica. Paul Rosenmöller, political leader of the GreenLeft at the time writes that he felt “cheated and angry” because of her revelations. He had personally wheeled her in her wheelchair into Parliament for a moving, teary farewell gathering.
After leaving parliament Singh Varma became editor of the People’s Newspaper Suriname around 2005. Later she worked in a Suriname deli.
Here in northeast Ohio, there’s James Traficant, the former Democratic congressman who’s about to be released after eight years in the pokey on charges of being convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and wearing the most hideous toupee since Howard Cosell: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/Traficant.jpg
He’s been the news again lately because of his impending release on Sept. 2, and because the Mahoning Valley Scrappers Class A baseball team were forced to cancel “Traficant Release Night” after protests that it was in bad taste. When Traficant went to jail, those wearing a toupee to a Scrappers game got in free.
Herenton’s not senile, just crazy. He’s said over and over that God chose him to run Memphis. And don’t forget that Willie says he’s staying in the congressional race even as he runs for mayor(again).
