Pop the popcorn, kids, it’s wingnut-on-wingnut crime time again. This time it’s Rep. Peter King, one of the loopiest Republican congressmen, against the speaker of the house, John Boehner. King is furious that Boehner didn’t bring up a bill to send billions in aid to the states impacted by Hurricane Sandy. It seems the speaker promised to bring it up for a vote and then changed his mind.
KING: No one even told us, the Speaker walked off the floor, told an aide to the Majority Leader that the Congress was finished. There were no votes and they come back and told us. Listen, I’m not taking this as personal offense. I’m talking about the thousands of people in my district, hundreds of thousands of people throughout the New York-New Jersey area. Within 10 days after Katrina, $60 billion was appropriated. Nine weeks after Sandy, not one penny has been appropriated. And let me just make this one point. These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars. They’re in New York all the time filling pockets with money from New Yorkers. I’m saying anyone from New York and New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their mind. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, it was an absolute disgrace. …
Why the Republican party has bias against New York, this bias against New Jersey, this bias against the Northeast. They wonder why they’re becoming minority party. Why we’ll be party of the permanent minority. What they did last night was so immoral, so disgraceful, so irresponsible. They’re supposed to be the party of family values. And you have families that are starving, families that are suffering, families that are spread all over living in substandard housing. This was a disgrace. They are inexcusable. And they have had it. As far as I’m concerned I’m on my own. They’re going to have to go a long way to get my vote on anything.
Now you better stop that or you’ll make Boehner cry and that will make his spray tan all streaky.
23 comments
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daved
January 4, 2013 at 2:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s all water (mostly tears, I suppose) under the bridge at this point; Boehner has promised to schedule the votes forthwith. I wonder if he’d have been re-elected as speaker if he hadn’t?
ph041985
January 4, 2013 at 2:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Basically he took it all back within a few hours.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/02/1175769/-Boehner-wins-back-Peter-King-by-promising-Sandy-relief-vote-in-2-weeks
What’s the definition of a bribe, again?
Raging Bee
January 4, 2013 at 2:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This time, King is sounding totally sane, not to mention absolutely right. And he’s getting ouraged about something other than Muslims, which is an additional improvement.
Not only that, but he didn’t advocate conceal-carry permits as a solution to the storm damage! Is this guy really a Republican?
Reginald Selkirk
January 4, 2013 at 2:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It wouldn’t occur to King that a comment like that might come back to bite him some day.
Raging Bee
January 4, 2013 at 3:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Basically he took it all back within a few hours.
Yet another reminder of who is really in charge of the Republican Party — it ain’t the people with actual real-world responsibilities. Offhand, I’m guessing King had to cave just to keep his precious committee chairmanship/Islamophobic bully-pulpit.
John Hinkle
January 4, 2013 at 3:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m going to have to side with Boehner on this one. Having the federal government bail out the sorry saps who decided to live within the path of a perfect storm sounds like Big Government intrusion to me. They should pull up their bootstraps and take personal responsibility for their actions, instead of waiting for a handout. Well you know what, lazy storm victims? The Tea Baggers in the House, as God intended, can’t hear your freeloading cries for help! So go have a bake sale!
slc1
January 4, 2013 at 3:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The bill for the first installment passed this afternoon and was sent to the president.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/04/us-storm-sandy-aid-idUSBRE90001Q20130104
otrame
January 4, 2013 at 3:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What I want to try to understand is who in hell thought that refusing to help out Sandy victims was a good political move. I mean, sure, there are people who basically say, “He ain’t MY brother, and I wouldn’t carry him anywhere even if he was as light as a feather”. But do they really think that there is a large group of people who think that? Really?
John Horstman
January 4, 2013 at 3:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What a hypocrite. Public assistance programs are bad, unless they’re for Peter King’s voters? Asshat.
raven
January 4, 2013 at 4:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Another group of those 47% moochers. Add them in with the auto companies, Wall Street, and the banks.
iangould
January 4, 2013 at 4:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“This time, King is sounding totally sane, not to mention absolutely right. And he’s getting ouraged about something other than Muslims, which is an additional improvement.
