Is Ken Buck (R-CO) The Worst Member Of Congress?

2014 was a good year for the GOP and a poor one for Democrats. In Congress 41 Republicans were part of the freshman class, but just 17 Democrats. The Democrats wisely elected Ted Lieu freshman class president. The Republicans, less wisely, elected Colorado crackpot and extremist Ken Buck their freshman class president. Almost 3 decades before that, a young Ken Buck was hired by then-Congressman Dick Cheney to disrupt the Iran-Contra investigation which led to his hiring by the Department of Justice, from which he was fired after being reprimanded on ethics charges in 2001. He was elected Weld County, Colorado District Attorney and led unconstitutional raids meant to target undocumented workers, raids that the Colorado Supreme Court declared unconstitutional and fined Weld County $150,000.

In 2010 Buck ran for the U.S. Senate as the anti-healthcare tea party candidate. He ran a vicious, misogynistic, anti-establishment primary campaign against Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton. Buck won the primary 209,638 (51.6%) to 196,954 (48.4%). Although conservative Democrat Michael Bennet swamped him financially (over $11 million to less than $4 million), Buck kept it close, although Bennet won, 851,590 (48.1%) to 822,731 (46.4%).

Four years later, Buck won himself a seat in the House. GOP extremist Cory Gardner gave up his safe 4th district House seat to run for the U.S. Senate and Buck won the GOP primary overwhelmingly and then defeated a weak Democratic opponent in a 64.7-29.2% landslide. The 4th district is blood red-- with a PVI of R+13. The district is comprised primarily of Weld and Douglas counties with a tiny bit of Boulder (the only blue spot in the district) and all or part of 19 other counties-- all rural and none with any significant populations. The closest places to cities in the district are Greeley (pop-107,348). which can be considered a Denver suburb, Fort Morgan (pop- 11,359) Trinidad (pop- around 8,100) and Limon (pop- around 1,900). Obama lost the district both times he ran, with around 40% of the vote, and Trump beat Hillary 57.4% to 34.3%.

Voters seem to like Buck and what he stands for. He always wins reelection with over 60%. He has 3 opponents this cycle. He knows there's no real threat and doesn't spend much time raising money. So far just $159,628. The only one of his opponents to have raised anything at all is Isaac McCorkle, who raised $5,878.

This, to put it mildly, isn't a district that the DCCC is targeting. And that gives Buck the opportunity to not even trying to cover up his sociopathic tendencies. He's insane and his GOP loves that about him. On Saturday he was the guest on Wake Up With Randy Corporon on KNUS, the far right Salem Media hate talk station. The stations regular neo-fascist hosts include Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Mark Levin, and Sebastian Gorka-- perfect for Buck!

Buck, who is chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, was on there bitching that tre Trump regime isn't right wing enough for him. He was blaming Pence's and Kushner's Coronavirus Task Force for "the 'craziness' of shutting down businesses last month. He recently doubled down on criticism of the $2 trillion stimulus relief package, saying state governors don't care if the federal government goes into more debt. He said "young Americans are developing a 'bailout mentality' and he and Corporon "chastised Congress and the Trump administration for 'writing a blank check' to keep the lockdown economy afloat. Corporon and Buck ripped the 'so-called stimulus' for now amounting to trillions rather billions of dollars while there has been 'no consideration' for how millennials and Generation Z will face unemployment and staggering debt for decades to come. 'No consideration at all to the long term, and I mean decades long-term, consequences to indebting our kids and our grandkids to those massive sums of money all at once,' Corporon said to Buck Saturday on the former's radio show. 'There's no consideration at all, certainly it doesn't get into Dr. Fauci's mind when he talks about the inconvenience of literally shutting down the world for now weeks and weeks and weeks.'"

There were only two members of Congress who voted against the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act-- Buck and fellow sociopath Andy Biggs of Arizona. The two lunatics co-wrote an OpEd for right-wing media outlet the Washington Examiner, tearing down the trust most Americans have in Anthony Fauci: Is Anthony Fauci helping or hurting?. Buck'n'Biggs wrote that they had "heard Fauci say the economic cost and societal impacts of his policies were not considered when he devised his epidemic response plan. But the question is whether the medicine he prescribed will prove to be more harmful than the disease in the long term. Many businesses have been shuttered forever. It will be almost impossible for countless other small businesses to reopen once the government gives the all-clear for the economy to restart. It is tragic that thousands of people in the country have died or may yet succumb to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. But we also must remember that millions of people have had their lives and livelihoods permanently altered because of the government response to this virus. While our government may make promises and help make things better once the hysteria subsides, there is nothing our leaders will be able to do to make everything completely right again." Back to Buck's radio guest slot:

"If we put a group of people together as opposed to a Dr. [Anthony] Fauci or a Dr. [Deborah] Birx [of the White House Coronavirus Task Force], if we put a group of people where we'd have this discussion about how the suicide rates are going to go up, how with unemployment increases-- are we going to get those people back to work?" Buck replied. "What are we doing to young people who see the bailout mentality that we are developing in this country?"

Buck acknowledged "it is a serious problem and people are dying," but he added, "there are other ramifications for the strategy that has been adopted." Neither Corporon nor the congressman discussed the previous 2008 taxpayer bailout of the country's largest banks, the current plan's bailout of the airline industry or the trillions of dollars young Americans hold in student loan debt.

Just before adjourning for... well no one knows how long it will be, the House passed the massive Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Again Buck'n'Biggs voted against it. But so did 38 other Republican crackpots, only 3 of whom have serious November challenges coming up in November: Steve King (IA), Chip Roy (TX) Tom and McClintock (CA). Pity there's no way to get at Buck, but please consider chipping in the help replace Steve King with J.D. Scholten. You can do that here. Imagine how good you'll feel on November 3rd!