Mike Kelly, Elitist Teabagger From Pennsylvania-- A Lump Of Coal

Mike Kelly?

PA-03, the northwest corner of Pennsylvania (Erie, Meadville, New Castle, down to Pittsburgh's northern suburbs) has traditionally been a swing district. When weak, worthless anti-Choice Blue Dog, Kathy Dahlkemper, beat Phil English in 2008. the PVI was R+2. Dahlkemper beat him 52-48% after running up a 14 point lead in mammoth Erie County while Obama was pummelling McCain there 57-41%. The Republican state legislature immediately redistricted, primarily by taking half of Erie County out of the district and tossing it in the deep red GOP wasteland next door (PA-05), where it's voice will be completely diluted and made meaningless. In 2010 Mike Kelly took the hapless Dahlkemper out 111,909 (55.7%) to 88,924 (44.3%) in a set of circumstances that included disillusionment from base Democratic voters with Dahlkemper's short, ugly conservative record. The district went from an R+2 to an R+8, nice and safe for a corrupt Chamber of Commerce/Wall Street/Big Oil shill and religious crackpot like Mike Kelly.

Kelly was born rich and he's one of Congress' wealthiest and most self-entitled elitist multi-millionaires. He took over the family business of selling cheap Korea cars to Americans and has been relentlessly pushing unfair trade deals with Korea that would benefit his own investments, while devastating his own constituents. But his dad's car dealership and his deals with the Koreans aren't the only things that made Kelly so rich. He married an heir to the Phillips Petroleum fortune. Do you think the millions of dollars in natural gas and oil stocks his wife owns has influenced Kelly's approach to his job in Congress? The guy who didn't talk about his Kia and Hyundai dealerships when he was lobbying for the South Korea Free Trade Agreement, has been as dedicated to Big Oil's toxic agenda as any Texas or Oklahoma crooked congressman. Predictably, Kelly is one of the least green Members of Congress

Some people really hate the Chevy Volt, though we suspect few people hate it as much as Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership owner, and freshman Republican Congressman Mike Kelly. After repeatedly going on record declaring that there is “no market” for the Chevy Volt, on the eve of December 30th, the oil-rich Kelly introduced legislation to repeal the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.

Kelly, who inherited his father’s car dealership in 1995, and married the heiress of the Phillips-Conoco oil company, has introduced legislation repealing the $7,500 tax credit, declaring it wasteful spending. This, despite voting to keep much-more generous subsidies and tax credits for hugely profitable oil companies. Kelly’s reasoning? “We want companies to be profitable.” Opps, looks like he let a little too much truth slip out there!

Then again why would Kelly, who has over $6 million in oil-related assets, want to end these generous subsidies for companies that make him money? How this is not a clear conflict of interest, I do not know, but even Kelly’s own constituents already seem fed up with him, as this video from a July town hall session shows.



In the video above, Kelly talks about poverty and how factories have gone under, yet he seems to have no problem bashing the very people who make the cars he sells. Kelly also tries to deflect the question with a question about pensions and portfolios, before going off on a spiel regarding rich vs. poor, have vs. have-nots, and rather than talk about oil companies he starts talking about GE not paying taxes, and at no point does he answer the actual question.

For a guy who inherited a car dealership, and married an oil heiress, Rep. Mike Kelly certainly has a lot of whining to do about the tax code.

So Saturday, when Boehner let him give the GOP weekly response to President Obama, shouldn't have surprised anyone. Like the horrid Strooge he is, he offered President Obama-- and presumably the American people who elected him twice-- a lump of coal for Christmas. That's what happens when overly rich, white elites get their dander up about a Black person in the White House trying to help ordinary working families. A raging, hysterical enemy of the EPA, Kelly has done all he could to try to gut that agency and he never ceases pushing last century's carbon-based energy sources, which plays conveniently into increasing his own net worth. He is apoplectic that the EPA released new climate regulations on carbon pollution from existing power plants, rules that require dirty plants cut carbon dioxide emission 30% by 2030 from 2005 levels. He says he can't wait to vote for the Keystone XL Pipeline again next year.



This cycle, the DCCC didn't contest Kelly's reelection and he beat Democrat Dan La Vallee, 112,406 (60.5%) to 73,240 (39.5%). With no help from the DCCC, LaVallee raised $408,296 to Kelly's $1,617,901. With born-loser Steve Israel sidelined from the DCCC, will Ben Ray Luján do something different in PA-03?