SANTORUM UNVEILS HIS LATEST DRAG OUTFIT & THE HOUSE VOTES ITSELF A FAT, SNEAKY PAY-RAISE

That revolting photo was pretty much the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning! Christy over at firedoglake e-mailed me the link around 6AM. No one should have to contemplate a photo of Rick Santorum doing his best Andy Bell impersonation-- on the floor of the U.S. Senate no less-- at 6AM. But the reason ole Man-On-Dog woke up yesterday morning and looked through his wardrobe and decided to get into that drag outfit wasn't because he thought it was Halloween. Nope, it was Seersucker Day in the U.S. Senate.

Yes, 2,500 American military deaths have now been reported from Bush's Iraq misadventure and the Senate decided to have a fancy dress party, instead of a serious debate about how to end the mess. House members, more openly-- even ostentatiously-- motivated by pure avarice decided to mark the occasion by giving themselves a nice fat raise.

Dana Milbank over at WAPO points out the resolution calling for the removal of most American troops by year's end never got off the ground. "It was difficult to take the senators seriously: A third of them wore blue-and-white striped suits in honor of 'Seersucker Thursday,' making the floor of the Senate resemble a Good Humor convention."

Not that it is ever easy to take Bill Frist seriously, he seemed even more idiotic that usual in his seersucker suit and white shoes spouting off mechanically that "If we were to cut and run bloody civil war would result." Before anyone could point out that bloody civil war has already resulted from the policies he has been relentlessly pushing, he scampered off the Senate floor and returned to his office, where free ice cream was being served to all. The rest of the senators soon left also since no one wanted to be late for the annual congressional picnic at the White House.

The House Republicans made sure everybody-- everybody in the House, not us, of course-- got a nice fat pay raise, despite the fact that we (their employers) hate them and think they're doing a really lousy job. Let's see... a $3,300 raise means each one of these crooks now makes $168,500. Jim Matheson (D-UT), a conservative who this blog has never once mentioned in a positive way before, actually tried to stop the raise from going through. No one joined him.

"I do not think that it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up-or-down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay," he said. But by a 249-167 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get even a direct vote on the pay raise, living breathing buckets of slime eager to cover their tracks so that the voters will never know who voted for a pay raise and who voted against it. They're so dirty and tricky. The annual "debate" on the members' raise is an insulting farce: both Democratic and Republican leaders coral sizable majorities of their sheep members to block any effort at real debate or accountability, and they make sure there is not a clear-cut vote on the measure. Neither corrupt Inside-the-Beltway party uses the pay-raise issue in campaigns.

Go watch the video of Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (GA-8) and tell me you think your tax dollars should be going to give this worthless lump of excrement a raise for the "job" he's doing. It is very, very difficult to find out who voted which way on this-- they make sure of that-- but I tracked it down for you. Let's look at the Down With Tyranny Hall of Shame Members-- the worst, most corrupt members of the House-- and see who voted themselves a pay-raise:
Joe Barton (TX)
Charlie Bass (NH)
Brian Bilbray (CA-- welcome back!)
Roy Blunt (MO)
Henry Bonilla (TX)
Mary Bono (CA)
Dan Burton (IN)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Eric Cantor (VA)
Barbara Cubin (WY)
John Doolittle (CA)
David Dreier (CA)
Phil English (PA)
Tom Feeney (FL)
Mark Foley (FL)
Jane Harman (CA)
Katherine Harris (FL)
"Doc" Hastings (WA)
John Hostettler (IN)
Steny Hoyer (MD)
Darrell Issa (CA)
Ernest Istook (OK)
Steve King (IA)
Peter King (NY)
John Kline (MN)
Joe Knollenberg (MI)
Jerry Lewis (CA)
Jim McCrery (LA)
Gary Miller (CA)
Bob Ney (OH)
Mike Pence (IN)
Richard Pombo (CA)
Deborah Pryce (OH)
Howdy Doody-looking Nimrod Putnam (FL)
Jean Schmidt (OH)
Tom Tancredo (CO)
Ellen Tauscher (CA)
Heather Wilson (NM)
Al Wynn (MD)
Don Young (AK)

The Pennsylvania state legislature pulled the same kind of stunt last year. You remember what happened? Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill, two particularly sleazy and notoriously dishonest Republicrooks were defeated in their primary races! And a dozen other Republican state legislators also lost their seats. Good precedent! If every person on the above list were defeated, America would be a much, much better and safer and more equitable place.

Oh-- and I almost forgot-- Republicans didn't just dress up like imbeciles this week, eat ice-cream and go to picnics at the White House. They also turned down a Democratic proposal for a small increase in the minimum wage, at the same time they were wondering what to buy with their own raises. Nice touch!