CURTAINS FOR CRAZY BABSY CUBIN? GARY TRAUNER LOOKING GOOD IN WYOMING'S ONE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

It's pretty nauseating that Wyoming (population 506,529, a tenth less than Washington, DC, which has no senators; of course Washington is 70% non-white and Wyoming is just under 90% white) has two U.S. Senators-- both extremist loons, Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas. The good news isn't that they elected a Democratic governor-- all I ever heard from Dave Freudenthal was a gratuitous Rovian talking points attack on Howard Dean-- but that the sparsely populated state has only one House seat.

If you want to see what a rubber stamp right-winger's voting record looks like, just click on Barbara Cubin's. But her excruciatingly bad voting record-- alwaysagainst the interests of her middle and working class constituents and always in favor of the Big Business interests which have financed her miserable political career-- isn't even what makes Cubin singularly eligible for a place on a list of the 10 worst congresspersons in the country.

Before she was elected to Congress in 1994, the nasty, elitist ex-cheerleader was in the state legislature where she made a name for herself by distributing penis-shaped cookies to the other members
During a House debate on a bill that sought to limit the civil liability of firearms dealers and manufacturers (H.R. 1036), the Wyoming bigot got worked up into hysteria, lost control of herself and started spewing the hatred and racism always just lurking beneath her frosty surface. “I am going to tell you what," snarled America's Ava Braun. "My sons are now 25 and 30, and they're blond-haired and blue-eyed. One amendment said we couldn't sell [guns] to anybody that was on drugs or had drug treatment or something like that. Well, so does that mean if you go into a black community, you can't sell any gun to any black person? Or does that mean that because my..."

Although she struggled mightily to control her arm from the giving the Nazi salute, the whole House was in shock and before she could finish her racist rant, Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) calmly interrupted her to object to her characterization of the African-American community. Watt asked that Cubin's remarks be stricken from the Congressional Record. By now the crackpot congresswoman had worked herself into an explosive lather and she flatly refused. Watt put his request to a vote and the entire Party of Racism and Bigotry rallied round their gal and Cubin prevailed 227 to 195, embedding her insane rant in the Congressional record for all time.

Although her Republican predecessors in the At-Large House seat would rack up 70% of the vote, 2 years ago she squeaked by with 55%. Unfortunately for her, she has a far more formidable opponent to face in November than she's ever had before. And with investigations in full swing into the Republican Culture of Corruption, the big money she was getting from crooked lobbyists-- yes, she was one of Abramoff's little darlings (and accepted over $20,000 in tainted money from DeLay)-- has dried up and she won't have the 3-1 money advantage she had over her last Democratic opponent. This time she's up against Gary Trauner, a well-respected entrepreneur from Wilson.

Gary co-founded OneWest.net, a regional Internet Service Provider based in Jackson Hole. As CFO he acquired 12 companies and OneNet employed over 70 people. Onewest.net was recently bought by a Wyoming regional telecommunications company and Gary has devoted himself to public service. As an entrepreneur he's experienced firsthand the issues that matter most to working people-- how to pay for health care, how to achieve a quality education, how to juggle work and family, how to provide a decent "living" wage, and freedom from unreasonable government and corporate intrusion. This is what is what has informed Gary's campaign and what has united Democrats and independents behind him.

Gary seems like a populist with a very independent streak and the latest Rasmussen Poll shows a statistical dead heat already (a very bad omen for a long-time incumbent). This is a race worth keeping an eye on. I know I will.