Not only that, but he didn’t advocate conceal-carry permits as a solution to the storm damage! Is this guy really a Republican?”
Nah he just got angry and slipped out of character and was honest for once.
abb3w
January 4, 2013 at 5:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder what Majority leader Eric Cantor’s stance was, given the 2011 earthquake in Cantor’s district.
scienceavenger
January 4, 2013 at 5:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What they did last night was so immoral, so disgraceful, so irresponsible. They’re supposed to be the party of family values. And you have families that are starving, families that are suffering, families that are spread all over living in substandard housing. This was a disgrace.
When King said this, I almost fell out of my chair. Make him black, and put him in front of Katrina victims, and he becomes every Democrat the GOP rails against. Those families are suffering because they are lazy, right? And they should move somewhere else if they can’t take care of themselves there, right? No?
Once again, take a Republican and make him deal with reality instead of theory, and he becomes a Democrat.
slc1
January 4, 2013 at 6:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re scienceavenger
In fairness, it was Steve King from Kansas that complained about aid to victims of Katrina, not Peter King of New York.
Artor
January 4, 2013 at 6:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Otrame #8
Look at it this way; If you’re rich, you were able to effectively secure your home against damage before the storm hit, and were probably heavily insured. You might even come out ahead after the payout! So obviously, you don’t need a government handout. If you’re poor and lost everything, then it’s your fault and you’re just a lazy moocher. No aid for you!
Yeah, it’s stupid & simplistic thinking, but most Republican congressmen are stupid simpletons. I’m actually amazed that Rep. King said something sensible for once! If these 2 paragraphs were all someone knew of King, they might think he wasn’t a fucking idiot.
fifthdentist
January 4, 2013 at 6:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“… take a Republican and make him deal with reality instead of theory, and he becomes a Democrat.”
Why do you think they expend so much effort to prevent reality from leaking into their minds, and more importantly into the minds of their voters? To the extent they have an entire “news” network and whole radio spectrum devoted to that endeavor.
democommie
January 4, 2013 at 7:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Another group of those 47% moochers. Add them in with the auto companies, Wall Street, and the banks.”
Pretty soon the 47% will be a super majority.
Re: Steve King:
He’s resolutely deterministical to keep those welfare bums in Naw’lins and Joisey from STEALING MONEY FROM HIS CONSITUENTS. He opposes ALL such aid and, um:
http://steveking.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3610&catid=71:press-releases&Itemid=300164
boy, how’bout them Hawkeyes!
F [disappearing]
January 4, 2013 at 7:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh yes, please, let’s hear more comparisons about how Katrina and Sandy were handled. The aid bit, yes, these people need aid (and it should have been appropriated more quickly for Katrina as well), but the fedgov also needs to stop telling people and developers that it is OK to build and live in some of these areas by supporting them . The effects of these storms are always worse because we keep fucking with the coasts, interfering with sediment and longshore drift, and living too close to the danger zone. Stop dredging, modifying, building, and beach nourishment. This is the best thing governments can do (but won’t).
d.c.wilson
January 4, 2013 at 8:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
F@18:
And let the rest of the country be overrun with Snookies? Keep The jerseyites in New Jersey!
acroyear
January 4, 2013 at 9:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Odd. When you named the names, I thought of the opposite possibility (inspired by the Onion, I suppose) -
“House Republicans Furious with Speaker for not Allowing Them To Vote Against Hurricane Relief”
shripathikamath
January 4, 2013 at 11:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That was fleeting. King and Boehner kissed and made up
catlover
January 5, 2013 at 2:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There is almost no place on earth that is not subject to one or more natural disasters on a recurring basis” hurricanes (yes, probably made worse because of global climate change — and Sandy was TWO THOUSAND MILES WIDE!!), floods, earthquakes, fires, volcanic eruptions, etc.
It was amazing that King actually talked as though he cared about ordinary people. Too bad it didn’t last. (How could it? He’s a politician — a mugwump: his mug’s on one side of the fence, his wump’s on the other.)
Patrick from Michigan (Yes, that one!)
January 5, 2013 at 7:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
*snicker*